How reliable are Sebrings?

[breeaad]

I have the oportunity to get a 97 Sebring LXI for $850.00. It has 136,000 miles, and seems to be OK mechanically. What are the major issues? The transmission kinda scares me, being a Chrysler. I have also heard of horror stories abot the distributers...any truth there? What about gas milage? My wife has a 98 Grand Cherokee that has turned out to be a big piece of crap!!!Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Legendkiller]

Well is yours the coupe or the convertible? I own a 99 sebring converible(its green) and have had no problems with it. Ive owned it for 2 yrs and it now has about 81000 miles on it. Besides regular oil changes, nothing has gone wrong. When i bought the car, it needed an alternator belt and brake pads, obviously got them fixed but otherwise it has never been into a shop( I do my own oil changes) in like 2 yrs. hope this helps

[Oldengineer]

I've got an 05 Sebring Touring - 4 door. She's got about 30K miles on her. So far I've had part of the front suspension replaced twice, the tranny rebuilt, the sunroof fixed, and a coolant leak fixed. Dealer advised me todfay that both front brake rotors are warped as well. Without the warranty, I couldn't afford to keep this turkey on the road.

Regards:
Oldengineer

[brandyland]

I got a 97 sebring convertable about a year ago, It has 156,000 and runs great, the only thing I cant stand about the car is that it go's through brakes like crazy I have replaced them twice already and getting ready to again..
By the way thanks to this site, I now know everyone seems to have problems with the brakes, people keep telling me that it's just my driving.

[snowman7560]

I have a 99 Sebring JXI convertible. 104,000 miles and still running like new. It has the 2.5 liter V-6 with the 4 speed auto. I've had no problems other than the usual tires, brake pads and oil changes. The factory stereo died on me when the car was only two years old, but an aftermarket stereo solved that problem.

[missteena]

I've owned an 02 Sebring LXI 4 door for going on 5 years now. It now has 130,000+ miles on it and I've had to replace the transmission last year. I just replaced a sway bar,bearings and about the 3rd tie rod since I've owned it. I have had to replace the brakes quite frequently as well as 2 rotors and I don't drive any different than anyone else really..they told me it's the way I drive. I don't ride my brakes and I can not possibly think of any other reason they would wear so quickly. I did take my car to the dealer the last time to do my brakes and it has been a while. I do love my car though. Oh yeah the blower for my heater and air conditioner also only works on high. Thanks to this forum I know how to fix that. I travel 300+ miles a week for work and I must say I get back and forth without a problem.

[DarkFox142]

Well i have a 2000 convertible, and have had it since 2001. One previous owner. Besides changing oil, a few belts here and there, there has been no major issues besides the steering column *which can be avioded if you take the key out the right way, and not rush and just jam it out on an angle* I have taken my car up and down the east coast with no problems. It has 150,000+ miles on it, and still runs like its brand new.

[dw200]

i bought my daughter a 97JX convertable 4 months ago to drive around for a while and with the exception of the items that are common for this car ( dashboard, body drains, and tie rod ends) it has not been a bad vehicle. time will tell but considering that it is a 10 year old used car i am happy with it.

[twistedtech]

The 4 door and 2 door are 2 different cars. I have a 95 lxi coupe and it is built by DSM, this bad boy has 300k on it and still runs real hard. Coulpe of sensors here and there, oh yes the really "F-ing" expensive lower control arms. As far as reliable, hell yeah. Mitsubishi builds one hell of a good car. Better than the chrysler wanna be stuff.

[dbapete]

I have a 2002 Sebring and have 54K miles on it. I had problems from day one with warped rotors that were replaced in first week I bought it (250 miles). The service dept dealer told me that they were defective when it arrived.

Since then I have replaced 2 outer tie rods - Pep Boys says get use to it.
I have also have replaced the trans cooler line.

The heater blower only works in the high position - it's fixed now and is a known problem. This feature showed up at the 32K mile mark.

Now I have and engine light on and the code comes out says it is defective gas cap. I am stumpped on this. Can someone help?

[car5car]

Originally Posted by breeaad

I have the oportunity to get a 97 Sebring LXI for $850.00. It has 136,000 miles, and seems to be OK mechanically. What are the major issues? The transmission kinda scares me, being a Chrysler. I have also heard of horror stories abot the distributers...any truth there? What about gas milage? My wife has a 98 Grand Cherokee that has turned out to be a big piece of crap!!!Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!!

My opinion.
If you are a car mechanic you can have any car. If you are not- try to stick with Toyotas and Hondas. About your Grand C- sell it to me!

[Saint_86]

I own a 97 Sebring LXi. i have around 158k on it bout it at 98k. Just in trannys alone i have spent $6500. thats not including tires which are expensive, brakes, struts, ball joints, numberous sensors, flex pipe (which blew for no reason). but tranny's are by far the worst i have seen. i have had my overdrive blow out on the highway twice, and have lost every gear but second in the city 3 other times (these are all seperate times) and i'm not goin racing around town, or neutral drops or anything like that. (oh just so you know i'm 20) just so that part makes sense. since i got the car i've had it in the shop more then i have had it on the road. but every time i save some money to get a new car something breaks and i have to spend the money..... so i'd advise to get away from sebrings as fast as you can.

[car5car]

[quote=dbapete

The heater blower only works in the high position - it's fixed now and is a known problem. This feature showed up at the 32K mile mark.

[/quote]
Hopefully it will make you feel better.
BMW 525 blower broke when buyer drove it. He couldn't turn it off! Broken part was 350 doll.! It was known problem. Friend of mine cut off one of termistors and fan worked fine except one fan speed didn't work. Here is advice- don't buy Sebrins or BMWs!
My 97 Cherokee is great working horse by the way. I bought it with 127K, now it has about 200K and I tow cars with it. Evaporator, w.pump and fan clutch. It is OK for 200K.

[ibanezfoo]

Originally Posted by breeaad

I have the oportunity to get a 97 Sebring LXI for $850.00. It has 136,000 miles, and seems to be OK mechanically. What are the major issues? The transmission kinda scares me, being a Chrysler. I have also heard of horror stories abot the distributers...any truth there? What about gas milage? My wife has a 98 Grand Cherokee that has turned out to be a big piece of crap!!!Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!!

They are not reliable. We have a 2002 LXi with about 75k miles on it and its honestly the biggest pile of junk and an embarassment to the American automotive industry. Search on google for the 2.7 Chrysler engine... ours has something wrong with the transmission that started around 15k miles and has been back to the dealer 5 or 6 times now with them always telling us its "normal". When you are decelerating from whatever speed above 20-30 mph, when you hit 10-15 mph the car lurches when it downshifts. It feels like you are getting rear ended. Sometimes when you are at a red light, you step on the gas and the RPMs go up but the car doesn't go anywhere... then CLUNK, off you go. This is "normal"? The power door locks only work when they want to, which is virtually never. The car stalls sometimes. The leather seats started cracking and discoloring almost imediately after we bought it. The upper coolant flange on the engine is plastic and glued together. Who designs a part that deals with heat and pressure and glues it together? Not only that, but is glued in such a manner that the pressure pushes the glued piece apart and the flange that is boled to the engine is bigger than the flange on the L shaped tube. A moron, thats who. At least if the bolts went through both parts it wouldn't be as bad, and anway, why is such a simple part made in two pieces anyway? Ours blew apart, as did many others, just hit up google for that too. Our A/C only works on high. The tail lights blow out regularly. The car eats brake pads like they are going out of style. The Dodge/Chrysler brand brake rotors are warped garbage. I replaced them with some aftermarkets and they are much better. The oil pressue switch died, and let me tell you, that is no fun to replace. There is a wicked clunking coming from the drivers side front wheel, sounds like the frame is coming apart. The shocks squeek. Their warranty is a scam. All the parts that break are magically not covered under warranty. Do a google search on that too.

My wife really wanted this car and I bought it against my better judgement. My whole life people have told me to avoid Chrylser cars. Of course they told me that about my Ford too, but I haven't had any problems at all with my Mustang. It just works. So I applied that logic to the Chrysler. Big mistake. I tried to push her towards a Camry or an Accord.

I like working on cars and everything, but come on! Every other weekend I'm out wrenching on this thing. So far my skills have been able to keep it on the road, but I'm not a master mechanic or anything. I estimate its only a matter of time before I have to pony up some huge cash for a new engine or transmission. Although, depending on how much I have to spend, it might be more benificial to give it to one of those tax write off places and use the money I would have spent on repairs to buy a used Civic or something else that actually works.

The single thing I actually like about this car.... oil changes. The drain plug and the filter are very easy to get to and about 6" from eachother and straight on the bottom of the oil pan. Which reminds me, the last time Chrysler worked on the car the dumbass used an air wrench on the drain plug. It took me an hour and some special bolt extractors to get the stripped plug out. Had to rethread it and buy a new plug. But, if you do your oil changes yourself and your 2.7 blows up, and it will, Chrysler won't replace it. Search on that too.

This car will teach you some good lessons in futility. If you get it, be prepared for lots of this:

-Bryan

[2000izusu]

it's not all doom and gloom chicken little! here is a list (in the link) of sebring's in allpar's 200,000 mile club. disregard the 1970's sebrings on the list the ones in the 1990's and up are the ones that apply. one is over 300,000 miles. mike


http://www.allpar.com/old/club/searc...ing&type=model