Hello everyone, I have just recently purchased a 2000 Dodge Stratus ES 2.5 V6. This is my first Dodge to own and I like it pretty good so far, but do have a few questions regarding it. First off, my car alarm was going off randomly, I just bought new batteries for the key fob so I am hoping this will fix that problem, but we will see. I have also had trouble with the first dome light( the one in between the driver and passenger sun visors) the button for the far leftmost light has stopped working and the only way for me to get the light to go off is by wedging something in between the light and the headliner of my car. If anyone knows how I can fix this, that would be great! I am more than likely going to install an aftermarket cd player in a few days to give it a little personal touch. I want to like this car very badly! Also if anyone knows of any common issues with this car that would be great if you could let me know! I look forward to posting on here and getting to know the Dodge side of the world.

 

It should be rock solid if you take care of it. Mine I sold with 180,000mi on it (didnt' feel like replacing the fuel pump and blower resister), and the person that bought it traded it in at just shy of 200,000mi (transmission was STARTING to slip!).

Your light switch issue is probably something a trip to the boneyard will fix. Just unclip the light holder and replace.

Check your door switches to make sure the dome lights aren't coming on when the car is off, as that could trip the alarm. Especially if it's an aftermarket alarm, and not a factory variety.

Common problems are nothing more than what you would expect for a 13-14yr old car. Gaskets/hoses in the engine bay may be dried out and cracking. This will result in leaking fluids or vacuum leaks. The gasket between the trans and the solenoid box may be leaking (easy to see trans fluid leaking between. As well as the valve cover gaskets being worn out. Leaking oil. Kinda a pain since the intake sits like a spider OVER the top of the engine and needs to be removed just to change spark plugs and wires. Which should be done if they have not been serviced in quite a while.

It's a 1.5 din opening, so make sure you get the proper mounting bracket for the radio. If you have the ES trim level, you may well have an amplifier under the passenger seat. You'll need to ensure you hook up the blue/white and blue wire to the amp turn on in the wire harness or you'll only have highs and no bass response. You'll know if you got it wrong

 

Thanks for the reply! How do I check the door switches? Are they just located inside of the driver side door panel? But yes I understand what you are saying about it being a pain just to change the spark plugs and plug wires! The two cars I had before this one were a Saturn and Volkswagen, both were 4 cylinder and pretty easy to work on. I was really hoping it would be a double din so I could watch movies while cruising down the road lol! I do have the ES model and boy is it nice on the inside!

 

The door switches are just little rubber plungers, there is a contact switch inside them that when the door is closed, it completes (or breaks) the circuit and turns the lights off. If the switch is faulty, or flakey, it will think the door is being opened by force when it's armed, setting off the alarm. You can pretty easilly test them, open a door, and press the plunger. If the lights fade out, than it's working. A flakey wire may be harder to diagnose though :-/

The other issue I had with it not being a double din, is how the shelf juts out above the radio. Can't even go with a flip out display, hits the lip and sits at about 60 degrees, instead of 90-100 degrees.

 

Thanks for the info! I will try and check the door switch today if it ever stops raining. That sucks about it hitting the shelf with a pop out cd player!

 

The dome lights fade out when I close my door, so I would imagine that the door switch is fine, but I will have to try the plunger with the door open as you have mentioned. I reaaaaaaaally hope its not a faulty wire, but if my alarm keeps randomly going off after I check the door switch, does anyone know if there is a fuse that I can just remove so that the alarm will be permantly disabled?

 

There is a plunger on each door...

Do you have the factory alarm, or an aftermarket one?

Aftermarket you should be able to disable fairly easilly (as per the manufacturer removal instructions), the factory one uses a skreem module that is tied into the ECU to disable the engine if it's been triggered. Not exactly an easy task. Keep an eye out for the dome light coming on for no reason. Also as a troubleshooting step, remove the negative battery terminal for a little while and see if that resets any of the computers.

 

I am not sure if it is an aftermarket or factory alarm. I bought it from an older couple so I would assume that it is a factory alarm, but I do not know if they had one installed or not though. And how long should I remove the ground wire on the battery for?

 

I found the plungers that you were speaking of and after opening each door and holding the plunger down the lights do fade off, so I guess that takes the door switches out of the equation. I wonder what else could be making the alarm go off randomly like that? It is starting to get very annoying.

 

Okay after going through my owners manual I have found out the the alarm light in the instrument cluster is supposed to flash rapidly fro 15 seconds and that if it doesn't flash that there is a problem in the trunk key cylinder circuit. Mine doesn't flash so I suppose that the problem I have been having with my alarm randomly going off lies in the trunk key cylinder circuit. However, I am not very sure what the manual means by "trunk key cylinder circuit" does it mean the actual trunk lock that you stick your key in to open the trunk? Or is it the trunk latch? The trunk lightbulb? The trunk lever switch on the side of the drivers seat? Please someone help!