My wife was driving the Stratus yesterday (2003 2.4 DOHC) and it died. We towed it home and I checked the codes and the cam position sensor was showing bad, so I replaced it. Still would not start. I checked spark and I am not getting spark. So I decided to read on here a bit and got some information. I pulled timing cover back a bit and marked to belt, turned over the ignition a couple of times and the mark did not move. I then marked the belt on the alternator and it moved. I am assuming the timing belt is broken, so I checked the compression on each cylinder and the showed as follows -

#1 - 60
#2 - 0
#3 - 90
#4 - 0

I have never check compression before so I am not 100% sure I did it right. I screwed the tester into the spark plug hole and turned the motor over a couple of times.

Do I have the motor that destroys the pistons/valves when the belt goes? If the timing belt is bad does this cause the motor to lose spark? How difficult is it to replace the timing belt?

Please let me know if you need any other information to help my figure this out! Thanks in advance for the help!

Brian

 

Welcome to DF
From what i am reading,looks like you have a broken timing belt.

 

Thank you. Can you tell me if I have the interference motor? I am finding conflicting information on the interwebs. Thanks for the help!

 

I have the same car and motor and yes it is an interference engine, the valves will hit the piston if the belt brakes.

 

I just change my Timming belt and I had the cams 160 degree out. when I hand cranked the motor it rotated a half a turn then stoped, I couldn't turn it any more. When I alighned the mark on the cams I was able to rotate the engine by hand freely, defnitly an interference engine