Another frustrated Cirrus driver

[LisaMarie84]

This car has been giving me nothing but problems for the past couple of months. I've been trying to read everything I can about the problems I've been experiencing and have found that there seems to be multiple solutions for the same issues.



1995 Chrysler Cirrus:

The car dies at stop lights. I've been trying to keep it in neutral when i come to red lights now so that the car won't die on me.

It occassionally dies at low speeds while turning.

It hiccups/stutters/jerks on the highway going about 70-80mph.

Sometimes has trouble starting in the morning. Have to turn the key several times before the car stays running.

The temperature gauge is now stuck at cold.

Sometimes there is a delay when I accelerate. The car just doesn't seem to want to go and then all of a sudden it'll jerk forward.

Black smoke pours out of the exhaust when it hiccups on the highway or when you go to restart the car after it has died.



Those are all of the issues I've been having lately. Some say they had to replace the computer, I've also read that it may be the EGR, TCM, or just the battery (which has already been replaced) etc, etc.

We took the car to the dealership and they wanted to charge 900 for replacing the spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor. We definitely don't want to spend this kind of money if it's not going to solve the issues. Please help!!!

[LisaMarie84]

We changed the EGR valve and the car is still having the same problems...any suggestions?

[Legionofone]

umm... our cars dont have distributor caps... or rotors... thats in a oldschool car... all our fireing order is computer controled by the ECU... i have never had a single hickup out of my 98 Lxi 2.5 V6... i run it hard as hell 2... redline hard shifts... all of it... runs like a dream and starts up every day... hell its even got the power to slam me into my seat if shes warmed up shes not the fastest thing on the road but she runs... anyway! the reason our sparkplugs and wire rebuilds are expensive is because of how TOTALY evul our engine is positioned... its turned sideways with a curved intake manifold... it covers up the back 3 sparkplugs and ALL the intake has to be riped out to change the plugs... its alot of work and REALY hard... personaly if ur engines dying and blowing black smoke... its probably a total rebuild issue... not a spark problem... ur engine is 10 years old... maby even older...if ur not ready to spend ur money on the new shtuff... trade in and get a new sebring or shumpin... our cars are old and need lots of care anyway have fun <3

[LisaMarie84]

Originally Posted by Legionofone

umm... our cars dont have distributor caps... or rotors... thats in a oldschool car... all our fireing order is computer controled by the ECU...

Well if that's the case, why would I want to spend $900 at the CHRYSLER dealership if they don't even know what they're talking about.

Anyway, the car isn't mine. I was borrowing it and it started having all these problems. Apparently, it had some electrical issues before when my boyfriend's grandmother had it. I just wanted to find out if it could be something else before his parents spent almost a grand to fix the car.

The engine may be 10 years old, but the car only has 40k miles on it. His grandmother didn't drive it all that much, just around town. And I'm putting mostly highway miles on it to get to work everyday.

The car isn't worth spending the money on IMO.