My late husband drove my 1996 Dodge Stratus for a good two weeks while it was overheating, just adding water as needed. We have changed, spark plugs(due to oil being in the holes), valve cover gasket, coil pack, cam shaft sensor, oxygen sensor, mass air flow sensor, & the oil pressure sensor. Hooked it up to a code reader after all were replaced & it is not giving any codes now, but still will not start. It acts like it wants to but will not fire over. We were having issue not getting spark from 2&3 plugs as well, not sure if that is fixed.. Wondering what the next step would be? I have had a suggestion that it could be timing off or timing belt, possibly warped head or bent valves as well. Where to begin?
RESPONSE
Assuming the car did not start to begin with, if it did you may need to re-check your work. As with any no start situation it is necessary to determine what is missing. Once you know what the engine is not getting you can dig deeper into that particular area and repair as needed. For my money I would double check the spark plug gap(they can get smashed together if dropped) on all spark plugs and confirm spark. Then I would see if some starting fluid sprayed into the air filter would allow the engine to start. If not, I would move to the compression test. Loss of compression can be from a blown head gasket caused by overheating or a broken timing belt.
What an Engine Needs to run
- Spark
- Fuel – Fuel Pressure and Fuel Injector Pulse
- Compression – What is a Compression test?
- Timing – All of the above at the right time