Hello all, I work in Secondary Finance at a Full Line Chevrolet Dealership. I traded for a 98 Dodge Stratus ES today that I am thinking of purchasing to replace the 91 Accord I'm using for a daily driver. This car has 2.5 V-6, Autostick with 161K miles on the clock....My customer is the 2nd owner (I think) and did a lot of highway driving. I'm just trying to get an of where to start as far as PM items and some help with a few problems I noticed when I drove the car.

1. Back Doors will not open from the outside. The guy told me he paid like $250 bucks to have the problem corrected and 3 months ago it has reappeared.

2. HVAC only blows on High. I figure it is Blower Motor Reisistor or the Motor itself (Had same problem with a 98 Concorde I used to have)

3. Front end rattles going over bumps....From my experience it doesn't sound like typical "Strut Noise"

4. When Shifting in Autostick Mode from 3rd to 4th there is a slight jerk. I've read where the 1st gen Neon has very weak Motor and Transmission mounts was just curious if the 1st gen Stratus has the same problem.

The fluids look Suprisingly Clean for a car with this kinda mileage. I drove it on my lunch and showed one of my buddies at another lot. I had him rev the motor to about 3500rpm and didn't see any smoke. He made the comment as to how quiet the engine was idiling.

I have to do a very thurough clean-up but the paint looks like it will clean up very nicely, interior is dirty but not abused. I know it needs a windshield and at least front brake pads. My question is How reliable is the 2.5 V-6 and is the Autostick Transmission a good tranny. I'm getting the car at a deep discount $900 dollars and plan on spending a little money to get it back up to shape....Any advice or help would be appreciated


Thanks
George

 

Front end rattles going over bumps....tie rod ends?
Just replaced them on my 01

 

have an 02 se with a 2.7, lived in germany (autobahn)for the last 3 years (back stateside now), car has about 53K on it now.

1. have you checked the kid locks on the back doors? if they keep going to lock by themselves you could just diconnect them if you have no need.

2. very common, resistor most likley. had it done on mine.

3. mine does too. cry dealer (germany don't have dodge) said it was part of the exhaust header and wanted LOTS of $$. still makes noise.

4. no idea, might just need a new filter or a band adj. GO WITH THE BAND ADJ FIRST.

from reading this and other forums as well as listening to old people talk, these are my thoughts about changing AT fluid on a high mile car.

a. all oils have a detergent package in them (eng and atf). like a bar of soap they get used up. in an ATX (auto trans axle), after the soap is all gone, sluge starts to build up inall the nooks, cracks, crannies, and cornners. the built up sludge that does break free gets caught by the filter or is too small to cause a prob. once you change the filter (meaning you drained alot, but not all of the ATX fluid), you just added more soap to the tranny. now all that "sludge" that has built up is getting washed away. the only place beside the filter it has to go is the valves and other small holes that MAY (talk to the guys in the serv dept about this) get plugged up.

like said this is what"I" think (and i've been drinking), hope it helps, good luck.