Finally i was able to purchase my 1st car....only wish I hadnt gotten this one. I worked 4 months of 60hr weeks, while saving every extra penny I had. Went to a couple dealerships and finally found my "perfect" car. A 2002 Intrepid with only 78000 miles. The dealer gladly accepted my $5000 cash and all was good...... until about 4 months later was driving to work in the snow then herd a tick tick and and the engine goes dead. managed to coast to the roadside and restart the car. thought to myself huh that was weird car must be experiencing its first winter. Drove to work and the car dies again as im turning into the parking spot, a friend helped me push it into the spot (how embarrassing). After work had a couple of my friends with mechanic background listen to the engine. they all said it wasn't good. Only after towing to the local dodge dealership did i find out how bad it was. $4900 to replace the engine due to oil sludge. This was only 1.5 months after the 1st oil change that was done by the dealer i got the car from! Tell me why friends 1995 dodge caravan has over 200000 miles on it and has only needed a transmission replacement ($1200) while this 2002 has the worst problem ever? I for one will never purchase another Dodge again.

I purchased this car for my 19 year old daughter. I needed her to have a car that was dependable and safe, I'm a single mother of three and I truly have no mechanic skills so a fairly new car was the way to go. My daughter attended college and had a part time evening job. I received a call from her that she was stranded on the side of the road @ 11:00 pm by herself and the engine just started knocking and smoking and quit. My dad has a body shop and we had it towed to him and he informed me there was no oil, and I brought him the papers from the oil change I just had done not a week earlier.

After taking the engine out he discovered that the rods were too small causing the oil not to flow correctly, or something like that. All I know is my daughters grandparents bought her another car and I have a$17,000 dollar beautiful piece of junk that has been stored since 2004 because you don't want to put the same piece of junk engine in and now I am paying for 2 cars; 1 to look at and 1 to drive.

This car has always been a piece of sh*t but have had no choice but to live with it. Have kept up oil changes and routine maintenance. Initially had 3 power steering pumps replaced plus many more problems. Check engine light stays on but was told it was oxygen sensor. Without warning the car dies in the middle of a busy intersection. The engine was blown and was told the car is a piece of sh*t like we already knew. The cost to even put a rebuilt engine in is not worth the useless value of this car. Dodge should be ashamed of themselves for making such a crappy car.

Sure wish I would have known all of the problems with this engine before we bought this car. We bought it used for our teenager, and the previous owner had just replaced the water pump but had no other issues. It's really a great looking car. THREE MONTHS later, my daughter and I were driving together and she said "Mom, what's that video camera symbol on the dash." Well, that was the check engine light. We were 100 yards away from our destination, and when we pulled in, the whole engine was toast - pouring out steam. We checked the oil, which was now a lovely mix of antifreeze and oil. We've had two different mechanics look at it, and without a major tear down to see exactly what's wrong with it, they both agree that it would probably be a total replacement.

Now that we're aware of the numerous complaints about this engine, we don't want to put another dime into this. UGH!

I was a single mother of three girls, my oldest daughter was given a car for her 16th birthdayI spent 11,000 $ on that one. When she was 19 she wanted a new car she had picked out this beautiful dodge intrepid & kept showing up @ my job begging me to buy it for her; although I was going to purchase she would be responsible to make the payments. We went to our Bank and placed a 500.00 deposit and financed the rest of the $17,000 dollars on the car. My daughter worked and went to college. She loved and baby'd that car I made sure that all maintenance was taken care of exp... oil changes ,tires coolant, detailing. @ 86,000 miles my father who owns a shop calls me and tells me the Engine is blown and I need a new one costing approx. $3,000 dollars ( let me just write the check). We attempted to find a used engine with no luck because there seems to be a problem with this engine. As I stated I am a single mother of three daughters receiving approx. $160. per mo.child support and working about 45 hrs a week. So now this beautiful car sits enclosed in a yard going to waste. I do not have the finances to repair it, there is no warranty and no used engines available. My daughter had to get another car , therefore she could not help with the payments. I also have my car loan and this has strapped my finances beyond belief; with our economy and jobs @ a loss I have since defaulted on this loan and taken to court and have had to make payment arrangements with attorneys. I lost my job after 6 years of service, I made over 40,000 a year and since have dropped to 18,000. The car company says that this is not a safety issue they will not recall this engine. I have to pay for this car that I still owe $11,000 on that is no good to me. This car has hurt my credit!! It sickens me that the company feels like it's not a recall issue when there are so many out there that have the same problem. It's a wonderful, beautiful car and I have always loved the intrepids, but there needs to be something done by the company to replace this engine!!!!!!!!!!! AT NO CHARGE TO ME!!!! so I can again enjoy this car that I am paying so much for.

Update from May 26, 2009: I purchased this car for my 19 year old daughter. I needed her to have a car that was dependable and safe, I'm a single mother of three and I truly have no mechanic skills so a fairly new car was the way to go. My daughter attended college and had a part time evening job. I received a call from her that she was stranded on the side of the road @ 11:00 pm by herself and the engine just started knocking and smoking and quit. My dad has a body shop and we had it towed to him and he informed me there was no oil, and I brought him the papers from the oil change I just had done not a week earlier.

After taking the engine out he discovered that the rods were too small causing the oil not to flow correctly, or something like that. All I know is my daughters grandparents bought her another car and I have a$17,000 dollar beautiful piece of junk that has been stored since 2004 because you don't want to put the same piece of junk engine in and now I am paying for 2 cars; 1 to look at and 1 to drive.

I have replaced almost every major part on this car, power steering pump, computer, alternator, etc. And now just when it is almost paid off (we bought it used from a dealer), it dies on us. We had had numerous companies deny us an oil change on it because they said that there was a tremendous amount of oil sludge built up and that this would damage the motor. We were told there was really no good fix for the problem, except to replace it. Well, the day only a month after the computer was replaced finally came when the engine just seized up and left my poor husband stranded on the side of the expressway. After looking into some options, we have found out if we replace it we had better NOT put another 2.7l engine in as these are defected by the manufacturer who is not taking responsibility for the problem! So very frustrating!

Two major cooling failures!

October 2007: Coolant line to intake manifold popped off causing loss of coolant and engine to heat up.

Mileage approximately 106,000

Very costly repair.

January 2009: Water pump failure and heads blown. Loss of compression and power to engine.

Mileage approximately 125,000

Cost to replace engine approximately $6500.

Possible problem with sludge and oil pump failure too.

Everyone tells me that this engine is notorious for having engine problems. No waring of water pump failure or loss of coolant. This was an immediate engine failure with little warning to the driver.

We will most likely need to scrap this car for $100.

Sadly,

Mike Straty and Nick Straty

We bought this 2002 intrepid se 2.7 v6 in October 2007. After being homeless and living out of our 1999 Chevy Lumina for a year. With the last few bucks we had, we purchased this piece of sh*t from a used car lot which in turns is a piece of sh*t themselves for selling garbage to folks who have to make a life decision everyday with the little bit of money they had. It's hell for us being a family of 5 an no means of transportation to an from schools, doctors, and trying to find work. The car sits as if it was a piece of lawn decoration, and is a reminder that us low income families alway's end up looking and feeling like sh*t. That money could have fed our kids or provided us with shelter. Dodge dealers shows us that we mean nothing to them, as long as we're paying to fix our sh*tty cars , while still lining their pockets with money we don't have. Someone really needs to help figure this problem out and recover what we lost thru-out this horrible ordeal with dodge.

Needless to say me to. I bought this hunk of junk June of this year I have almost 9,000 in it and only got to drive it 9000 miles before it failed. I was in town making a right turn when the car died the oil light came on and engine light the car made a loud noise. I tried to start it but it wouldn't start. so I had it towed only for them to say the timing chain failed and bent pistons, rods and everything else to death.and there was sludge built up. I owed this car three months and aaa it three times so if your going to own one of these aaa is helpful make sure it +

Im not fixing this piece of junk only to have it do it again. P.S. the garage says if they stop making this 2.7 then the garages would go out of business I think there right.

About 6 months ago started having trouble with oil light coming on for no reason at low RPM's. Then the light started staying on longer and longer. I had been taking the car in for regular oil changes and paid extra for them to put in the cleaner to help keep down the sludge, but did not work. Warranty just ran out. Car stalled 1 time, went to Autozone and they checked and stated it was the MAP sensor and gave me the code. Looked the code up in my book at home and it stated same thing. Replaced the MAP sensor, seemed to fix issue, drove 2 miles and car died at light. Would not restart. Had car towed home and the first thing I did was check the oil. The dipstick was full to the top with what seems to be a combination of oil and antifreeze, needless to say I have been quoted $3000 to $6000 depending on how old of an engine I want.

We bought this car in Feb, 2003 with 17K on the engine. I wondered why the dealership was so hot to sell these cars as we got a fairly good financing deal on it. I first saw this site about 3 years ago, and uh-oh, read about this Intrepid, and went to work trying to clean up the engine and try to keep this from happening to our primary car. Luckily, we have a pre emissions 1978 GMC van that we only use for trips, so we were covered if this problem happened to our Intrepid. You guessed it, 5 years and almost to the day we bought it, without even a engine light warning, my wife lost power and pulled off the road. Checking the oil stick, sure enough, there was water in the oil!

We just topped 80K and 4 payments left on the car, now we are looking at another $5K to swap the engine to the more reliable 3.2L V8, which came in the RS model. Drivability and looks (no dents or scratches), the car ranks up there and my wife likes it, so instead of pushing it over a cliff, we will do the swap. I'll tell you, I cleaned the engine, and for 6 months last year changed the oil every month trying to clear that stuff out, even so far as changing to a synthetic oil. Still nothing to no avail. If there is not a place to go to sign onto a class action lawsuit, or petition signing place, I'm a webhost, and I'll start one. This needs to be properly addressed by Chrysler and we CAN force them to admit knowing about the design flaws.

I don't know how loud can I yell but this is the worst car problem I have ever had, so much that it's going to cost me over $4000 dollars to fix it since my mechanic told me "I got bad news for you, you need a new engine !!!! " and I was not aware of this but another mechanic told me about this defective engine and I just found out that after all is really not my fault that the engine to my car is now useless, something told me that it could not be my fault since I take good care of my cars so there is no way that I could have been driving the vehicle with no oil in the engine knowing that I needed to add oil, also the oil indicator light on the dashboard would be on even after an oil change, well I'm not used to complaint about anything but this is worth the time because it is a real nightmare, WHERE DO I GET $4000 DOLLARS FROM ? ? I wish I had half of that money in my bank account to pay my bills.

i have a 2002 2.7 intrepid. i was driving down the hwy when the car died and was pouring out smoke like something on nascar. i could'nt see anything, and at 85mph thats sucks. i opened the hood to see fluid everwhere. i checked the oil and it was full of water. i knew than that the head gasket failed. i took it to the shop to hear 3,500 in cost for a rebuild. i search for a totaled intrepid at the local wrecking yard and found a 20,000 mile motor for 1,500 and the swap was 1,200 and 400 in misc parts this was not cheap. i hate this damn car and wish i never bought it. wtf.