Ok, I know the stratus isnt THE most fuel efficient car on the planet, but i seriously think there is something wrong with my car. I have a 2005 stratus R/T Sxt (it says both on the car, so im assuming its both? maybe im wrong) and i dont know how big the gas tank is on it, i believe its like 16.5 gallons or something? But my car is only getting about 175 miles to a FULL tank. And this car supposedly gets 20 mpg city. So i have no idea whats going on. I JUST had the spark plugs changed thinking that maybe that was it, but it just made my gas mileage worse. Like a week ago i was stopped at a stop light and the car started shaking, and so i put it in neutral and put it back into drive and it eventually stopped. There was a cylinder one misfire also like a month ago but i havent had a problem with that since. Other than that the car runs fine. Does anyone out there know what i should do? I Love my car, but im not about to keep it if its only going to get 175 miles to a tank. So if anyone can help please do. Thanks

 

Is there a check engine light ???
The cylinder 1 misfire was that a code ???
Were there any other codes???
When my gas mileage tanked I bought 1 O2 sensor and started swapping till my mileage went back up to noral ...

 

The cylinder 1 misfire was a code, and i have one of those scanguage 2 computers always in my car, so my friend just said it dosent need to be fixed and cleared the code so i have no idea whats code it actually threw. Other than that it hasnt thrown any codes since and everything has been fine except the gas mileage. The check engine light went on, but it hasnt been on since the misfire, so i assumed it basically just happened and isnt that big of a deal? So basically what your saying is just change the o2 sensor and see what happens. My friend who works on cars (hes an expert on gm, so dodges with mitsubishi engines arent really his strong point) He said that i should change the distributor because it has a magnito instead of an ignition coil? he said he isnt sure but thats what he saw when he changed the spark plugs.

 

Don't know about the 2005 R/T, but my 02 has 4 o2 sensors. You'll probably be changing more than 1 by the time everything is said and done

 

i get 20 around town, and ive gotten as high as 29 all highway.

 

I have the 2006 SXT 4 Spd Auto with 65K miles.

I can't believe how low my mileage is either! I am getting 17 local to at best 23.5 with 90% Interstate driving! should be turning 30 at least, I expected 32. That is what my old 91 Spirit did with the 4 banger engine.

I just changed plugs and gained almost 2 MPG. That's how I went up from the 17-20 local into the 20 -23 mixed. Plugs in it looked like originals and were burned open to 048-052! Supposed to be 040. Ran a little rough that way.

I know O2 sensors usually aren't cheap, had one go out on spirit too.
Usually they show codes of some kind once and awhile I thought?

 

yes..typically an O2 sensor issue will throw a CEL, since its emission related..