Note: None of these pictures are of the actual car
After my wife’s Bonneville was totalled by the insurance company, we needed to get another car fast. Fortunately, I was able to dip into the flipper vehicle pool for a 89 Dodge Dynasty LE that I had just purchased.
This car was tan like the first picture in this post. It was purchased from a co-worker, who routinely traded his cars. I had purchased several cars from him in the past, so I knew that they were relatively well cared for. Not pristine, but not bad considering the price. It had been driven by his daughter, who tangled with a deer one evening. The left front fender was badly dented and the grille was cracked. Everything else looked to be in good shape
The interior room of this car was good and the cloth covered seats were comfortable. One thing I didn’t like about the dash was the instrument cluster. It didn’t look symmetrical like those in other Chrysler cars.
An issue with the instrument cluster that I encountered was that the gauges and speedometer would intermittantly go to zero and then back to their proper positions. Investigation over a couple of weeks revealed corrosion on a wiring harness connector that was routed under the battery tray. Took the connector apart, cleaned the contacts, and all was well.
The trunk of the Dynasty was much more spacious than the standard K-car. The spare tire was relocated to the floor to increase usability, but it still suffered from a high liftover.
After I got a new fender and grille to repair the collision damage, I then set to work to repair any other maladies. The air conditioning didn’t work and the fan didn’t seem to have more than one speed. The condenser had been damaged in the deer collision, so I replaced it and recharged the system. The blower fan problem was due to a failed fan resistor as seen above. Unfortunately, it was only accessible from inside the car. Why not fasten it to the firewall from the engine compartment and then you would have spent on 5 minutes to change it. You could see it from under the hood, but it could only be removed by disassembing part of the dash.
The resistor only cost $12 at the dealer, but required a significant amount of time to get at it along with a great amount of physical distortion. The funny thing was that some of the resistors had rusted through and the previous owner tried to repair it by using silicone sealer to reconnect them. LOL. Once the resistor was replaced, the blower motor worked well.
Another problem with the car was the tendency of the engine to smoke when at idle. Turns out that this was well known as worn valve guides. Time to pull both heads and get them repaired. Reassembly required replacement of the timing belt, which on this engine was a little tricky.
The sprocket on the right bank matched the mark on the engine at a neutral spot on the rear cover. In other words, the marks lined up and the cam was in between opening valves. The left bank was a little more challenging. The timing marks only lined up when one of the valves was open. Moving the sprocket a little too far resulted in the cam moving to a “no valves open” position the timing and not in alignment with the timing mark. After a few tries, I was able to get things lined up and the auto-tensioner released to keep it in time. Overall, the 3.0L engine was a decent design that offered good performance and fuel economy.
Overall, the Dynasty served its purpose well while I was waiting for delivery of a new car. I drove it for six months and sold it for more than I had in it.
A secretary in my office had bought a New Yorker of this generation as a cheap hand me down. I was surprised by how nicely it drove. I think the 3.3 was a huge improvement over the 3.0.
Hers was suffering from random electronic glitches which were making the car unreliable. Which was too bad, because after driving it I liked it more than I expected to.
I’ve mentioned this here before, but I was not a big fan of these cars. Part of it had to do with introduction to these cars. Back in the 1980’s I lived in Northwestern Pennsylvania about an hour north of Pittsburgh. I had a Dodge Lancer ES turbo that was a bit troublesome in it’s early part of my ownership of the car. The dealer that was doing the warranty work had grown weary of my appearing at their door. One Friday evening I was to go to an event in Pittsburgh and my Lancer was misbehaving again.
I ended up with a Dynasty, which was probably diametrically opposed to my Lancer. I was running late and trying to push that marshmallow through the back roads of the metro Pittsburgh area. The hills and valleys that the Lancer would handle with ease the Dynasty wallowed and rolled uncomfortably. In the Dynasty’s defense, my Lancer had the Level 3 suspension and Eagle GTs, which were heaven-sent on those roads.
The Dynasty was the anti-Taurus, maybe not intentionally, but practically. If you somehow missed one of the formal-roofed GM clones, Chrysler had your Buick. In reality, the mini-Seville styling maximizes interior room and trunk space on a given wheelbase. These cars were fairly roomy because of this and had a very smooth ride. In 1988 (even 2018!) I was not the target market for this car, but I believe it remains a good car nonetheless.
Yeah, the Dynasty really seems like Iacocca’s last gasp at trying to justify his stubborn insistance that rounded, aerodynamic jellybeans like the Taurus would never catch on. The recently featured 1994 Lebaron CC with the softly rounded fenders was about as far as he’d go. He just wouldn’t commit the K-car chassis to a complete remake with the Taurus’ aerodynamics, and I suspect it might have lead to his retirement. The success of Lutz’ cab-forward cars went a long way to showing how outdated and just plain wrong Iacocca’s brougham instincts had become.
A couple of observations about Lido: 1. I think he famously predicted that the Taurus would flop. 2. He’s had success with the Brougham formula before, why wouldn’t work again?
FWIW, Chrysler DID have a Taurus-like jellybean car before the Taurus. It was the H-body Lancer/LeBaron GTS, released for 1984. It had the rounded Euro-look of the time and with the hatchback was super utilitarian. However, it was not a big seller and their experience with the cars may have influenced decisions on future cars. I can imagine the dialogue: “Well, these H bodies didn’t sell well and we’re pushing out every K-car we can build. Let’s dress up the AA with a quarter vinyl roof and wire wheel covers…”
I don’t know if that actual conversation took place, but you can see the effects of “not fixing what isn’t broke”, either…
You’re right about the dash looking off center – it’s the placement of the gauges. Maybe Chrysler should have put a tach or a least a clock to the left of the speedo and moved the fuel and temp gauges to the outside pods.
That instrument cluster is weird. You’d have thought the two separate outer gauged would have been the fuel and temp gauges. That way, the left binnacle could have been used for an extra-cost tachometer with smaller oil and volt warning lights.
The way it is, if a tachometer were added, you’d have to have smaller fuel and temp gauges included with it, and that’s because the frame actually has the words ‘oil’ and ‘volt’ imprinted on it.
Honestly, it seems like Iacocca’s cost-cutting run amok and it took him awhile to get back on track with stuff like the Dynasty’s complete, but somewhat bizarre, gauge placement. One of the first things I noticed about Chrysler products after Iacocca took over was how, suddenly, the cars no longer had the Chrysler trademark of complete gauges but, instead, went the GM/Ford route of limiting gauges to a speedometer and fuel gauge, with idiot lights for everything else.
But those oil and volt words are just printed on the bezel. Easy enough to eliminate that step and not that expensive to have a different stamp that prints something else if really desired. Look at your average radio so many of those buttons are the same molding with different things printed on them to indicate their function.
That is a weird and very unattractive instrument panel. My ’90 Dodge Caravan came with the optional full info package. This is a well balanced lay out, and is my favorite. My ’97 Town and Country, ’96 Mustang GT, 96 Explorer, and ’97 Jag XJ6, and ’07 F150 all share the same basic lay out. This is a pic of the ’90 Caravan.