QuestionI have a 98 Stratus (88,000 mile) with a 4 Cyl DOH Cam engine and was wondering how I go about replacing the spark plugs? The dealer told me they had to remove the Overhead Cam, but I removed a plug wire and can see the plug.
Also I am having a problem with the car spitting and sputtering when excelerating. Car idles fine AT ALL times, never conks out and I have added gas treatments to the gas. As long as you are not attempting to excelerate, the car runs fine. Clogged injector or bad fuel filter?
Thanks for you help.
AnswerHi Jeffrey,
The dealer may have thought you have the V-6 which for the rear three plugs requires removing part of the intake plenum. As far as I can tell by the manual the plugs on your engine come out without any special dismantling.
On the acceleration problems, changing the plugs is the first possibility, then the fuel filter might be clogged, then we get into engine control issues:injector driver circuit, throttle position sensor, evap system or egr valve issue. The best way to sort out the latter is by getting a readout from the engine computer memory of any fault codes it may have logged that would indicate where to start looking. Before '96 you could turn the ignition key "on=off=on=off=on" (taking no more than 5 seconds for the action, and "on" is just to the run position not the starter motor position) and then watch the check engine light to start blinking, pause, blinking, pause, etc. Count the number of blinks, group them in pairs to form two digit numbers and those are the codes. Give that a try as some models have that feature and some don't. If not then you will have to go to a shop with a code reader and have them do it (advertised around me at $40) or buy a code reader (minimum about $100). It plugs in under the dash. So once you get the codes, we can move on from there as I have the troubleshooting manual for your engine.
Roland
