Hey there!

My name is Nick, from Columbus Ohio.

My father just purchased an 04 Dodge Stratus 4 cylinder automatic today, but it has a few problems that I'd like to fix and was hoping you guys could help me out.
He will be picking the car up next week so I don't have it with me to take any pictures, just words to explain the problems.

The first of 3 problems, the AC doesn't work. I've been told that the unit doesn't rotate at all, it just seized. Now I've never looked into an engine bay of a stratus, but is this run by the same belt as the power steering? If so, that leads me to problem #2, the power steering doesn't work. Not sure if the actual pump is broken, but there was a lot of liquid around the area. I'm hoping it's just a leak that can be patched or something tightened to stop it. Are there any common problems with the power steering?

The third problem is the heat doesn't work, but only on the driver side. My first guess was the blend door not being connected properly or broken. Would I be correct to assume this as the problem? Couldn't be the heater core being plugged because heat still works on the passenger side. Never seen this problem before, so any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading and for any assistance. Once I get the car in my driveway I will be able to answer more detailed questions once I get to look at it myself.

 

lets start with blend door could be out of calibration(common problem on 2nd generation stratus's),1st thing to try go to fuse box inside drivers doors think its fuse # 5 should be a cover over it that you have to remove to get tp it take fuse out for 10 minutes(or you can unhook negative battery terminal for 10 minutes), replace fuse or rehook battery start car let run for 5 minutes ,check see if that helps.
the a/c belt(runs a/c ,alternator) and pwr steering are seperate belts. what doesn't rotate the whole thing or just the clutch part?haven't heard of any problems with power steering, could be bad pump,hose(loose or leaking),gear box

 

Thank you for the reply, Bill.

I will try the fuse trick once I get the car over here and see if that helps. I'm hoping it's electronic controlled (literally have not seen the car myself, just been told. I don't think it's dual climate control) and that will fix the problem. If not, seems like I got a big job on my hands, based on reading around.

I will have to get back to you on the AC problem once I get the car. You said that the PS is not run on the same belt as the AC, that just seems like a whole new can of problems that I hope I can figure out. Once again, when I get the car I will be able to tell you a lot more about it and give it a deep inspection to see what the problem is.

Thanks

 

Got the car last night and took a proper look at it today. The AC compressor is run on the same belt as the power steering. It looks like the crank has a double pulley on it, and the further out slot has the power steering and AC in line with it. Bought a new belt, but haven't connected it yet.

I tried taking the #5 fuse out, looked like the window defrost fuse, 30A (is this correct?) but no luck in fixing the blend door problem. Looks like I'm going to have to get into the console and check it out for myself.

As for the AC/PS problems, I'm going to check to see if there is any refrigerant left in the AC lines, and if not, then that explains how it got seized up. I also cleaned out the area with degreaser and what not, and it looks like the PS leak is just coming out of the low pressure hose on top of the canister.

Picking up an AC manifold gauge set and vacuum pump tomorrow as well, and will shop around for new AC units if this one is in fact no good. I'm hoping that it just has no refrigerant in it and that it isn't broken/seized.

Open to suggestions of other things to try.

Also, I noticed that this car has Mitsubishi stickers all over it. Leads me to believe that was during the DSM era for Chrysler and Mitsubishi, and I think the engine is a 4G64 so perhaps I'll go onto a Mitsubishi forum as well to see if anybody knows of similar problems in other cars.