Re: Battery, plugs, timing belt service (2000 300M) - when?

Bill Putney wrote:

Like Clint, I too hang out on the 300M Club and its forums,
Several Canadians there - so - yeah - come on over.

I think I poked around there a few years ago. I'm not at the point
yet where I'm going to really get my hands dirty with this car and
need to arm myself with info from that website.

Sort-of on that topic - over the years I've looked for an aftermarket
"LH" service manual (Chiltons, etc) but nobody seems to publish one.
Any ideas why not?

Though the spark plugs are supposed to be good for 100k miles,
that is a bit of a stretch. Myself and others have found that
you will maintain noticably better fuel mileage and performance
if you change them before 80k miles.

I get about 28 mpg (according to the over-head display) on the highway
(30 mpg if I have a tail wind or even 32 if I stick close behind a
tractor-trailer). Not sure if those are good, average or poor.

At the first scheduled air filter change I swapped in a K&N filter and
clean it about twice a year.

Engine coolant - only good for 5 years. You *must* use only
the G-05 type - available from Chrysler and Ford dealers,

How much arm-twisting do I need to do at a Chrysler dealership service
garage to get them to prove to me that they have, and would put in,
the correct coolant from among the variety of choices that they
presumably have available to them?

I'm thinking that I might as well wait until next spring to do the
coolant change (and some sort of power-flush?) since the winter season
won't put the coolant under any sort of stress.

Timing belt - change interval is 105k miles. Don't push that -
these engines are interference (i.e., they can damage themselves
if the belt breaks - a few on the 300M Club have proven that

Well, I'm not there yet. At this rate, it's going to take me 2 more
years to hit 100k miles. Does the belt have a replacement age as well
as replacement milage?

You've done well. You should do the a.c. v-belt and its idler
pulley too. Tranny fluid - You should do that with filter.

Well maybe the tranny fluid hasn't been changed because I really don't
think the trans filter has ever been removed/changed.

But - yeah - 8 years - you might do well to just go ahead and
replace it, otherwise ...

Yea, I hear ya. I just hate to replace something like that without
getting a better indication that it will definately not last me
through the winter. Besides, you can always get a jump start and not
have to immediately replace the battery the first time it fails to
turn over - and that's the signal that you really need a new battery
immediately.

You might keep transmission input and output sensors in your
glove compartment. They have a habit of going out all of a
sudden.

One of mine (I forget which one) did fail a few weeks before the
3-year factory warranty was going to end - so it was fixed no cost to
me. Since the speedo was not registering, it must have been the
output sensor.

I've also replaced (last year) the front sway bar rubber mounting
bushings and end-links, and I'm on my second set of replacement front
wheel rotors and pads. I'm not sure if I have some air in my brake
line, but while ordinary stopping pedal effort seems fine, it does
take an almost inordinate amount of pedal force to perform a "panic"
stop. It's been like that for a few years now.

Hope to see you over on the Club.

Yea, I'll have a look - if only for the braking issue when I really
want to tackle it.
.

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