Hey, first time posting on here, been wandering around for a while though. I'm hoping I could maybe get some insight on a problem of mine.

I bought a'97 Stratus in May that had 95K on it (poor college student...I know...) and it's been littered with problems. First, it was dying on me, found out it was a faulty distributor. Then, the allignment was fudged and my back tire literally snapped off the bolts almost killing me. Now, an ongoing problem is surfacing. Randomly, my car won't start. Usually it kicks in within a few tries, sometimes it will take up to 10 minutes. Today though, I was trying it for 20 minutes and gave up. Went inside for 10, came back out, nada. It was attempting to start; you could hear it trying to start, but then I noticed it was getting slower, then finally, stopped and started clicking. The more I'd wait, the longer it would attempt to kick in, then die. I had my step-dad jump it, wouldn't start. AAA came out and looked at it, they were clueless, and now, so am I. I have no idea what the problem could possibly be but I'm left with a car that refuses to start. If I didn't go in to enough detail I'll try my best to put more, but I'd really appreciate some insight on this. Thanks a lot guys!

 

sounds like either a spark or fuel prob.

try a LITTLE starting fluid. if you can get it to chug a bit with the starting fluid, could be a fuel issue. you can check the press at the fuel rail too (it's safer). you need to see if your eng is getting fuel.

try pulling the plugs and cleaning them off with a wire brush, sometimes helps. if your eng has a distrib type ignition take a look at the cap and rotor, these wearout and are easy to replace.

take off the oil cap and have someone crank the motor. if you can't see the valvetrain moving you need a new timming belt. be a great time to change out the waterpump and belt tensioner if this is the problem.

first thing i'd start with is the codes. if your electric sys is bad, somthing should show here. good luck.

 

I would try the crank position sensor and check for spark these cars have a lot of spark issues more than fuel but u do want to make sure the car is getting fuel.