i just bought a 2002 dodge stratus. and it ran really good when i test drove it...but 3 days later as i signed the papers and drove it away all types of junk is going on. i dont know what to do. my bf knows alittle about cars (i do not, you can tell by my wording threw all this) and we checked the codes that came up on the check engine thing (which we did before i bought the car and found it was just 2 sensors and the price was ok to still get it and afford to fix them). but now a whole bunch are on there...P1684, 122, 106, 1598, 1496, 1684, and another one i cant remember. they all do not come on at the same time, they pick n choose when they wanna show up. we brought it to autozone or somewhere and he said (with his trusty lil comp thing in hand) that all that comes up is an o2 sensor and some throtle thing. which we fixed...the codes have not gone away and others pop up when they want like i said. so basically i have no idea what to do because i have just spent all my $$ on this piece....can anyone help?????????
nic

 

I'm not an expert but I'm just offering my opinion having had a 1g stratus for 6 years. There could be a short of somekind or the ecu itself my be the causing the problem. Also check for loose grounds. I'm not sure what codes those are that you listed but start by tracking down what each code refers to. you should be able to look the codes up in a haynes manual. pick it up at your local pepboys, autozone or strauss(that advertisement was for free. wont happen again,lol). knowing these codes will help you narrow your search down. but, if all of these codes are popping up randomly, I would check for a general problem that may be causing it before starting to change every nut and bolt.

 

thanks..we did and have been looking up the codes. we changed all th original codes that were there like i said. now others are popping up (randomly). like today we are getting...P0122, P0123, P1598..and so on. my bf says he will look at the wiring today but thats a long shot. tanks again...

 

Was the car bought from a dealership or private seller? I would take it back and have them check the car out and fix whatever it is or get my money back.

My gf wasted close to $4000 on her mazda 626 in just repairs because of the check engine light being on. the dealer told her it was the tranny, then a mechanic told her that it was the idle air controller, then the lot that she bought it from said that it could be the alarm system,lol. then we went back to the dealer and they said it was the cat converter. this all before I got into fixing cars myself. After we spent $3500 on fixing all of those things we took the car to my fathers mechanic and found out that the problem was an o2 sensor. $40 and the check engine light never came on again. spent an additional $3500 on top of the $5000 that was paid for the car. If you have the option to give the car back you might want to do that before you dump tons of money into a problem car.

 

i called the dealer i bought it from and hes sending the mechanic over to my house. i am going to try and see if they will just let me switch to a different car (i dont even want another from them...but hey what am i going to do) i actually contacted one of the previous owners (she left reciepts in the car) and she said she traded it in to a honda dealer and they told her the car was so far gone it would never be sold to anyone again (they coulda just been ripping her off on trade in value, but idk) i have in the past day 1/2 put over 200$, time, and called outta work today and might loose my job because of this car...
again, thanks for all your help!
nic