I have a 1998 Stratus that stalls once in awhile that I can not figure out.

To give you a run down on the recent work down on the engine.

I brought it into the Dealer for the stalling problem.

The timing belt had 176,000 miles on it; they replaced it and the timing belt tension assembly.

They found a bolt foreign to any car I know lodged in one of my Rocker Arms which had chewed away at it a bit but was still functional. They replaced the Rocker Arm.

I replaced the EGR and EET with new parts to get rid of the Check Engine light which was happening for about 2 years. I did not replace it sooner because it passed emissions tests with flying colors over the 2 years the light was lit. Check Engine light is no longer lit up.


They performed a Compression test on my Cylinders and all are at 125 PSI. They also tested my fuel system pressure which is at 48 PSI. Nothing is wrong here despite the Rocker Arm that got chewed up. The valves do not tap so I do not think I have any bent valves. They wanted to pull the head and check the valves but I declined the extra $1200.00 bucks worth of work because it has good compression, the valves do not tap and plenty of fuel pressure.

The car runs fine most of the time but on occasions it will stall after a long drive. I let it rest and cool down the stalling problem goes away. Could my Ingition Coil be going bad once it gets hot? The car starts right up again but stalls every time I push in the clutch and idles down. Today driving home the stalling problem stopped after I reach about 7000 feet above sea level and it was stalling constantly when I was at the mile high around 5280 feet above sea level.

Can another sensor be going bad that does not light my check engine light?


This is an intermittent problem that resurfaced today after about 150 miles of driving. The car has plenty of spark to each cylinder.

Any ideas what could cause an intermittent stalling problem?

Thanks

Joe

 

Joe,

I had a similar problem with my '96 2.5 V6 with 183k miles. It ran fine until hot, then stalled and would not restart. It would restart after cooling down. I narrowed it down to ECU or crankshaft sensor or camshaft sensor and tied in some test leads for the next time it failed to start. I found it was the crankshaft sensor, replaced it, and that was it.

My local parts guys told me MOPAR ECUs have reputations of going bad, but I was relieved it was not the ECU.

I noticed your thread sat unreplied for several days. I have one w/ no replies. I don't know if it's because no one reads, or no one cares. Either way, it sucks.

I hope my suggestions help. It sounds like you have a lot of bases covered already.

 

Thanks for the reply,

I am beginning to think my ECU needed to readjust it's self to the new parts and I had a bad tank of gas at this point.

The EGR was replaced about 2 weeks before the stalling problem started happening. I filled my tank up at a gas station I never use. Then the stalling problem started to happen. The engine did require Timing belt replacement because it was at 176,000 miles on the original and the stealer ship showed me the bad parts. Broken Timing belt tension assembly, Rocker Arm that was very much chewed away by the foreign bolt that became lodged in it. I declined the extra $1500 bucks of work they wanted to perform by pulling the head and checking the valves internally. First question I asked does it run after the timing belt replacement? They said yes and I told them to put my engine back together after that.

The car after 2Fuel SystemCleaner applications and 3 tanks of fuel later it has not stalled in last4 days.

Check engine light has not lit up again and I checked my gas mileage at the last fill up I am still getting 32 MPG.

Thanks

Joe

 

Just got done tracking down a similar problem in my car. Stall after ~30 minutes of driving, no restart until it cools off.... yeah....It was the crank shaft position sensor. Unfortunately, I ended up replacing plugs and wires and the cam shaft sensorfirst becuase the crank shaft sensor isexpensive ($60+).

You usually won't get a MIL codewith the crank shaft sensor until "the fail count exceeds 200 in 2 consecutive trips" or something like that. I did, but only after my car died twice.

If after stalling the car won't restart or stay running until after you let it cool off, it's probably one of the sensors related to ignition timing.

 

My 2.0 L Stratus engine has not stalled in 4 days now of hard highway running and surface street driving. It drove me nuts for entire week after I had the engine work done.

It is back to it's normal self again and runs strong. This little engine has taken more abuse over the 10 years I have owned it but has always been well mantained. Oil changes every 4 to 5 thousand miles. Air Filter changes every 7,000 to 10,000 miles.

This engine is back to it's normal self again afterthat week ofhaving parts replaced and still leaks oil because that is what this engine does because of adesign flaw.

I am back to running 32 MPG and no stalling then dumping a quart of oil inthe engine every 1000 miles.