Hi there, I have this weird problem with my 96 stratus (v6, 2.5l, 116000 miles, auto): the car works fine until about 100 - 120 km out of the full gas tank when the gas gouge starts flashing the pump light and the gouge indicator goes down to "0" to come up right after to almost full (sometime doesn't get to "0"). While doing this, sometimes the engine loses power and I can not drive the car. I will let it to idle on the side of the road and it will soon die. When I try to restart it, it will not start or if, by luck, it will, it will not keep the idle (I tried to pres the gas and still no luck on keep it on). One time I was lucky: it did this when I was close to a gas station. So, I forced (the gas on the floor) downhill to the gas station, I filled it up and ...surprise: it started as a charm. Any ideas on what it can be? The mechanic tested the gas pressure, the computer etc and said he can not find anything wrong and unless it happens while he is around (which didn't) to check it right away; he has no solution... Please help. Thanks, Teddy

 

Ok, so I changed my gas tank cap and ... for a month now it stop doing the power loss and stall; also, the gas gouge bounce is not that bad anymore (it still does it once in a while, mostly when I take left curves at high speed and the gas tank is 15 - 20 l less than full).

 

...But only with less than a full tank and only in a curve? That's really odd. The engine is not throwing any codes?

 

nothing. All is clean. Tested the fuel pump/pressure. The filter is almost new (the mechanic said it was replaced 2 years ago or so - I bought the car in Jan 2007..).....

 

ok, here it comes again: I thought it may be some dirt around the sensors, in the gas tank. I bought a bottle of Seafoam and add it into the gas tank. This was about 1 - 2 months ago. It didn't stop right away.. it took about 2 weeks. Meanwhile the cold weather kicked in (I write to you from Canada) and now it doesn't do it at all. I could drive up to 1 - 2 litre of gas left in the fuel tank and the car wouldn't stop...the light is there when is suppose to be, the gouge is working just fine. After all these I think it is either dirt - which I may have flushed away with the Seafoam, or a pump/fuel level assembly - which gets hot and stop working correctly. I will find out for sure next summer...

 

Most likely it was dirt or other debris in the gas tank or line. Did you fill up at a gas station when a tanker was there filling up the tanks? When you see a tanker you shouldn't fill up at that gas station because it stirs up the dirt at the bottom of the gas tank and it gets sucked into your fuel tank.

 

I'm back and not happy at all: the car stopped again, while driving it to work; same way: the fuel tank was a quarter less than full. This time, no fuel ligh on and fuel gauge dropping. Was driving it on the HWy at about 110-115 km/h and it started to lose power. I pulled over and shortly the engine died. I left it for approx. 15 min and start the engine: it started nicely so I drove it another 2 - 4 km until it died again. Called a truck to tow me and after 15 - 20 min, the truck left me in a parking lot; I started the car and it was fine: drove it to my mechanic (for about 40 Km) with no problems. He check it and couldn't find anything wrong with it... Except that the idle sometimes goes up to 2000 - 2500 rpm and drops back to 750 after a while. No error code though.. The mechnic couldn't tell me why the car's idle oscilate like that. It still runs today after 1 week from the incident. This time I had couple codes on the computer: 12 51 43 55 (check them witj the key on-off method).

 

Update: I replaced the sparks, wires, gaskets (for sparks), crank and cam sensor, map sensor and the problem is still there. Now it is stalling after 15-20 min of driving. In fact, what it does is while driving the engine loses power; if you press hard on gas, the RPMs drop and come back when you release the gas; stop on the side of the road and the car idles rough, like in 3 -4 cylinders instead of 6....; let it idle and in about 3 - 4 min the engine will die; codes on MIL: 43 and 51. You leave it to cool down and it works again for 15 - 20 min.... I am close to give up on this car. Any help would be apreciated. Tx.