My daughter had to call me from the side of the road, where she had pulled off because her Stratus (96 2.4L) had overheated. She said that she didn't drive very far when she saw it was hot, but she said it started "jerking and making funny noises" before she found a place to pull off. When I got there about 30 minutes later it had mostly cooled down, and it took quite a bit of water to refill it. It was very hard to start - we had to crank it for quite a while before it finally started and I was able to drive it home (about 5 miles). She followed me and said that it was making a lot of white smoke.

Since then I have been trying to figure out what all might be wrong with it. When I first tried to start it at home, it again took a bunch of cranking to start - a lot of trying to catch, but it took about 30 seconds of constant cranking before it finally started. The check engine light was on, and the code I read indicated a problem in the Cam Position sensor. I replaced it, and was able to clear the code, but the Check Engine light is still on with no stored codes.

Once it gets started it seems to run at idle OK, but it will start to overheat after about 2 or 3 minutes of running. I have yet to see either of the two cooling fans come on no matter the temperature. I checked the 40 amp fuse for the fans and it is OK, and I checked both high and low speed fan relays and they seem to be all right.

However, it won't hold water. Either during cranking or running I noticed significant water spilling on the ground, and I hear a gurgling sound from the passenger side of the engine compartment both when running and stopped. I thought maybe a hose was gone, but all hoses check out OK, and I finally traced down the source of the water to the overflow container. It seems that the cooling system is pressurized during cranking, running, and immediately after stopping (I see a lot of bubbling in the overflow tank) and the water draining comes from the outlet that drains just ahead of the right wheel.

So, my first thought is the head gasket. The hard starting may be from water leaking into the cylinders, and the same leak may be pressurizing the cooling system (although it must be a hell of a leak). The head gasket doesn't necessarily scare me - I replaced it last year about this time because of oil leaks; and although I had to take two weeks vacation from work to do it, it went OK and the car has run great up until now. So if I have to, I guess I can do it again. It should go faster this time since I know what I'm doing now.

What I'm wondering is what other possibilities could there be? Is there anything else that could be at fault that I haven't thought of checking? I suspect if the block was cracked I would see water draining from the engine somewhere, and as far as I can tell there is no water coming from the engine, the radiator, or any hoses - it all seems to be coming out of the overflow. I just want to have some other opinions before I tear back into this car.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Dave

 

head gasket!!!

block wont crack but the head sure will.

water pump prolly crapped out.

 

Thanks for the response. Water pump probably isn't the problem because it was replaced just last year when I did the head gasket. New timing belt and valve stem seals too since I was in there. Looks like I get to do it all over.

 

sorry for stating the water pump... and I was suppose to know that you replaced it--how??????