[ndo6532]

I have a 2005 Chrysler 300 with 114,200 miles on it. The last few months we have noticed the front end really seems to have become loose and when you hit a pothole it sounds like it's going to fall off My husband replace one set of tie rods back in May of 2011, but it's sounding loose again. Also, the last few weeks we have noticed that our gas gage is on the fritz, as well as the car having died (new spark plugs before this happened) and such. We are thinking of trying to trade it in because we're unsure if we need to worry about transmission problems soon, or of other major things in the near future for us, as we do a lot of driving. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Charliedrums38]

The front ends are a source of ongoing maintenence..seems we all just accept that. What model of 300 do you have? Most of the cars seem pretty bullet-proof. When you say the gas gauge is on the fritz, what happens? Also, what was happening when the car died on you?

 

[ndo6532]

I have the 300 base model. About the gas gage, a few weeks ago I was driving and all of a sudden the car just shut down, however, the gas gas still said we had above a quarter of a tank, yet when we put gas in, it started right up. Since then the gage has fluctuated between 3/4 and half a tank when we drive it, and just pressing on the gas sometimes causes it to go up. About when it died: I was pulling out of a parking lot, and it just died. It didn't act funny or anything, just died. It did start right back up, but we were having similar problems before we changed the spark plugs. I just don't want to decide to keep the car and fix all of this stuff, which would cost a pretty penny, then turn around and have the transmission start having troubles, or anything else that would be very costly

 

[Sodak]

The first thing you need to do is goto a mechanic that can search for trouble codes on your car,weather that is a dealership or a local mechanic.

http://www.300cforums.com/forums/problems-dealer-service/11124-car-stalls-after-fill-up-gas-tank.html

Hears some threads for you to read through and see if anything applies to you.
Also for the clunk in the front end as well.

http://www.300cforums.com/forums/srt8-specific-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension/67526-weird-loose-rattle-sound-over-bumps-front-end-moved.htmlNow why do you think your transmition may go? Is it Slipping/not shifting ?

 

[MADDOG]

Those links ^^^^ really do a good job of explaining what you are experiencing.

Is there something going on with the transmission, too?

 

[oblivion]

Well, over 100K on the clock and an 8 year-old car is about the time when any vehicle starts nickle & diming you a little bit, whether it's a Mopar or Toyota. Keep up on the maintenance items and keep the salt off it if you live in the rust belt and it should age pretty gracefully.

You can still do the 'key dance' if your check engine light is on to retrieve basic trouble codes from the PCM. With the car off, turn the ignition key on-off-on-off-on in succession. (do not start the car) The codes will be displayed or blink out on the check engine light. I don't remember whether they just display or blink the numbers, as I haven't done this in a long time and it probably depends on the year of vehicle you have. Or I think Autozone will read the codes for free.

A sudden stalling condition like happened to you is sometimes a bear to troubleshoot. You pretty much have to catch it in the act a lot of times, which is difficult at best with a very intermittent problem.