Dodge Repair: 98 stratus dash smoking, daimler chrysler, piece of crap


Question
QUESTION: My husband noticed that my hi beams were not turning on by pulling control towards you, only when you hold the control in place. At any rate, we changed the hi beams and they still won't work on their own. I drove my daughter to the bus stop this morning and had the normal lights on and it started smoking around the steering column. I shut the car off but it still continued to smoke, I though it was going to catch on fire...I could smell rubber & wire burning. There have been alot of dash fires in these vehicles but it seems to do with power steering which I believe was a faulty hose and was something I replaced under a recall years ago. I believe my problem is with a module or something in the light control but hey that's why I'm asking you. Any ideas?

ANSWER: remove some of the dash stuff where u saw it smoke and look to see what has melted.

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QUESTION: We ended up doing that and it was the blower resistor for the millionth time...so lucky that thing didn't catch the car on fire...I don't know who's fault it is for the  part, mopar for making it or dodge for knowing the difference. At any rate, they both get an "F" for that piece of crap car that they threw together blindfolded and radomly picked parts out of a hat...I want to feel sorry for Chrysler that they are going bankrupt but they haven't felt bad about the throw away vehicles that they sold to everyone and made the consumers go bankrupt..."what goes around comes around". It's all of the consumers time to watch Daimler Chrysler go down like they let all their customers do with the crap vehicles they produced...
Thanks!


ANSWER: first of all  Chrysler does not make the parts  just like every car maker they have people build it for them. Now having said that U have for the 4th time replace the resistor  U now get to replace the resistor  and also replace the blower motor  that is what is causing the resistors to fail  not a defect in the part itself  but a result of the blower motor drawing to many amps and the resistor is the weakest link in there.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Third blower motor, 4th resistor, anything else? I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you knew about all the problems associated with the Stratus and many other Dodge/Chrysler Vehicles. Just search "problems with dodge stratus" on the internet and be ready to read forever, I'm not kidding.
I believe you are a great mechanic but I don't think replacing a blower motor & resistor twice in the same year and again in less than three months and a resistor again in less than six months is going to solve the problem with parts that have not functioned properly to begin with and are constantly being replaced with the same faulty parts over and over again...something just isn't right about that. I'm not the only person who has had this problem and you are not the only mechanic that has told me to replace the blower motor & resistor.

Best of luck to you dear.

Answer
I own a 98 Concorde  I went through 3 resistors and then a blower motor. Plus I see it a few times at the dealer. As for knowing all the issues with all the cars  that's impossible  I know alot of the issues and I fix alot of the issues.  that kinda statement is like asking a DR know know everything about ever person that walks in the door right on the first time.
U also never said a thing about replacing the blower motor itself already  did U use cheap aftermarket one or one from a  dealer?
Most of the time the aftermarket ones are universal for different cars  so if the motor is drawing to many amps  it will nuke the resistor  like I said  either a bad one  or one that just uses to many amps will do the same thing.


if u want this issues to really be taken care of  have a good electrical guy do an amp draw test with the motor running. If it is with in spec then U could be looking at faulty under gauged wires. Now from that some one might have changed them out b4 u got the car if U are the second owner.