Ok Stratus owners, I purchased a 05 Stratus with approx. 68,000 miles on it, changed the oil kinda regularly, had to replace water outlet on the head (made of plastic....genius) then the lower ball joint let go at around 60 mph resulted in no brakes (the bleeder screw got knocked loose) my C.V. shaft ripped out and apart, the tire lived but the rim got gouged and scratched so badly the tire shop wouldnt put a tire on it! 175 bucks for a new wheel. Went and bought new tires for it. Changed the oil and flushed the radiator and then I drove to Oklahoma and Texas from Washington state with check engine light on, my thermostat was opening too soon? OBD-2 is awesome! Total round trip of around 6,000 miles, car ran like a champ. I drive about 30 miles round trip to work and back. Friday the car felt like it skipped a little, thought it was bumps in the road so I turned the music down and rolled up the window and put it in Neutral and sure enough it died on me. I looked at the fuel gauge and I had 3/4 of a tank, I had to 2 foot drive it home. I shut it off popped the hood and checked ALL my fluids, everything was fine. Tried to start it again and it was puttering. I have a back up vehicle so I drove it for a week and the next weekend I fired the Stratus up and it was running fine. I got about a mile away from my house and hurt a little "pop" and then the car died and all I heard after that was a card in the spokes of bike from the engine. Well come to find out the reason why my oil light was flickering at idle was due to oil sludge building up in the oil passages of my engine which choked off the timing chain and caused the chain(s) to snap. Dealership wants 6 grand for engine replacement and a timing set for do it yourselfers is around 500 bucks. So my advice is to not just change your oil regularly but also have your engine oil flushed and possibly run (yes its expensive) straight synthetic oil in those engines. AND if you are losing coolant and your heat doesn't work at idle, replace the PLASTIC water outlet soon. Yes the new redesigned one is plastic too but one piece and not thermo bonded together. Good luck all! I hope this helps someone. Please let me know if you had a difficult time replacing the timing set on the Stratus as I am about to dive into that mess shortly.
Conveniently 7 days after the warranty expires my car won't start. When it does, it smokes. One day is was fine, then it made a clicking sound, the next time it wouldn't do anything. I have done all the upkeep on the car. My payments are so much I shouldn't be worrying about how much to fix a major problem like this. Oh yeah and now its December and the heat isn't working all of a sudden.
My husband and I stopped to get gas and then continued home. At a red light about 15 minutes later the car stalled. We could not get it started. We tried jumping it and checked the starter and alternator. Everything looked fine. Our oil was up to date, but still nothing worked. Just confused because everything should be working.
CAR STARTED WITH OIL LIGHT COMING ON. THOUGHT THAT OIL LIGHT INDICATED LOW OIL NOT THAT ENGINE WAS COMPLETELY DRY AND THERE WAS NO OIL IN CAR. ANYWAY: OIL PAN UNDERNEATH CAR WAS LEAKING OIL & ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON WHEN ENGINE WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF OIL. TIMING BELT BROKE, ENGINE SEIZED UP. PAID FOR REBUILT ENGINE, TOWING, ETC. NO WONDER PEOPLE DO NOT BUY AMERICAN MADE CARS ANYMORE. I WILL NEVER BUY AMERICAN AGAIN.
- elblack576,
Brooklyn, NY, US
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Ok Stratus owners, I purchased a 05 Stratus with approx. 68,000 miles on it, changed the oil kinda regularly, had to replace water outlet on the head (made of plastic....genius) then the lower ball joint let go at around 60 mph resulted in no brakes (the bleeder screw got knocked loose) my C.V. shaft ripped out and apart, the tire lived but the rim got gouged and scratched so badly the tire shop wouldnt put a tire on it! 175 bucks for a new wheel. Went and bought new tires for it. Changed the oil and flushed the radiator and then I drove to Oklahoma and Texas from Washington state with check engine light on, my thermostat was opening too soon? OBD-2 is awesome! Total round trip of around 6,000 miles, car ran like a champ. I drive about 30 miles round trip to work and back. Friday the car felt like it skipped a little, thought it was bumps in the road so I turned the music down and rolled up the window and put it in Neutral and sure enough it died on me. I looked at the fuel gauge and I had 3/4 of a tank, I had to 2 foot drive it home. I shut it off popped the hood and checked ALL my fluids, everything was fine. Tried to start it again and it was puttering. I have a back up vehicle so I drove it for a week and the next weekend I fired the Stratus up and it was running fine. I got about a mile away from my house and hurt a little "pop" and then the car died and all I heard after that was a card in the spokes of bike from the engine. Well come to find out the reason why my oil light was flickering at idle was due to oil sludge building up in the oil passages of my engine which choked off the timing chain and caused the chain(s) to snap. Dealership wants 6 grand for engine replacement and a timing set for do it yourselfers is around 500 bucks. So my advice is to not just change your oil regularly but also have your engine oil flushed and possibly run (yes its expensive) straight synthetic oil in those engines. AND if you are losing coolant and your heat doesn't work at idle, replace the PLASTIC water outlet soon. Yes the new redesigned one is plastic too but one piece and not thermo bonded together. Good luck all! I hope this helps someone. Please let me know if you had a difficult time replacing the timing set on the Stratus as I am about to dive into that mess shortly.
- chiefmuffins, Tacoma, WA, US