I really need to blog more so I thought I’d write about my continuing adventures with my Dodge Viper.

About 18 months ago, my passenger-side window regulator failed. The window regulator is the part that makes the window go up and down and mine was making lots of clunking noises as it moved. It’s notorious for failing and is insanely expensive — $1200! For the 2013 Gen 5 Viper, they redesigned the part to make it more reliable and cheaper while being backwards compatible with my car. It now costs only $360 which is a huge savings.

Anyway, a week ago mine failed once again. It was replaced under extended warranty before and my dealer is trying to get Chrysler to cover the cost of replacing it again, this time with a Gen 5 part so it won’t fail yet again. Funny enough my driver’s side one has been working fine. Fingers crossed.

Additionally Vipers have a bit of a design flaw in that their cable-actuated parking brake calipers (separate from the normal brake calipers) don’t always retract all of the way. This causes the inner pads to drag a bit and wear down rather fast. I avoid using my parking brake whenever possible to avoid ratcheting the pads in closer and closer to the rotor but it can still be an issue.

Yesterday morning, my dad helped me take off both of my back wheels so that we could inspect both inner parking brake pads. The driver’s side had seen some wear but still had plenty of pad left even though it squeaks at low speeds. My passenger side pad though was nearly worn down to nothing. I caught it just in time to avoid having to replace the rotor too. Phew! I’m currently having those replaced at the dealership as it’s worth the $160 in labor to avoid having to do it myself in my tiny garage. I had to park my car as close as I could get it to one wall in order to have enough room to get the 13 inch wide wheel off the car (345mm tire).

Here’s a bonus photo of my super dirty suspension: