Hey, I'm new to the forum, I'm 20 years old, I've had my 04 crossfire for almost two years now and within the last week, it has done everything but completely break down on me. I'll tell the story,
Last week, my check engine light went on and I didn't think anything of it, I checked the manual and I didn't see any reason to worry. The car drove fine. The next day however, it started to shake while sitting at traffic lights. A few days later the car's shaking was worse and it started to respond to the gas pedal in a rather delayed manner. I'm talking like a 5 or 6 second delay where the car would just sit there and do nothing. So yesterday on Nov 11th, I took the car to get the codes read as well as take it to the dealership. The codes that read off were both O2 sensors, multiple cylinder misfires and the gear ratio was incorrect. How could my car go from being perfectly fine to being perfectly screwed up? I bought the car in March of 07 with 32000 miles on it and it now has a little over 60500 miles on it. I've taken really good care of my car, cosmetically and mechanically and the thing still wants to crap out on me.

Can anybody relate? Does anyone have some feedback, or maybe some answers?

 

First off you waited too long till you got the codes read.
Looks like its time to do a little maintenance. Starting with those O2 sensors.
Do that, check for codes and go from there. The O2's can definitely cause the car to run poorly.
Now fix that car!

 

Also have your battery checked. A bad battery will cause all kinds of odd things. I just replaced mine and it fixed my intermittant crank position sensor CEL. If you battery is the original, get it replaced. Also, if you get a CEL......get it checked right away....not a week later. Good luck with the car.

MikeR

 

Start with the simple things. Do you have dirty air filters? If so, that's choking air to the engine.

 

Also check your plug wires and everything related the the "spark" the engine gets.......

 

What he said - based on my history with German cars - especially BMW's. Those O2 sensors can really mess with the car's computer which as we know controls everything these days and make it run like crap, just as you described.

 

thanks for the feedback guys. the reason i waited so long to to get the CEL codes checked was because the earliest I could get the poor car into the dealership was a week after the light came on so it wasn't gonna do me any good to get the codes checked. I don't know, I'm having them replace the O2 sensors and then they'll start checking the other stuff, but they cant until the O2 sensors are replaced. That's gonna cost about 800 bucks for them to be replaced. I'm so happy that the maintenance on this car is so so expensive.

 

$800 to replace O2 sensors, did I just read that right? I hope that's including labor and possibly a golden egg!

 

You need to get yourself a pair of Rhino Ramps, an O2 sensor wrench, some anti-sieze compound, and save yourself more than just a few hundred dollars.

You think the Crossfire is expensive? Try changing the O2 sensors on a Porsche...

By the way, having the O2 sensors on this car fail sounds highly suspicious. Did someone fill your car up with leaded fuel? Because Bosch O2 sensors usually go out after about 120,000 miles.

 

^^ Exactly what I'm thinking the O2s are fairly accessible, you could do those yourself.

I mean, how much can an O2 sensor be, 150$ at max?

O and the Porsche comment, having the engine crammed into a tight compartment with a relatively short exhaust is gonna be a tight environment to work with.

 

actually the O2 sensors at the local auto parts store cost around 300 bucks a pop. I can't possibly do this stuff myself because I'm away at college and I have no tools, I'm pretty much at the mercy of the Chrysler corporation. And the O2's going out does sound suspicious, I'm sure that there has been some kind of abuse because I bought this thing used and it wasn't in fantastic shape when I bought it. The boys at the chrysler dealer were young and I'm sure that they ran the used crossfires around in circles beating them up. Bottom line is that I'm not happy.

 

Oh well, I'll let you guys know how everything turns out.

 

spark plugs,senors,wires,filters,gaskets,fluids. These are things that wear over time on any car. Its doesn't mean your car is crap. If your not able/willing to diagnose the problem talk to someone who can. I'm assuming this is your first car? Go to auto zone and check the codes(ITS FREE). then go from there but my guess would be spark plug wires, O2 sensors. If you haven't done this already i would plan in the near future, changing your spark plugs, wires, coolant flush, air filter. These are the sort of things you should be doing as you near the 100,000 mark And please tell me your doing your scheduled oil changes!

 

Also as MikeR said a bad battery can just cause all sorts of wierd issues with this car. Had mine replaced at 8,000 miles!

 

Are the multiple cylinder misfires random or isolated to specific cylinders? The first thing that needs to be done is to correct the misfire condition. You might have a vacuum leak or electrical problem causing the misfire.

Crossfires have 4 O2 sensors - 2 per bank of cylinders - 1 upstream of catalytic converter, the 2nd downstream. In a misfire condition, the unburned fuel goes out through the exhaust. The catalytic converter will overheat when inundated with unburned carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. The overheating can cause the downstream sensors to fail.

In the event the faults were detected in the downstream O2 sensor heater circuits you may discover an even bigger problem once you sort out the misfire issue and replace 02 sensors. Namely, the possibility that all the unburned fuel has overheated and ruined your catalytic converters. In the event that your cats are no good, all would not be lost. As long as you can demonstrate that you didn't disregard what your manual says by continuing to drive the vehicle, the cats are covered up until 80K miles under U.S. emissions laws.

 

Bosch wideband sensors should be $45.00 on the internet + shipping. At maximum you should be paying $200 for four.

Sorry bud. Maybe you can wait until you get a chance to get back home.

 

Sounds more like a MAF/IAT sensor issue than O2 sensors. O2 sensors usually don't affect performance though, in this car, who knows?

 

You all worry about the O2 sensors all you want............I want to know about the code saying the GEAR RATIO was incorrect?????? WTF????

You might actually have a PCM issue, not a driveability issue.