03-05 Vipers What to look out for?

[Mopar Steve]

I have owned a couple Vipers in the past (Gen 1 and 2) and am familiar with things to look for on those, like recall work on the frame rails (gen2) and where to look for excessive wear, date codes on tires etc. What are the danger signs, and things to look for, specific to a Gen 3?

Thanks!

 

[Steve-Indy]

There have seen several recalls for these calls as well...most 03's for cooling module, a few 03's for valves, and some other more minor things as I remember. A search will give more info on these. Watch the small harmonic damper bolt that appeared on 04's...can lead to big trouble!!!

 

[Shandon]

Powersteering was an issue with mine 05 but thats the only problem i have ever had.

 

[Canyon707]

The problems I had were the fan unit went south. For the life of me I wonder what it was driven off the power steering pump. I ended up replacing both parts. Seems an electric fan would be the way to go. It looks like they took the parts from the jeep. 2nd problem were a lot of the hoses had leaks at the fittings. Seems like a race car should have braided hoses. Overall nothing serious just annoying. 31k on the car.

 

[Bill Pemberton Woodhouse]

The valve issue that Steve brought up is one you are unlikely to encounter. This was not a problem with durability , but simply that some valves were not angle cut prior to be shipped for install in the motors. This resulted in a slight drop in horsepower. There were only about 200+ cars involved and what many were unaware of was that quite a few were caught at the Plant and fixed. If memory serves me right , this was on a few cars built in the Jan-March 2003 time frame. It would be surprising to find one out there that was not repaired, as Dealers were sent notices on the specific cars in their inventories.

I assume you are actually also thinking about 2006 , which was the last year of the 510 hp ( SAE corrected ) 8.3 liter motor, and overall there were fewer problems on the Gen IIIs than were encountered on the Gen IIs ------- an overall very few issues compared to other model vehicles ( i.e. Corvettes ).

 

[Mopar Steve]

Thanks! I'm looking!

 

[Venomiss]

You need to look specifically for yellow. It's the fastest.

 

[Flexx91]

Most of the the valve issues on 2003's were corrected prior to the cars leaving CAAP. The 2004's up to the Jan. 2004 build date (if I can recall correctly) may have had the crank bolt tightening/torque issue. The TSB list the specific time frame (build dates) that were affected. The 2005's had no issues to my knowledge.

 

[Steve-Indy]

http://forums.viperclub.org/srt10-srt10-coupe-discussions/569647-03-verses-04-viper.html

 

[10 BANGER]

I've read threads on here before stating problems with the rear "Hydrolock" differential. I upgraded mine to the Gen IV Visco-lock when I had my 3.55's installed by UNITRAX. There was signs of wear on both the planet and output gears when they pulled the unit out that could have been detrimental in the future and cross pin on mine seemed ok although there has been reports of failures with them too. I beleive the Viscolock differentials are now being used on the Gen III's as a replacement part superceding the Hydrolok. I haven't heard of any problems with the Visco-lock unit since it came out in 08'. No problems with mine so far and handles great.