Dodge stratus mysterious stall

[troy wilson]

Hello,

I own a 2001 Dodge stratus SE – 4 cylinder 2.4 DOHC – Front Wheel drive – Automatic – USA

A few weeks ago my car stalled while waiting in a McDonald’s drive thru. It would not start back up after several cranks so I called for a tow. I was told it would take 30 minutes before the tow truck driver got there. By the time he did get there the car started and ran fine for my 45 mile trip home. The very next day I was able to drive into work(45 miles) with no issue, but on the way back it stopped on me again in slow traffic. This time I decided to wait it out before calling for a tow and low and behold 30 minutes later it started again. From that point I decided to try replacing simple things like the spark plugs, air filter, and cleaning the throttle body. After doing so the car idled better than it had ever done since I owned the car(10 years). I was hoping that would resolve the issue, but it didn’t. The very next day during my drive to work it stopped on me, but this time the behavior was different. I tried twice to start it and on the second time it started with no issue and lasted for the rest of the day with no problems including the trip back home. All these random stalls happened while the car was idling and only one time each day. So I replaced the IAC thinking that might be the final piece to the puzzle, but it wasn’t. The other thing that is consistent with each stall is that the engine will exhibit a very rough idle almost like a quick rev and drop just before it dies. So my next thought is to check for vacuum leaks. All the videos I ‘ve seen suggest that you should test ahead of the MAP sensor, but as far as I know this car does not have a MAP sensor. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best places to test for vacuum leaks as well as any ideas in general?

Thank you!

Topic

[Its me]

A vacuum leak generally will cause increased RPMs.

Some suspects could be

Fuel delivery issue. Check by having a fuel pressure gauge on it and watch it when your stall/no start condition occurs.. or keep a gauge with you and hook it up when you have a no start condition..

Failing crank or cam position sensors. This will cause the fuel pump not to run. A bad crank sensor will show no rpms on your tach (if you have one) when cranking the engine..

Bad coil(s) These can be intermittent and fail when hot.

Can be many other smaller rarer things but these are the common ones… I would start with the fuel delivery issue. A bad fuel pump can run one minute then not the next, then run again later…

Karl

[Ole Eggers]

Does the engine light come on ?

Have you had a code reader on it ?

[troy wilson]

Thank you. I will have a mechanic look into the fuel delivery as that is a bit beyond my skill level.

Through all this the car has never displayed the check engine light. I did also replace the cam/crank sensors and the engine light did come on when one of those was accidentally left unconnected.

Thanks again!

[Author]

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