hey everybody... im officially done with my 1st gen and sick of it so im parting it out and getting a new car... i found a nice 05 for sale nearby but ive heard the 05 trans and clutches suck and break very easily... any truth to this? the one im lookin at is 14,900 at a chrysler used car lot with no warranty its white with 30,000 miles any opinions are greatly appreciated! thanks guys!!

 

the transmissions can handle a gread deal of torque and power, however they do not take well to abuse or misuse. its important to change the fluid regularly. too much har shifting or WOT shifting will tear them up. there are a good number of people who have problems with the transmissions but others not so much. the tranny is a bit 'rough', it not meant to be 'smooth and easy' though, its meant to handle power.

i would try to get some kind of warranty out of them though. heck, with only 30kthe factor warranty should still be good on it. you would think they would give you at least a 30 or 90 day on everything

 

Flamingpinhead is right on. Read my post further down about tranny problems. I'm 42 years old and dont doany organized street racing anymore, but I will not back down when some spoiled brat in an Infinity or another old timer in a V-8 something thinks its just a Neon. I went through my first clutch at about 36,000 miles but I do use the car everday for work in city traffic.( 21mpg city/30 hwy with stage 2)Rarely getting into 5th before I have to stop again for another stop sign or traffic light. My tranny failed at 48,000 miles. The build date on the new one is 2-14-07 and it feels exactly like the old one and as Flamingpinhead discribed,a little rough. But after all that it is still without question the most fun daily driver I've ever owned.

 

I have an '03 and I had the synchros and shift forks replaced (under warranty) at around 60K. At that time I also replaced the clutch with a SPEC stage 2 (wouldn't do that again).It was fine until about 70K, when shifting into reverse with the car running became impossible and 1st was not much easier. 1st to 2nd I had to really jam it in and 3rd would grind every time. This time I had the tranny replaced (at 75K - under warranty) and I went with another new clutch, this time the Mopar Perfomance clutch (not the stock Mopar clutch). Money well spent. I also put on a Mopar short throw with bushings and used Royal Purple Synchromax and it feels great, though it is not real smooth and refined, as someone said above, but it still has a very nice feel and shifts seem more crisp with the STS.

One thing though - with the original tranny I never changed the fluid. In the manual for the '03 it said the fluid from the factory should "last for the life of the car under normal operating conditions". With my new trans, I'm now changing the fluid every 18K just to be safe and only using Royal Purple Synchromax. So far so good. And I don't race every weekend ordrive it hard all the time btw.

 

i disagree. these trannys will hold up to tons of abuse. i beat the crap out of my car and just recently did i ever have a tranny problem. that transmissionhad over 450tq going through it and a somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 passes at the track. i changed the fluid regularly and everything was fine.

 

my car i got used...and it was obvious it has taken abuse b4 i bought it....the tranny is still holding strong though and im at 45k i think....
i drive like crazy pedal to the floor constanty my clutch never slips and i have a maddog sts...i love the way my car drives..

 

I disagree also. I have 95,400 miles on my car. I have owned it since it was brand new. I have the Mopar STS with Energy Suspension bushings as far as the shifter goes. My slave cylinder went at ~78k miles. I took that time to change everything out. New shift fork, throw out bearing, Mopar Performance clutch, flywheel (OEM) and slave cylinder. At that mileage my clutch had more than 50% wear still left on it. Granted, my car is not a track car, and is not driven hard but I do enjoy spirited driving from time to time. Its never been launched hard, and my axles are still in great condition. Not to mention the fact that at over 95k I have had NO internal transmission work whatsoever. Every 12,000 miles I change my fluid with Mopar ATF+4 and the Friction modifier. Around 10k I can start to feel the car not shifting as well as it should hence my change interval being a bit earlier than it should. To date, other than the slave (which went bad due to the cold side pipe pressing against it unbeknownst to me) I have had no transmission issues whatsoever. [/align][/align]Except that pesky driver side axle seal that went in December. Had that replaced, but the dealer who did it, didn't put it in right, so I did it myself two nights ago. [/align]
Moral of the story, all in how you maintain and treat it.[/align]