I bought a used 05 Stratus with 41,500 miles on it. I've noticed two things with it, both somewhat nebulous:

1. When moving at a speed over about 25-30 mph when the steering wheel is moved right as in steering into a curve the road noise becomes louder, the tighter the turn and the higher the speed the louder the noise. Two mechanics have looked at the front suspension and can see nothing wrong. As soon as the wheel is moved from center position to the right the noise can be heard.

2. There is a whine heard inside the car when accelerating up to about 28 mph, then it goes away. The transmission shifts smoothly up and down. The whine seems louder when the car is cold, less when it is warm.

This is an SXT with the 2.7L engine. Other than these two questions it is a nice car, gets 26 mpg combined city/highway and great handling and acceleration!

Thanks for your help.

 

Welcome to DF
1st problem sounds like either a wheel bearing or a drive axle. 2nd problem, check the fluid level in the transmission. If its full then the front pump maybe causing the whinning sound. It may get worse as time goes on.

 

The 2.7 appears to have a tranny whine...don't know if it's across the board but I have done some searching and the word whine seems to pull up a lot of the 2.7L Stratuses.

 

I noticed a whine on some back when I got mine. Mine does not do this even after 60k of abuse. Its sitting on 106k and hasn't been babied since I got it at 44k.

 

That is good to hear! I really like this car even though it has some quirks. There is no heat/ac from the floor vents and when it is below 65F the rear suspension make a schrunching noise going over speed bumps. When it warms up outside it goes away. I'm guessing something in the rear struts. I heard another Stratus do the same thing the other day so it must be something with the car that they all do.

The car gets an honest 26MPG on the freeway at 70 MPH and 20 MPG around town. Best $8k I've spent in awhile!

 

I just did my whole suspension found broken rear strut mount that was causing all the noise in the cold.
Mine is modded, but I average around 30mpg, and I'm not nice to it. We've pulled over 34mpg running all highway.
Its a blast, quick, handles awesome now (B&G coils, KYB struts).

 

I just bought an '05 Stratus having owned a '96 for awhile. My only complaint about this vehicle is when going into Drive after being parked for a bit, the steering is choppy in either direction, almost as if there is a wheel-lock on, but once you get going it is fine. Drives smooth and steering/handling is tight. Any ideas?

 

slipping power steering belt?

 

Expensive repair?

 

If its just a slipping belt no. I would check to see that its tight, otherwise your pump could be getting bad, could be low on fluid, or other things.