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Dodge: stalling 2000 dodge stratus, dodge stratus, newer cars


Question
"We have a '00 dodge stratus with 100k miles and we have been to to different dealerships with no help. They have ran the diagnostics and they say we have a great car. The second place did replace the fuel pump (badly burnt by the way - surprised the car didn't blow up), fuel filter, and did a transmission flush.

The problem: When the car is put in reverse it stalls and dies if you hit the gas, or if you have it in reverse and put in in drive with pushing the gas it stalls/dies. However, if you just let it do its thing and not push on the gas right away, it is okay most of the time. Before we had it to the second dealership, it would kind of do a stall/bounce when you were going a steady speed over 55.

With now $500 put into it, we only got it to stop stalling/bouncing at a steady speed. No one can figure out what is wrong with it.

I just got off the phone with another dealership/mechanic and he says it could be the idle control sensor/motor or it could need an update with the pcm/tcm software. However, if this is true, then why doesn't the diagnostics show what the heck is going on.

Our back windows will not roll down anymore either.

The brakes are another story (no matter how many times you have them replaced, as soon as you get 3000k miles on them, they squeel like a pig --- and always have since we first got the car with 17 miles on it).

Other than that, the car has been great.

thank you for your time.

Crystal

Answer
Crystal,
The first problem with the diagnostics check is because the machine will not pick up on any faults because your car is equipped with a computer.When there is a problem with the car the computer sets a code.This will make the check engine light come on,if your engine light is not on then the machine will not detect any problems.As far as the update this could be a very good place to start!But on the newer cars as unfortunate as it is it seems you are just going to have to let a dealer go through it and just check things and it will get expensive.I would try the update,it sounds like it is the problem.