I have an 04 stratus with the 2.7 dohc. It was leaking oil when I bought it a few months ago, but just barely.Now it is like pouring it out. It just barely drips when its parked, but when I start it up it is like pouring out. I mean pouring as in running for 2 minutes loses a half a quart of oil. My Dad thinks its the oil pan gasket. What are some other oil leaks that occur on these engines? How tough is it to change the oil pan gasket? Thanks for any info.

 

sorry to here about the leak (have you checked to see if your car has the extended powertrain coverage, even though you may not have signed up for it?).

some places it COULD be leaking from are: oil drain plug, oil pan, oil filter, valve cover. these are fairly easy to get to. the first thing i would do is get the car up on jacks so you have enough room to crawl under. clean the motor of all dirt and grime so you can tell where the oil is leaking from. you could get lucky and find out it's just a loose filter or drain plug. everything listed above can be done on the vehicle, it just won't be all that fun.

other, less fun, places that could be leaking: head gasket/s, camshaft seals, front crankshaft seal, (cringe) rear crankshaft seal. if you get into these i'd recomend you get a shop manual, you would be able to go through the task/s a few times to familarize yourself with all the parts and stuff needed to avoid running back and forth to the parts store with your motor in pieces (never happens to me don't you know).

with the way your leak acts i would not think it to be the drain plug or oil pan. although you do have a static leak, it gets very bad when the oil system is under pressure.check it out as you may have more than one leak. i have seen in the past (after an oil change) oil filter gaskets left on (stuck to) the block. when the new filter and gasket get installed a leak gets worse and worse as the filter will start to get looser.

good luck and let us know what you find out.