Questions from a potential owner

EJnMN · #1 10-13-2009, 12:13 AM

Have an opportunity to get into a 98 Stratus, two conditions I wanted to ask about... (And search proved fruitless)

1. 202k miles.
The engine bay is immaculate. Seems to have been a meticulous person. Inside is spotless too. Assuming care was taken (no sludge on dipstick fwiw) can I expect the 2.4 L motor to make it to 250k?

2. Rocker Panel Rust
The Rocker panels are a mess. No other rust, scratches, etc... just the rocker panels are completely eaten away. Is this common? It's not obvious, an only a little rust shows up inside the doors, but the rocker panels are

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ratsttam · #2 10-13-2009, 02:58 PM

Hard to say with any motor how far it will go over time. My '93 s10 blazer (4.3l) blew up at 115,000. My neighbors '89 s10 blazer fell apart (literally parts fell off) RUNNING with 523,000mi (same 4.3l block). Neither was beat or abused, both serviced and maintained at the same garage...

The previous owner may have done a fine job of cleaning up a "mess", or maybe it really was taken care of. That's a good sign the dipstick came out clean, at least it has somewhat "fresh" oil in it. I'm sitting on a strong 2.5v6 with minimal problems. FWIW, the 2.4 is the most common engine in the 1g strats (95-00), and a replacement can be found quickly and easily should it actually give out on you.

Care should be taken with the trans, if these 41te's aren't taken care of at regular intervals, than they can be a point of failure. It's made it this far, check to make sure the fluid is a clean looking strawberry color.

Regarding rust on the rocker panels, I will safely say it's been driven in an area that uses "salt brine" before a snow storm, to prevent ice from occurring on the road before it gets bad. We use it a LOT here in PA, and it eats up the cars pretty bad.

EJnMN · #3 10-13-2009, 05:08 PM

Thanks for the insight. Per the rocker panels and salted roads. Yes, that is certainly a factor... we're in Minnesota (hence the userid!) That said, I have never seen a car rust so specifically in the rocker panels and not elsewhere. I suspect that the factory paint there was insufficient, or rustproofing not applied, or something. It sort of looks like the PO drove over a hill daily, scratching the back part of the rockers... and the lack of paint ate it away.

I basically just wanted to make sure that this was a specific problem and not endemic to the whole model series.