So sayeth the dealership shill.

2002 Sebring Convertible GTC 3.5L V6

2002 Sebring Convertible GTC 3.5L V6 driving

Funny... I don't even see a CEL, let alone any other sign of "fail."

Thanks. It's really not that difficult. The 2.7L and the LH 3.5L engines are related to each other. The 2.7L short block actually appears to be larger than the LH 3.5L short block.

<- click to enlarge

No, I still haven't gotten the A/C up and running. In the grand scheme of things, this is still a rather low priority item. In fact, it's an even lower priority than trying to get the short runner and manifold tuning valves to be fully operational on my conversion's Pacifica manifold. I did, however, figure out how to repair the right-side driveaxle because the right inner tripod joint wore out, because no replacement driveaxle exists.

And before the certifiable dealership shills jump all over me for that last sentence, let me tell you that it's next to impossible to find a right-side driveaxle for a JR-body Chrysler Sebring Convertible or JR-body Dodge Stratus Sedan that came equipped from the factory with a 2.7L V-6 and a NV T850 5-speed manual transmission. There's no place, Ma Mopar included, that sells either a new or rebuilt driveaxle for this particular application. Don't believe me? Look for yourself! I'll even give you the Mopar part number for the new axles (LH- 4578023AA, RH- 4578022AA), along with a hint (Neither R2073687AC nor R2073677AC will work). It would appear that Chrysler never bothered to advertise the fact to the aftermarket parts crowd that the T850 5-speed driveaxles are just a bit different (27 spline inner shaft) from the normal automatic or T350 driveaxles (25 spline inner shaft).

But, of course, Chrysler can do no wrong, right? It's always the customer who's at fault whenever a Chrysler vehicle breaks, right? The customer somehow abused that Chrysler vehicle in every single case, right? I'm eagerly awaiting the response from the 25675345-year ASE certified Chrysler tools. Knowing them, they'd probably tell me to just junk the car and get a new Chrysler product.

Some people experience an engine failure on their car, having nothing at all to do with how they maintained it, yet get blamed anyway for the failure by the car manufacturer. Some people quickly get disgusted with said car manufacturer and swear to never again buy a new vehicle from them.

With the exception of the catalytic converters, I think I spent a shade over $2500 for the entire conversion. That includes the engine block, Pacifica parts, Intrepid parts, hood modification, engine accessories, custom machined parts, and all the little bits of wiring and plumbing and non-cat exhaust work needed. Compare that to the cost of a re-man'ed 2.7L engine.

The cats cost $1600 wholesale all by themselves, and (surprise, surprise) you can only get the cats from Chrysler. But remember, Chrysler is above ripping off the customer, right? We are talking about the same Chrysler who would actually try to charge $2200 for a Pacifica intake plenum that can be had for $150 at the junkyard, right?

In any case, spending $4100 total to get a car on the road again, that was in otherwise good mechanical shape, is a lot better than spending that same money to get a used car whose mechanical condition is questionable at best from a "dealership". How much would the stealership charge to simply change out that dead 2.7L engine with another questionable quality 2.7L engine?

...but Chrysler doesn't want us to know because they're a bunch of greedy and ignorant types that'd rather rip off the customers than help them.

Don't ever try to convince me that Chrysler has my best interest at heart.

 

...but Chrysler doesn't want us to know because they're a bunch of greedy and ignorant types that'd rather rip off the customers than help them.

Yeah, that sounds like a great business plan. I'll bet the boys in Auburn Hills stayed up many long nights working on that scheme.

You know, nobody held a gun to your head and made you buy/maintain/repair that Chrysler vehicle. For a guy who hates Chrysler you sure have put a lot of time, money and effort into yours.

And no, I do not and never have worked for either Chrysler or a Chrysler dealership, nor have I owned either a dealership or Chrysler stock.

 

U show me a business where there sole purpose is to make a cust think they are the reason why everything is done.

A business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers.[1] Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit or state-owned. A business owned by multiple individuals may be referred to as a company, although that term also has a more precise meaning.

 

The sole purpose of a business is to make money. It does not exist to provide jobs for employees or to make customers happy. Those are side effects of a successful business, not the reason for being. The only way to make money in a market economy is to create a product or service that people will value more than the money they must part with to obtain it. Then you have to figure out a way to produce that service for less money than you can sell it for. If you can do that consistently, and do it competitively, then you can stay in business. If you can't, then there's no point in staying in business.
Of course, when the government steps in, it helps to have friends in the right places. Then of course, you do not have a free market any more.

 

Well, seeing as how Chrysler had to get a bailout from Big Government, and then had to become property of Fiat, I'd say that my interpretation of Chrysler's business plan is at least somewhat close to reality.

Well, gee, you got me there, Einstein. At the time, I was dumb enough to think that Chrysler was still a good enough brand to go to after having satisfactorily owned 6 other Chrysler vehicles. I happened to be stupid enough to pay off my vehicle right before it developed its engine trouble. And I happened to be dumb enough to go right over the 3/36 warranty period before my engine blew up. And I happened to be idiotic enough to be stationed overseas for 6 years after it happened.

What was I supposed to do, genius? Just throw away $25K? Just fork over more thousands in purchasing another car of questionable condition? Well, brain? You might have many wads of hundred dollar bills just laying around your house, that you're willing to just shrug and say "Oh well" if something like that happened to you, but I surely don't.

No, I'm getting every bit of worth out of that car I own. It's going to either die in a car wreck, or be cast into a junkyard after 20 or more years of service.

Yet you still sound like a dealership shill.

Care to address any other points I raised? Such as the impossibility of finding commonly replaceable spare parts for a 10 year old vehicle?

 

Don't need to address the "point" you "made" about Chrysler's business plan since you didn't make any point there whether you realize it or not.

If you want to pour $4,100 in cash plus unknown thousands in labor into your non-running car, you are certainly free to do so. Me, I don't have that kind of money laying around. If I was going to dump that kind of money into a car, I would want to be darn sure that when I was done, I had something that was worth at least that kind of money or more. I sure would never consider investing that kind of money into something that would wind up having essentially no resale value.
Of course you are going to keep that car until it has to be towed to the junkyard. That's what happens to a car that nobody will buy at any price, which is the WHOLE POINT of people on this forum not offering much encouragement to guys writing in wanting to know if they can swap in something that was never intended for installation in their car. Yes you can do it, but you wind up spending far more money, time and effort than would be necessary to repair or replace the original engine and you wind up with an unmarketable car with no value.
Thank you for providing perfect evidence to support my point. Without your participation here my "argument" would have necessarily been purely theoretical. Now we have living proof. Thanks for that.
As for your driveaxle problem, I won't try to defend Chrysler for designing a different part to do the same thing for a stick shift car and an automatic, if that's the case. Rock auto seems to suggest in their catalogue that their part fits both the manual and automatic:

CARDONE::Product Detail

There are people who rebuild drive axles, so I would think it's possible to either get yours rebuilt or find a rebuilt/rebuildable one.

 

Now you're just being dense. Chrysler cut costs, did substandard engineering that they later quietly corrected, and blamed all the failures of their vehicles on their customers. It's only surprising to a genius like yourself that this would have eventually resulted in Chrysler losing money to the point where they had to have a bailout to survive.

Unknown thousands? Really? Try a couple of weekends worth of actual labor. Most of my time was spent doing research for something that had never been done before, and would likely still not been done if I'd had listened to the "experts" who said such a thing could never be done.

This (swapping out a 2.7L pile of junk for a 3.5L engine) is a weekend project for the Dodge Intrepid folks. I wonder why that is...

Only a complete idiot would consider a late model vehicle as an investment.

That's what a surprising number of people do to their cars, brain. Regardless of whether or not they modify it to the point where they can't get more for their money than they paid for it. Oh, wait! That happens just as soon as they buy the vehicle in question, doesn't it?

Oh, of course. Rather than install a engine that's both powerful and reliable, you just recommend that the person in question spend just as much money having another poorly designed sludgemonster installed by some "trusted" mechanic. In other words, you're a dealership shill. Thanks for pointing that out.

Sorry, no. Spend $4000 for a "quality replacement" 2.7L sludgemonster. Spend $800 to replace the cats that were ruined when the original 2.7L grenaded itself. Spend $320 to replace the O2 sensors that were also ruined. Spend $300 on exhaust work. Spend another $2000 to have the replacement parts installed by a "trusted" mechanic.

No ,thank you. I'll stick with my car. At least I know it won't blow up on me, nor will it leak coolant from the water pump straight into the oil supply. And I know that I won't have to depend on some dealership shill to both blame me if the engine breaks and then turn around and offer to replace it for $7500.

Oh, I wouldn't say that. Especially as I don't trade in for a new vehicle every few years to take advantage of a questionable "warranty." Everything in this economy has value to somebody. You yourself should have understood that, being as how you just explained as much to CHRYSLER TECH a little while ago.

The only thing you're proving is that you like to throw money away by trading in vehicles once you grow tired of them, and that you trust some certifiable "expert" over somebody who actually knows their vehicle.

And, of course, you'd believe RockAuto over a guy who owns the vehicle with said problem, because.. why? Of course! RockAuto automagically knows all about what parts fit and what parts don't fit, even though Chrysler never bothered to make available the specifications for the T850 driveaxle to the aftermarket. I distinctly remember saying something like that already... Please try to pay attention.

Gee... It won't fit. Even that page says so! (Convertible and 2.4 Liters and w/M.T. Front Right) You're wrong about considering late model vehicles as an investment. You're wrong about Chrysler pissing all over their customers. You're wrong about something having no intrinsic value. So, it stands to reason that you're even wrong about this driveaxle. What else are you wrong about?

Just as simple as that: find somebody to rebuild the driveaxle. Sure - pay to ship the item to a rebuilder because there's nobody within 100 miles that'll do it for you. Wait for a week or two, while the car is again unable to move because it has no freakin' driveaxle. Pay a bill equivalent to at least twice what a driveaxle would cost for a similar make-model-year vehicle that had a supported transmission. Hope that the repaired part doesn't get lost or damaged in shipping. Oh, yah - pay for return shipping. Hope that the part lasts, because you'll have to do the same thing if that part fails again for the same reason.

Oh, almost forgot: Hope and pray that that rebuilder won't turn around and say "sorry, we were mistaken - we can't rebuild this," which would bring you back to step 1.

Derp derp.

So sure you are to prove your point, that you even ignore when people tell you such parts DO NOT EXIST.

Oh, wait! Maybe maybe I should have spent an entire week scouring junkyards and eBay for a "rebuildable" driveaxle! Maybe I should have racked up $20 in phone calls to the Northeast, the Mid West, the Southeast, the Lakes region, and even Canada in trying to find a "rebuildable" driveaxle! Maybe I should have used car-part.com!

Maybe I already tried that. Oh, wait - cue your standard response #2:

Just throw the vehicle away and buy another one!

 

"And the dealer could have given us this answer earlier, but Chrysler doesn't want us to know because...."

It would make them responsible for there over heated engines. Oil breaks down in heat ,an overheated engines oil breaks down and looses it ability to cool and carry away contaminates. And with this engine running hotter all you need it some heavy summer driving and a couple of late oil changes and it starts. And like it or not these engines give you several opportunities to do just all the wrong things.

First prize could be a year's free membership on the site here.

 

Can I put a 3.2 or 3.5 in my Chrysler Sebring with bad 2 4

 

Can I put a 3.2 or 3.5 in my 2009 Chrysler Sebring with bad 2 4