[BlueOmega]

I'm new to the auto world.. expecially with a car, my car knowlegde is limited to what I learned in auto shop in highschool.. A year ago I bought a Dodge Inrepid ES 1995, It sucks!!! but it grow on me ever since I purchased a new transmission in it, and it looks like I'm going to keep it for a very long time. What can I do with this car??? I mean make it look cool or do something cool? I like to have some guidance on this.. All I have is what orginally comes with it, and I like it to go fast and look cool, but I have no experince in that, but I'm willing to learn.
P.S. That wierd looking mini knob on the dashboard, is that a light sensor? and if it is, it might be broken cause its not turning the lights on automatically.

 

[Wutang15m]

Hey welcome to the boards bro. Yeah the same way it was with me first i didnt like the car.

Now that i fixed it up im in love with it. You can drop the car put a spoiler on it and dual exhaust, this is all that i did to my car and oh yeah some window tinting limo tint.

And beilve me i get more compliments and looks than most cars , because you hardly see these cars hooked up on the streets. all you see is mainmly imports and mustangs and camros.

 

[BlueOmega]

How about raise it and put a spoiler on it? I go off roading with it.. trust me this intrepid is great off road.. hehehe.. hit those jeep trails with it... ok I'm crazy but this thing can take it.. I wonder what a raised intrepid looks like.. need more clearance.. now what about speed?

 

[swartlkk]

To answer your light question... I think the little knob that you are talking about is located in the very front/center of the dash, right up close to the windsheild. This is the sun sensor. This has nothing to do with the lights. It senses the intensity of the sun and adjusts the climate control accordingly so that you don't get hot on those SUNNY days. Also, the top of it is the led for the factory alarm system if your car is so equiped.

I have also dropped in a new tranny in my 'Trep. I was already in love with it before I did that. If I wasn't it would have been junked. Tell me this, does your ES have the standard ground-effects? If so, that is probably the best you are going to get by way of body looks. You could add a wing on back.

Here are acouple of links for you to take a look at:
ShowCars Bodyparts for the Intrepid
Spoilers4less.com - Dodge Intrepid
TireRack.com - Rims, Tires, and Suspension Components
DC Tech Books

Good luck with your 'Trep. This site is a great start to getting to know it and getting it fixed up and looking great.

Later,

 

[BlueOmega]

ground effects??? This thing has a alarm system??? What are ground effects?

 

[swartlkk]

Please refer to the picture below for a visual representation of factory groundeffects. They are attached to the lower portion of your door and include a section that is fixed to the body under the doors.

On the alarm thing, when you lock your doors (if you have remote locks) does your horn beep? If it does then you have a factory alarm. When you lock your doors with the remote or internal door locks and shut your doors, the led on the top of that 'knob' will blink rapidly for about 15-20 seconds then slow down. After the 15-20 second wait the alarm will be active. One way to check if you have a factory alarm is to roll down your drivers side window, lock the doors, wait for 15-20 seconds or until the led starts blinking slowly, and open up the door from the inside. If you have an alarm, the lights will blink and the horn will go off.

If you go into the Members Pictures section under 1st Generation you should be able to find some pictures of a 'Trep without the factory ground effects. I believe 97purple_trep doesn't have the factory ground effects on his car.

If you have any more questions I will be happy to answer them for you.

 

[1mz-fe]

no ground effects here

 

[BlueOmega]

gound effects.. duh!! *spacks his head* ok I feel stupied..
Yes mine does sound its horn when I lock it with the remote, but I don't see no blinking on the knob thing.. ok.. so mine is a gen 1 right? anyone elses come with Track Control? Does it really work or is it for looks?
Anyone else having rust problems with their Treps? Mine is bad, being in NJ... what can you do about it???

 

[swartlkk]

Well, I have had no trouble with rust on my '94 up here in Upstate New York. I think that NY is the worst for using SALT on the roads during the winter. Let me guess as to where the rust is... Under the ground effects on the doors, on the bottom of the trunk lid and possibly on the hood right next to the head lights. Those are some of the places that I have seen rust on Intrepids. I wash my car about every 2 weeks in the winter. I wax it 3-4 times during the winter also. That is probably why my car has stayed looking good since I purchased it, 4 years ago. Just about the only thing that you can do once you get rust on your car is to sand it down and prime/paint it. If it goes too far you will have to use body filler to fill in the divets in the metal or fiber-glass to patch holes (if it really gets rusted), but I have never seen a 'trep with holes through the sheet metal.

You should take some pics so those of us that have done body work can give you some tips on how/what you should do or have done.

 

[BlueOmega]

Its not on the body, its.. well its hard to explain for a totally incompent person like myself.. When I change my tires, the rust along the stud .. is there away to prevent that?
The body looks good, just a few scratches here and there, but no rust.. and underneath is a bit rusty..

 

[BlueOmega]

I might take some pictures of the car when I can, right now I'm at work

 

[BlueOmega]

This board is great, I'm glad I ran into it, I feel a bit proud to have a Interpid.. even though I only know one thing about it, pedal down and watch the RPM gage!!! great stories.. I raced my Trep a bunch of times, one race starting at the NJ TurnPike, thru the NewYork ThruWay, To Montreal!!! Only stopped for fuel 3 times.... got pulled over getting back.. great speed ticket.. 120 on a 65 zone .. The cop asked me you know how fast your going, I said 67.. He like yelled at me said that I was crazy and should be locked up.. only got fined for $150..
I drove this car coast to coast.. I think about nicknaming her the "Runner"

 

[p3]

I have a couple small places on my car where it has started to rust. Way on the bottom of both rear doors there is a spot of rust about the size of a 50 cent piece. That will be taken care of this spring though.

BTW, Swartlkk, why does it look like your front turn signals are tinted a little bit? That looks pretty cool.

Blueomega, a few things you can do to your car to make it look nicer is:

Aftermarket rims
Spoiler
Lowering springs
Tint
Neons (inside or out)
Ventshades
Blackout headlight covers
Superblue or PIAA headlamps

A couple things you can do to increase performance or gas mileage are:

Remove restrictor cone
CAI intake
Dual exhaust
MSD ignition
TB spacers
Bigger plug wires

 

[Black94ES]

You asked about speed:

0-60 8.9 secs (some mags say 8.6, but majority say 8.9)

1/4 16.6 secs @ 86 mph (undisputed)

Top speed 140mph (drag limited)

(this is assuming that you have the 3.5L in your ES, if you have the 3.3, you don't want to know acceration times )

 

[swartlkk]

Just this past weekend I showed an 2nd Gen SE with a 2.7L what a 1st Gen ES 3.5L could do. We were both going south on I-81 here in NY and he came flying up behind me. I waited until he was pretty close then punched it and by the time he was along side of me we were going the same speed, 105 mph. Well he looked kinda funny at me and then I saw his knuckles wrap around the steering wheel alittle more and he punches it. I do the same and start to walk away from him. It was great. Then I hit my speed limiter (which it sounds like your car does not have) and a few seconds later so does he. I had maybe 1-2 car lengths on him when this happened and I was going 115 mph when my car stopped accelerating. So we kept going for about another hour or so at around 90-100 mph and never did see a cop. I was on my way to my parents so I had to duck off to I-90W and once on there I saw about 4 cops in the first 20 minutes of driving. Good thing the two of us weren't still together or we both would have been screwed.

On the rust thing... I wouldn't be worried about rust on the wheel studs. If it gets bad enough that you can not run the wheel nut on then you should probably have the threads cleaned either with a wire brush or a thread chaser, then put some good silicon lube on them. That goes for the hubs also. I have had some corrosion between my aluminum rims and the steel hubs on both the front and rear. I took some good 'Emry'(sp?) cloth and cleaned up both surfaces and sprayed them with some silicon spray and haven't had a problem since. Aluminum and steel don't like to get along very well. I wouldn't worry about the under car rust all that much. That is, unless you can visibly see that it is starting to bubble up. This is a sign that the rust has penetrated into the steel. So far, under my car, I can see surface rust but everything still looks fairly smooth. If you see some bubbled spots you probably get that looked into. If it were me I would take a screwdriver or a pick and see how deep the rust actually goes and then clean the entire area plus some surrounding area, get it nice and dry and spray some rust prohibative spray paint on it. Since its only the underside of your car you really don't have to worry about how it looks.

 

[swartlkk]

Pimped,
Take a look at the pictures below. My bra (a Wolf bra from spoilers4less.com) has a mesh over the turn signals. I love the way it looks it just is that the fabric doesn't line up with the edge of the turn signal and the headlight correctly. Doesn't really make that much of a difference. You can hardly tell.

Sorry for it being alittle dirty. I did drive 200 miles after washing it this weekend.

[ February 12, 2002: Message edited by: swartlkk ]

 

[BlueOmega]

*takes notes*
Black94ES whats the accelation for a 3.3? its what I have

 

[p3]

I wish my bra had that option. (that sounds bad ) Mine is made by LeBra so it is plain jane. I think that mesh looks cool.

BlueOmega- I'm not sure what the exact specs are for the 3.3L acceleration. According to an online ET estimator (nothing very accurate) mine runs the 1/4 mile in the area of [email protected] That's with my intake mod and dual exhaust, so a stock one pry runs a tad slower.

 

[gary680]

everywhere I've seen they have the 3.3 at 10.3 secs for the 0-60...its pretty sad lol...dont even try racing a minivan in some cases

unfortunately my es also has the 3.3

 

[BlueOmega]

So a 3.3 is bad? oh great now my self esteem just crashed here was feeling good having a Trep