Hello everyone. This is just one sad story. My girlfriend and I needed a car in a bad, bad way. We had barrowed 1000.00 bucks and tried to buy a decent car. We found this 95 dodge stratus with 223,593 miles Yes! I know but it was slim pickens and we needed a car badly.
She took the car for a test drive and loved the power from the 2.5l v6.
The owners said it needed a new computer and the check engine light would go off. Actually the ABS, Check Engine, and Battery lights are all on when you start it and drive. So we payed for the car and started driving around Oakland getting on to the freeway. The car overheated....We felt like a couple of suckers who had just been taken...our life flashed before our eyes. You see If we dont get this car running we will become another statistic in the going homeless arena.
I know basic mechanics I mean I can build an engine from the NO Smog days and tune it up real nice. But these cars today with the computer and smog..Nope I lack the knowledge. We waited about 1/2 an hour and started it. It started right back up and sounded good.

We towed it home..

No oil in water......Good!
Oil level full...........Good!
Cooling fans do not work......Bad!
O.D.B. reader connection not working.....Bad
Tranny slips out of gear on a turn..........Bad
And engine stalls out sometimes.............Bad.

I have the transfer paper work paid up but need it to pass smog to get pink slip. and get my girl friend driving again to work.

As it is we are ingaged to be married but with out her car we are slipping down with little to no money to get out of this situation.

Can anyone help us get this car running...
Thanks the engaged couple.....

 

Welcome to DF
I will move your post to the stratus section.

 

As far as the ODBii port not working,

No oil in water......Good!
Oil level full...........Good! -- how about water in the oil?? Milky at all?
Cooling fans do not work......I would say the water pump is bad, even if the fans aren't running, at highway speeds there should be enough air flow to keep it cooled, as long as the coolant is flowing.
O.D.B. reader connection not working.....that's normal... it's a 95. The 95 is actually the older ODBi, with the ODBii PORT!. Most ODBii scanners don't know how to talk to the older computer.
Tranny slips out of gear on a turn..........broken axel or output shaft? Is is just left or right turns, or either direction?
And engine stalls out sometimes.............Could be any number of things from a gummed up O2 sensor, to just needing a tune up very badly.

 

Well Ratsttam. The water pump is fine. Once I got the car home I noticed it was low on water so I filled it. I have heard that sometimes these types of systems can get air pockets inside the engine so I removed the radiator cap filled it and notice that the water was circulating. This tells me the pump is working as it was not circulating when I opened it at first.

There was not water in the oil OR oil in the water so I am eliminating the head gasket at this point.
The fans are connected to the thermastat and are electronicly turned on when the temp reaches a set temp right?

I have checked all fuses and have found none that are bad. I really need to get this car to pass smog and be reliable of my girlfriend. Or we are out 1000 bucks and Ill have to sell it
for as much as I can..but we still owe 1000 bucks to our friend so Im at the end of my rope..

 

I think you just nailed the overheating on the head. What you should do is, with a cool engine, remove the radiator cap, than start the car. You should see it swirling. Stand back, if there is any air bubbles, those will gurgle out. Run it for about 5 minutes to make sure all the air is out of the system. Top it off with the proper mix of coolant. The air bubbles will "air lock" the coolant and prevent it from flowing freely. Running it with the cap off keeps the pressure down and allows those bubbles to move out of the system.

The fans are electronically controlled, and will come on when needed, even if the car has just been shut down (quicker cool down time).

The tranny slipping is the next big issue. I would do a pan drop and replace the trans fluid (use ONLY ATF+4, blue bottle at walmart works great!) and filter. They should not be much at all at the local parts store. Don't do a pressure flush at those quick lube places.

Can't say much about why it would only slip when turning, but you've got a lot of miles on it, and there could be worn parts in the drivetrain. May need to take some things apart to find out exactly what that is.

 

If you are trying to 'Burp' the system, it will help to have the radiator neck / cap as the HIGHEST point of the cooling system. IOW: Park the car with the front tires on a curb to allow the air bubbles to travel to that point. If the car isn't kept with the radiator neck as the highest point, you can trap air in other parts of the system (ie: heater core, etc...).

The most common cause for a trans to slip while cornering is low fluid level. As mentioned already, only top off with the CORRECT fluid.

-Ken

 

Good idea. At level, the radiator cap is the highest point with the 2.5v6 though, so riding it up onto a curb won't really be necessary in most cases.

 

Gotcha. I didn't know about his car specifically (I quit working for Dodge in 1994), so I spoke generally. Unfortunately, if the radiator cap is already the highest point, then I doubt that his car is air-bound. IOW: I don't think that burping his cooling system will fix his problem. I hope it does, for his sake, being that it'd be a simple and free repair. But I think that there are probably bigger issues with this car that will be hard to diagnose over the internet.

 

Your obd port will not work if the fuse is blown or missing for the cig lighter

 

As long as it's not under pressure (cap off), it'll burp. The channels are routed in a way that if it's under pressure the ups and downs in the block will actually airlock the fluid. Happened to mine when my fluid was low. I coasted, hit a pothole and it moved the airbubble, and the temp just dropped right back down. It did it a few more times that night, and the next day I had to add about 1/4g of fluid before it stopped burping and swirled in a stable fashion.

I do agree there are other issues here, but the overheating isn't one to be concerned about at this point. I'm more concerned about the slipping trans WHILE TURNING, that makes little sense to me why it would be doing that. But if the OP is handy but uneducated, we can help him quite a bit to get this road worthy. Judging by his situation, the cheapest (if even short term) solutions will be the most helpful.