Tuning the Chrysler Sebring

"Thanks for reading my Chrysler Sebring tuning guide."

The Sebring is a good car modification project to execute. With the right mods your Sebring can be transformed into a fun car. Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade to avoid disappointment.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many Sebring owners uprate the handling of their cars with uprated suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

We found that most Sebring factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, 0.8 to 1.3, and a little negative camber will greatly benefit your cornering and handling.

Drop the car by as much as 29mm - 38 mm. and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Top end bhp should be your overall aim with a nice fat wide peak torque band.

Keep the car looking standard but remove the badges for the ultimate sleeper!

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Engine Tuning.

These mods uprated upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Coupe:

  • 2.0 L 420A i4 (gasoline)
  • 2.5 L 6G73 V6 (gasoline)

Convertible:

  • 2.4 L EDZ I4 (gasoline)
  • 2.4 L EDV/EDT I4 (t/c gasoline)
  • 2.5 L 6G73 V6 (gasoline)

Second generation

Sedan & Convertible:

  • 2.4 L EDZ i4 (gasoline)
  • 2.4 L EDV/EDT i4 (t/c gasoline)
  • 2.7 L EER V6 (gasoline/E85)

Coupe:

  • 2.4 L 4G64 i4 (gasoline)
  • 3.0L 6G72 V6 (gasoline)

Third generation

  • 2.0 L World I4 (gasoline)
  • 2.0 L VW I4 (turbocharged diesel)
  • 2.4 L World I4 (gasoline)
  • 2.7 L EER V6 (gasoline / E85)
  • 3.5 L EGF V6 (gasoline)

Getting the best tuning upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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How to tune your car

  1. Improve the handling

    Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.

  2. Remove restrictions

    Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.

  3. Burn more fuel & air

    Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.

  4. Test and replace any weak parts

    Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.

  5. The Tune or Remap

    A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.

Modifying to Stage 1:

 Remap, Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 29mm - 38 mm.).

Modifying to Stage 2:

 high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam, Power/Sport clutch.

Modifying to Stage 3:

 Sports gearbox, Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam.

You should keep as much low end torque as you can and aim to achieve a wide power band rather than a narrow top end power spike.

The whole point of our advice is to give a limited introduction of customizing mods and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your car tuning project, the best uprated mods and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road camshaft usually proves to be one of the best NASP power mods you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to increase to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Using higher octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Chrysler project after fitting other modified upgrades. To get sufficient fuel you may need to improve the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Induction kits are only beneficial to increase power if your air intake is restricted! Adding an induction kit to most small engines will see NONE OF A LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for Sebring engines you should go with a high performance panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts equal out the flow of gases through the engine. But if your exhaust pipe is too large, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of the exhaust flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional gas flowing. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. A good triple plate fast road upgraded clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never make false economies or expect your standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods in our opinion for your Sebring are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A remapped turbo will give phenomenal power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block. Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is usually easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is correlating to engine speed on a linear curve. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Because alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they will help to cool the brake disks. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good soft compound tire can really enhance your cars handling. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Sebring is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio so this will have a negative effect on acceleration.

Due to this we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels with no problems.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Sebring options in more detail with our Sebring owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Chrysler tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.

We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which mods work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.

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