In November of 2006 I bought my 1998 Dodge Intrepid at a local used car dealer, the car was in very good shape with only 69,000 miles on, the driving test did not revealed any problems so I bought it for 4,800 dlls. Exactly 3 months later and only 1,500 miles, the motor started making a "clanking" strong noise, I immediately stopped the engine to prevent more damage and towed it to the dealer, few days later they called me and I was told the engine was shot, that it needed new engine and as the car was bought "as is" with no warranties they did not assume any responsibilities.

I'm still paying for the car, The price for a rebuilt engine is aprox 2,500 plus shipping, plus labor for installing it, and etc, etc, total around 4,500 dlls. This happened 7 months ago, I keep doing my monthly payments, and I had to buy another car to go to work. At this point I'm not sure if I will fix it or definitely consider it "lost money" and send it to a junk yard.

In any case, people like us that make big sacrifices in our economies to buy a used car and end up with a situation like this of having to absolve the costs of a car that have hundreds of complaints of being defective, need more protection as consumers against this type of abuses. I'm glad we have this forum at least to be able to complain and be hear by others with the same situation, maybe something can be done in our favor.

Soooo I bought this beautiful 98 Dodge intrepid with 145,000 miles for $1300 in January. My family is a bunch of gear heads so I kept the car well maintained. Did my oil changes and trans fluid changes and then I get this knock. My brother tells me I'll need rockers and lifters. So I called the dealership (dealership only parts) and they want about $700 to buy them all. Well i said hell with it i'll change them when I absolutely need to. So as time goes by i notice the knock gets louder and my car starts to smoke so I put real thick stuff in there to stop a leak and in fact it worked. Well while driving home on a saturday in July .... it sounded like something in the engine broke. I immediately call my brother and he comes and looks at my car... tears the engine apart and says I am screwed (UGHHHHH). So basically I have a beautiful car... but need an engine. I will not replace it after reading all the horror stories but I want to know about converting it to a different engine. Can anyone help? you can send me an email@ XxDemoguyxX@aol.com thanks

My sister owned this car and had the engine throw some rod bearings due to oil sludge. We replaced the bearings then the motor went to crap.

Anyway join this forum www.dodgeintrepid.net it is full of intrepid owners who love their cars. Now I know what your thinking, I hate that piece, but hold on there are ways to fix your problem, like an Engine conversion.

My sister gave me her car and now its running a 3.5 high output motor, thats the same motor they put in intrepid police cars. I payed someone from the forum to put it in and I recommend it to anyone who is stuck paying for their car. My sister paid for 4 years for a car she couldn't drive, she gave it to me and now has to see it as I drive it. Be realistic a multi million dollar company isn't going to pay for all these engines(not very easily, that is I have heard of a few folks getting a check from Chrysler to replace their motor but not many.)

It was Easter Sunday and I was at my mothers house. The drive is about 45 minutes from my place, mainly highway. The car was running great on the way there. I hand out for about 4 hours then was ready to leave. I hoped in my car to warm it up and as soon as i started it the knocking was loud. I thought because it was cold out, maybe that is why it was knocking. I checked the oil, it was fine because I just got a oil change before. So I warmed it up and started on my way. About 30 min. into the drive it got worse so I just tried to get home and the piece of sh*t just died. No engine came on or anything, it just stopped running. What kind of bullshit is that. I thought that I could just change the oil pump it sounds like that isn't the problem now that I've read other complaints on the same sh*tty car. That is all I got and I'm out. Later!!!!!!!

I have a 1998 dodge intrepid with a 2.7 engine in it and I had to have the damn thing rebuilt it cost me $2,000.00 and I drove 19000 more miles and guess what here it is again the damn thing is messed up again. It smokes and has a horrible knocking sound and I can not drive the damn thing again. If Chrystler knew there was a problem with the 2.7 engines then why in the hell did they sell them and why did they not do a recall on them?

Sincerely A Very Pissed Off Customer Trina & Al Bieser

i bought the car with 25,000k on it in 2000 and purchased an extended warranty for up to 100,000k well shortly after getting it the alternator broke off and I had to pay my $50.00 deductible to have it fixed, then I took it in and complained that the back felt bouncy when I drove it they told me nothing was wrong on 3 occassions, then in 2003 I was moving to Cedar Rapids had the car checked out by Stew Hansens (where I bought it) and they informed me it needed a new serpentine belt and some other things, I complained of white smoke coming from the car and they assured me that it was fine and actually normal to have a bit of white smoke because if there is no black around the tail pipe area the car was fine, my father whom I took with me insisted that they were wrong and there was a problem but they said no we checked it and she is good to go, I said put that in writing for me, but of course they did not. Well I move and guess what Stew Hansens didn't notice when they told me it was safe to drive my sway bars were busted and something to do with my steering column was messed up, so I drove over 300 miles with my four kids on the interstate in a car I was assured was good to go that really we could have been killed in wasn't good to go at all!! I had it all fixed and paid my deductible but this time I was also charged the tax on the repair along with my $50 deductible and I said I have never had to pay that before but they wouldn't give me the car without paying, I moved backed to Des Moines area and continued to complain about the white smoke and still was told nothing was wrong but then my power windows went out and all the motors had to be replaced and in 1 day at Stews I had to return the car on 3 occassions due to 1st when I picked up the car I left, got on the interstate and went to roll down my windows and my front door pops open, went back and they said something was catching when I rolled down the window and they would fix it, left again and then my speedomotor did not work went back they said they blew a fuse, then I went back again had it fixed left then looked down and all my digital stuff was blank so I went back had it fixed, they did give me a $30 dollar gift card to go eat for my inconvienence even though my daughter almost fell out door at 60 miles an hour since it popped open (thank God for seatbelts) gee thanks! This is just a few of the problems I have had, but see my mom bought the car for me after my divorce since my credit was so bad and i still owe her 3 grand on a car that I was told by car x had cracked head gaskets or the motor was basically blown and that a new motor would cost 7500- 9000 to replace for my car and even at the junk yards there is a waiting list for engines for this style of car, so now I have a loan I still owe my car could go any day and no means of purchasing a car again, why isn't dodge stepping up to the plate and helping us out after all they made the car, I do no I will never buy a dodge again or recommend one to anyone i care about. Oh and to top it off the same day I was told about the outrageous price for a engine I also had to put in a new starter which cost me over 400.00 dollars because the parts are so expensive for this vehicle which would make one think expensive parts good quality, but not in this scenario, how unfortunate. I do have all my reciepts for oil changes and repairs along with all my complaints I reported to Stew hansen, or I should say the ones they wrote down because half the time I'd get there for my appt. and say no I complained of much more than that, and I'd have to start all over again with my complaint when I got there, so when I'd get my paperwork it would only have what they typed in when I called which I also asked to be corrected because I had a warranty and if something broke after my warranty I said I wanted to be able show that I did complain about it, but they don't care they get paid either way and that's how i feel about it!!

I was driving home from work when my car starting making a clicking sound just in front of the passenger compartment. When I came to a stop the RPMs would fluctuate badly, to the point where I had to put it in N and rev the engine to keep it from dying. I got it home alright but when I had to leave again a few hours later it would turn over but not start. I had it towed to Pep Boys which cost me $60 and then they couldn't even tell me what was wrong with it. Well, they could tell me that it was toast. After paying another $60 to get it home I've found that the cylinder closest to the driver is knocking and shows signs of blow by. I changed the oil on schedule since I bought the car 1.5yrs ago and when I brought it in, I was three qts low. I check the oil once a week. . . so this was news to me. There is also a red "muddy" substance on the dip stick. Everywhere I ask is quoting at least $4000 to put another engine in it. My uncle is a mechanic and even he says that it's not worth messing with. I still owe $3800 on the car. At 22 I don't have a lot of money to be throwing around on a piece of crap engine. Thanks Chrysler. . . I now have a driveway ornament too.

have a 98 Dodge Intrepid ready to be repossessed. I bought the car in 2001 with 53000 miles on it. 2 years later the engine blew with no warning as I was getting off I-95. It cost me $4.200 to replace the engine. A year later the 2nd engine blew and again with no warning as I was driving on I 95. I replaced the engine again at $2400 because I still owed money on my loan. The second engine lasted about another year and now overheats after driving it for a half hour. I took it to the mechanic and he said that the heads are bad and the engine is cracked. I will not put a 3rd engine in this car. I still owe $5000 on my loan and cant afford to pay for it any more since I went and bought a 2001 Honda that I need to get to and from work.

I purchased a used 1998 Dodge Interpid 2.7L from Freehold Dodge, Freehold, NJ in May of 2001. At the time of purchase the car had 46k miles and the dealer informed me it had a full maintenance record. In December of 2001 and with only 10000 more miles on the car, the engine failed. I had to have a completely new short engine that cost me over $5k. I took the car back to the dealer in October of 2002 with a complaint regarding visible smoke from the exhaust. The dealer told me there was no problem and that it would pass state inspection. In June of 2003 I took the car to state inspection and failed because of visible smoke. I returned the car to the dealer reporting this problem, and after a week of dismantling they are telling me I need new cylinder heads because oil is getting in through the exhaust valves (another $3k). This car has been fuully maintained with regular oil changes and extensive use of synthetic oil. How can a modern engine wear out like this in such a short time? There must be a fundamantal defect with the engine, or the dealer has made a major error when the engine was rebuilt after failing in 2001. There was no problem with smoke before the dealer had worked on the engine.