25th Apr 2006, 14:35

This is a very roomy car. HOWEVER, the air conditioning went out at 50,000 miles. It needed a new compressor. The head gasket needed to be replaced at 38,000 miles. After speaking with a Chrysler rep he agreed to only a $100 charge for an $800+ job. The head gasket is a known problem for this vehicle. The timing belt broke at 80,000 miles and bent some valves. The car is now dead. The seats are comfortable, the radio works great. I even put new tires on it before the timing belt issue. But the car is dead in my driveway. I may be able to sell it for a couple a hundred bucks with a bad motor. I would never recommend this car to anyone. Maybe to the fire department to practice on. It is so obvious why they stopped making this car.

25th Apr 2006, 17:03

Yes, the timing belt was a stupid idea for any of the manufacturers to follow, not only Plymouth, but Honda, Toyota, or any of the rest. I have heard that there is a move to go back to the timing chain, and ditch the belt, among some makers.

7th May 2006, 11:29

I have a 98 Breeze and it runs like a pretty good. The only problem I have it makes noise in the brakes at startup in the morning and my Fan Speed is broken, it only works on high. Looks like it's common with 98 models.

8th May 2006, 16:11

Just something to chuckle at: Parts are expensive for ALL cars. I love it when folks complain about this particular fact. Doesn't matter if it's a Mini or a Honda. The Breeze is simply a larger version of the Neon. And with that you're going to experience the same type of quality. Or lack thereof.

18th May 2006, 23:15

I own a 98 Plymouth Breeze 2.0 liter, not the 2.4 liter. I just put new tires on it and it runs pretty smoothly. It handles the sharp turns and curves easily. I just had brakes and rotors put on for about $350.00, they were put on last year, and they are already squeaking again. I don’t ride my car hard, I don’t know if there are any brakes that can handle this car.

The a/c always seems to be on, or if I switch the knob over to heat, it gets hot even though I don’t have the fans blowing. The alternator is going bad, it’s rattling. The trunk has a lot of space, especially since I just put 2 twelve inch subs back there and there is still lots of room. The car seems to put put when I start it in the winter. Tonight it sounded as if it was going to die when I started it up. Whenever I reach 1500 rpm’s it makes a metal scraping noise, but it’s not very loud. It gets great fuel mileage. I go to school and work and many other places and I don’t have to fill up till about every 2 weeks. The lights inside of the car such as the lights beside the shifter or where you turn on the a/c or heat sometimes don’t come on. They just randomly come on. It doesn’t have a single leakage problem. The transmission feels like it is holding back and won’t shift as fast as it used to do. It has 135,000 miles on it, but the engine only has 75,000 because the old one blew because the oiled light didn’t come on when the oil was supposed to be changed. Other than that I would recommend this car to somebody that doesn’t want much power, good gas mileage, and a smooth ride.

29th Aug 2006, 15:41

I have a 98 breeze also and the fan speed is also broken (only works on high) recently the passenger ball joint is worn out. so I bought a new ball joint for it and then relized I have to buy a whole new control arm for it... because the ball joint is attached to the upper control arm... but other wise no problems with it.

9th Aug 2007, 17:58

I had the same problem with the fan speeds it is your resistor pack that has gone bad. It is like a $15 part and is underneath the glove box on the passenger side right next to the blower.

13th Nov 2007, 20:58

I have just recently bought a 97 Breeze 2.4 DOHC auto. For the few days I have had it, nothing wrong with it. It has over 220,000km, and runs great and has been well maintained.

So far the only problems are the ABS light is on, but it's had the brakes and rotors done, and the odometer light goes on and off, which is now a problem because my check engine light has come on, and I can't get the code because the odometer won't come back on.

I have a crack in my air cleaner box that I noticed, that has old duct tape falling off it, so I'm sure that's why the engine light is on, but other than those things, this car runs pretty good, starts right up, seems better on gas with long rides, but stopping and going chews the gas up.

Everything works but the odometer, but yeah the headlights really suck on these cars, like they do on the Neon.

16th Nov 2007, 15:35

Our 98 breeze just puked, knocking, after water pouring out and leaks oil in the head gasket, four times the car decided to spring a leak out of the radiator, radiator hose, and burns a tremendous amount of oil. New, wheel bearings, tie rod ends, belts, timing chain, ball joints, and I have not fixed, the heater blower switch, fuel gauge, headlights are yellow, paint peeled, and it all happend after we paid it off, 177,000 miles. The up-keep on this car has now cost me 1800 dollars in the last six months, I wish I had my 1800 dollars back, for down payment on a different brand, but instead I own a large paper weight, and blue book is less than a new motor?

16th Nov 2007, 17:09

Well dude, you should have fixed the radiator and put on new hoses in the first place! Too late now that you let the engine blow up. You may as well junk it and buy another car. No point in spending 3 or 4 grand on a nearly 10-year-old beater. Take care of your next car, because this could have happened to any car.

22nd Apr 2008, 17:23

I have a 98 Breeze with 160,000 miles on it and I absolutely love it! I've replaced the engine motor mounts, rear main seal and flex plate, timing belt, water pump, head gasket, new lights and housing, exhaust manifold and much more! There are many common problems with the breeze/stratus/cirrus, like the oil leaks, exhaust manifold cracking, the blower motor resistor, and the head gasket. The key to taking one of these cars to 300,000 miles is simply maintenance!!! If the previous owner would have maintained my car better I would not be experiencing these problems! Trust me, coming from a Certified Chrysler Mechanic.