Hello. I have a '98 Stratus ES 2.5L V6. Occasionally when the car almost reaches idle--say I'm moving about 5 mph or less--or when the car is idling, some strange things happen.

When decelerating and near a complete stop, sometimes the tachometer will jump about five hundred RPM and then settle back down. This is often accompanied by what seems like the transmission failing to receive enough power. Most of the time the problem corrects itself, but sometimes I have had to pop into neutral and then back into drive. When this happens at night, the headlights also dim when the RPMs jump. Also, and this is rare, the care will die completely when slowing down. This most often happens when I make right-hand turns into parking spots, oddly enough.

I do not believe this to be a transmission problem, considering the dimming headlights. My reasoning is that I have never once dropped a gear while traveling at high speeds, nor does my car seem sluggish on accelerating through the gears after the problem occurs.

My preliminary thoughts are that delivery of power to the engine or to the transmission is somehow restricted. Talking to several people, I presently suspect some part of the fuel system, the idle air or speed control motor, the oil pump or the oil sending unit.

I get my oil changed at the Dodge dealership in town, during which they always change the oil filter. I keep my air filter in great shape as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

Does it do it cold as well as warm? This sounds exactly how my van acted as the EGR valve solenoid was going bad. Check for codes. The right hand turn thing might just be coinceidence because the majority of turns we make in driving are to the right. But , if the turning is a part of the symptom, it could be an electrical connector that wiggles just enough to briefly short on turns. I had a Crank positioning sensor do this only on acceleration. It was a bad motor mount allowing the motor to torque just enought to dobreak the connection on acceleration. Not to be verbose, but another cut-out on turns can sometimes be due to a fuel pump starting to go back and it cavitating as the fluid shifts on turns. Things to think about. Good Luck

 

Thank you for the response. The problem occurs in both cold and warm temperatures. It's possible a connector may be wiggling, and I'll have to check that out. It's weird, because it only ever happens while I'm actively applying the brakes. I've let the car idle in park for minutes at a time but I can't reproduce the problem then. Thanks again for the advice. Time for some more research.