I have a 2000 dodge stratus, 2.5L. Long story short- dug into it to replace the water pump- put it all back together and it wouldn't start (never had a problem starting before). The battery had completely died for a while apparently, so we charged it back up, gave it a jump- still wouldn't start. Turns out we weren't getting spark. So we replaced the spark plugs and did a full tune up on it. Still no start. Tested the distributor, it was bad, so we replaced that. It started! However very, very roughly and only if we gave it throttle. And the only way it will idle is if we give it constant throttle and it's very rough. Soon as we left off the throttle, it dies. Checked for codes- came back as the TPS was bad. However, we tested it, and it tested out fine. Checked for codes again and now it's giving us P1297 I believe is what it is. Looked that up and it's saying the map sensor is bad or possibly the ECM. Doesn't make sense though... What could it possibly be? Considering it gave us a code for the TPS and that tested out fine, we don't understand what could be going on... Help? Suggestions? Ideas? Anything? Been working on this thing for 2 months now, we can't figure out what's going on...

 

I had to replace water pump and timing belt 15 months ago nothing but problems since (2003 Stratus 2.4 DOHC SDN) recently had to replace water pump again but this time replaced the the tensioner as well running better but still rough idle and trouble with cold start..replaced coil, wires, plugs, fuel injection cleaner, air filter,ignition wire,cleaned throttle.. seems like a common problem with dodge

 

It's not a common problem. If the car is fixed right, the valves won't get bent and the timing will be correct and they won't run like crap.


On the 2.5....if you let one of the cams move while the belt is off, you will bend a valve or 2 or 3.

 

Can also be a tooth off on either cam, which will cause it to run like crap.
I would look into timing, your issue is likely in the cam timing.