I have a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser and the steering wheel shakes when you hit highway speeds (60 mph +).?

Question 1
I have a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser and the steering wheel shakes when you hit highway speeds (60 mph +).?...  This does occur 100% of the time, but is NOT continuous. Recntly added two new front tires, with alignment, so its not that. Thoughts?

Answers
1)   Probably your Differential I would take it to your local mechanic and get it checked out.

A differential is just a set of mechanical gears that equalizes the power between the left and right drive wheels. - Sancho

2)   Do you trust the people that put your new tires on? Also the people that aligned your front end? If you do,then maybe the wheel bearings needs checking.They could have worked "loose" or have went bad. - rexd_minuteman

3)   1. Wheel not center on hub (centering rings may help)
2.. Warped rotor
3. Loose front end parts
4. Worn ball joints
5. Worn pitman & Idler arms
6. Worn die rod ends
7. Worn wheel bearings
8. Worn CV joints

Warped rotors can be caused by over torquing the lug nuts or by overheating the brakes. Have your front disc pads inspected and the rotors looked at. If the rotors are indeed warped, replaced the pads and have the rotors turned and trued. It can also be a loose wheel bearing, loose lug nuts, or a problem with the tires. Everything needs to be looked at. When the wheels are replaced make sure they use a torque wrench and torque them to factory specifications. - Michele

4)   even though you have new tires you could still need the tires checked to make sure they are balanced correctly. sometimes the weights put on can be thrown and cause an out of balance issue. if the weight was put on in a hurry it could have been loose enough to come off. also you could have a bad shock thats letting the tire baskatball bounce when you hit freeway speeds and hit imperfections in the roadway. - Malicious

5)   it sounds the wheel balance is no right take the car bake and tell them they have to balance the tires please or the alignment is off a tad it does not matter that they did that it could be wrong trust me i had it happen to me - sha

6)   you need your front wheels balancing - WAYNE C

7)   if it done this before the front tires were replaced, it wouldn't be the tires, check cv boots and area, see if cv joints have slung any grease, could be a worn joint, another thing you can do is put the car on a lift and run vehicle in gear and visually see if rims are straight, pt's have a wheel problem anyway, hope this helps - columbusmopar

8)   One of those new front tires is out of balance. Take your car to the place where you had them put on, or a different tire shop and have them re-balanced. If that does not work, then you can take it to a mechanic. That unfortunatly is a common thing when you purchase new tires sometimes. - Mopar Man


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Question 2
Do all Plymouth vans from the 90's have grindy transmissions?...  I have a 1998 Plymouth Grand VoyagerV6, 3.3 liter, such a great vehicle, good for towing, having 6 other passengers and drives pretty nice. I treat it like a baby, just installed new sway bar links, new inner tie rods, gonna get new tires, alignment and want to actually wire brush and paint the underneath(lots of axel rust and rack and pinion rust) One great flaw is whenever it switches gear(it's automatic), it seems to make a slight clicking/grinding sound that lasts about a second. It will do it twice when I come to a stop. I know it's the transmission and that will be something to fix. I live about a mile from a transmission shop, but I really can't afford it for now. I know a mechanic that gets me parts for very cheap. Perhaps he could get it done for a little over $1500, let's say(he gets parts at half price).

Can anyone tell me if all Plymouth vans do this as I notice vans(plymouth, dodge and Chrystler) seem to make that same sound when they come to a stop.

Answers
1)   nope they dont. - idontgivafork

2)   Chrysler vans (and cars for that matter) typically have weaker transmissions. Being only a mile away from a shop I say drive it until it dies, but start budgeting for a replacement. - Daddy365

3)   Coming to a stop or putting the trans in park that click or gind kind of noise is normal. Depending on the mileage you would consider a rebuild, but if your trans guy cant tell that noise could be normal, its time to look for a better qualified chrysler trans mechanic.
Next time you see a same year model mini van ask the owner to shift the van from drive to park when the engine is hot and you will see it makes the same noise. It gets louder if the sound damper is removed - rick b

4)   Yes, that noise you're hearing is a pump in the transmission that is working like it's supposed to. - Ryan M

5)   you have an A- 604 transmission, the noise you hear is the solonid packs this is normal for this trans, make sure the rubber cover is on the solonoid pack, the was used as a silencer - columbusmopar


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Question 3
Do U Recommend Chrysler In General Like Neon And Intrepid ..Etc?...  Ok like i know they r not the best not like we are talking about civic or something but for my budget whiich is around 2.500 $ we can get a nice 2000 neon or interpid so are they good cars , good enough ?

Cz I have 96 sunfire and i got it 5 months ago and yesterday it broke down and i had to change the fuel pump around 300 $ so they are not really good stuff .

Answers
1)   Keep the Sunfire, unless it has the quad four engine, 2.2 is good. I sell auto parts on the weekend and few cars need more parts than Chrysler cars(except maybe a Probe or old mini van) - Mark

2)   for 2,500 dollars I would try to invest in something a little more reliable. Both dodge neons and intrepids have their share of problems. Intrepids are known to have electical and transmission problems in the higher miles, and the older neons had head gasket issues. I would try for a subaru, honda, or toyota. Even an older one would prove to be more reliable than a newer neon or intrepid. I bought a 1993 subaru legacy four years ago for 1,100 dollars. At the time it had 128,016 miles on it. I now have 217,000 miles on it and I haven't had to do any major work to the engine yet. just preventative maintanence. good luck!!! - maksad2000

3)   Absolutely. My mom bought a brand new Chrysler Town & Country in 1997. It now has about 170k miles, and it's been an excellent vehicle. There was one morning this summer when it wouldn't start and needed a vacuum transducer replaced, and another time it didn't start because the battery went bad. It's really held up well though: the power windows, door latches, engine, transmission... it all still works just as nice as when it was new. It doesn't feel at all like it's wearing out. If you're considering the Intrepid, check out the Chrysler LHS; the seats are supremely comfortable! - Ryan M

4)   DUUDE i missed you soooooo much but iv been really busyy i'll be online SOOOOON XXXX ITS ME SHARPAYYY - StarStrukkkk R.I.P MICHEAL!!!


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Question 4
Chrysler T&C has a strange idle?...  My van has 50k miles on it and has a little rumble when it idles. I have given it 2 gas treatments this summer and also had a tune up with no change. Any other ideas what may be causing it? It happens with & without the a/c on. I have never had vehicle do this and need some direction. Thanks for your time!

Answers
1)   A model year and engine size would also be helpful, but here's some general info.

When you say it has a rumble, do you mean the vehicle shakes? Or, do you mean it is actually making a noise?

If it's shaking, it could need new spark plugs, maybe spark plug wires, or possibly even both.

Could be a sensor that's gone bad, or a number of other things.

If it's a noise, the most likely cause is an exhaust leak, but could also be other things like a bearing on one of the pulleys or something.

At any rate, the best thing to do is to take it to your trusted (and well qualified) repair shop and have them diagnose it for you. They should be able to hook it up to get codes and find what's causing it to have problems, or find anything that might be causing a noise.

Replacing parts before having it properly diagnosed is most often just throwing money away. - Mark B

2)   Its probably a lean burn miss, normal - rick b

3)   If the check engine light isn't on, then there shouldn't be any trouble codes on the computer. The word "tune up" worries me: your van shouldn't need a "tune up". It might have a bad motor mount. Does it idle rough if you shift into neutral? Does the rough idle happen after the engine has warmed up? - Ryan M


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Question 5
Is it really worth the money to soup up a 3.5L V6 2009 Chrysler 300?...  Id love to make my new AWD 300 perform a little better, add ons that ive seen that may or may not help are... a magflow dual exhaust system, headers and cold air... by my math it is gonna cost me around 2k after installation...

im not a car guy by any means... i like nice stuff and want my nice stuff to perform well...

any ideas would be appreciated

Answers
1)   I've customized many of the cars I owned as a teen and young adult. I poured thousands of dollars into my rides. From engine swaps and upgrades to countless sets of wheel and tire combinations. Paint jobs to stereo systems. All I can say is that it feels great to drive and show off your custom ride. However, customizing any vehicle is not a wise investment, unless you have disposable income! It does not add any resale value and when it's all said and done you will be wondering what you received in return for all of the money you spent! My advise is that you save your money and invest it wisely...like real estate.

But if you're going to do it anyway...start with a nice set of wheels and tires, a suspension upgrade and an exhaust system. The header and intake can come later. Might as well turn some heads while you come up with the funds to continue with the customization. - jakemm02

2)   What Jake said...but also...why didn't you just go for a HEMI, even if you had to buy a 2008 slightly used? You'll never get to the point where a hemi is stock, and you'll have way worse gas mileage since you'll have a modded V6 vs a V8 that can go down to 4cyls.

Free breathing is great, but I think all that would be 20hp tops. Gotta get into cams, computer cals, ect to get real hp out of a modern engine. - JohnB

3)   Depends on what you are looking for. Your're car is at 250hp now. 2k is a lot to pay for 15-20hp. You can spend about 400 bucks on a Diablosport Predator Tuner, install the 93 octane tune that comes with it, and get the same amount of HP. Plus your gas mileage will increase, at least mine did. Get the U7316 Predator for your car and motor. Get an S&B CAI for another 10hp for around 200 bucks, and you'll have bumped up your horsepower to about 275-280 for 600 bucks. Best part is you can do all this yourself and not pay all that labor. - chris731@att.net


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