98 Dodge Stratus - Leaking Head Gasket, Worth Fixing?

These engines had a manufacturing defects with the head gaskets. Chrysler knows it, because they had issued a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) to their dealers about it. HOWEVER they are too damm cheap to fix it for their consumers by way of a recall. I suggest youcall Chrysler headquarters and complain LOUDLY and may be they will have their dealer fix it for no charge or share the cost with you.

My 1998 Stratus did the same thing at 53,000 mi. This was a common problem with the 2.0 and 2.4 litre engines until an updated multi-layered steel (MLS) gasket was introduced midway though the 1999 model year. I decided to have mine fixed, since the car was in good shape otherwise. I also figured that the car would have diminished resale value with a blown gasket.

If you decide to have it repaired, make certain that the shop uses the correct Chrysler made gasket with the recommended sealer. The price they quoted you is consistent with what I paid. It is a labor intensive procedure.

I bought my Stratus when it was a year old. I purchased a third-party extended warranty that covered most of the repair costs.

According to a Chrysler repair tech that I spoke with, the new gasket will solve the problem so long as the surfaces are properly cleaned, and the gasket is installed according to the instructions supplied with the gasket.

-Kirk Matheson

Again, Recalls are for SAFETY issues, not defects in the car.

My 87 Plymouth Reliant never had a blown head gasket, (got wrecked at 12 yrs old, 150 k miles on it) but I remember my friend's Toyota truck having one.

Chrysler did have a head gasket problem with the 95 to 98 1/2, 2.0 and 2.4 L engines. Neons, Breezes, Stratus's all had the problem. Lots of people were able to get it fixed with Chrysler footing the bill for all or most of the costs, it they had 80 to 100k miles or less on the car. Sometimes Chrysler refused to help at all-- it seemed to be whatever dealer you went to and how they felt that day. It doesn't cost anything to ask, but for a 6 year old car, I'd be surprised if Chrysler helped out much.

Good Luck SRG

My brother sold his Toyota Tercel with over 200K miles to a mechanic. It did NOT burn any oil either.

My fatherinlaw is still driving his 1990 Toyota Camry without any problems.

BUT my wifes Voyager gave out after 40K miles same head gasket problem.

Great, my Reliant didn't burn any either, and, as I said, another car wrecked it, otherwise I would have made 200k miles as well.

Great, lets give him a cookie!

Same problem? I have no doubt it had a blown headgasket, but we were discussing the 2.0 and 2.4 L Chrysler engines from 95 on in their "Cloud" cars. I mean, you could also bring up 70's Ford Pintos exploding, or how about VW Bugs rusting out until people literally fell through the floor. (European by the way). Or MY Grandma's 1991 Camry that leaked oil, no matter what they did??

Forgive me, I didn't realize that there was some sort of slavery in the US now, Or, is there a gun to your head? Divorce the wife, pack up and move to Europe or Japan and enjoy the automobiles in their native setting.

Now, give your Father-In-Law his cookie, and ask him why his daughter forces you to put up with those BAD American cars!!!

SRG

Yes..fix it...and ask Chrysler for "goodwill" help with the cost. It's still should have many more miles in it...at least another 73K miles (assuming good maintenance habits during its life).

The head gasket on my 97 Stratus (2.4L) went at 80K miles. I had it fixed and it is still running great at 166,000 miles.

I'm trying to resist calling this a silly question. Of course its worth fixing- could you possibly replace the car for $700 to $1000? NO. Could you sell it for anything like its actual value with the gasket leaking? NO. Is changing a head gasket a huge job? NO.

I've kept all my Chrysler products to at least 200k, so unless you can drive over 130,000 miles in a year... :-)

The whole problem is that some key folks retired from Chrysler Engineering in the early 90s, and then they started designing cheap engines like the Japanese imports do. Soft alloy heads without enough head bolts, interference engines timed with belts, etc. The 2.4

4-cylinder and the 2.7 V6 are particularly Honda-esque. Or maybe the 2.7 is more Toyota-esque, since its problem is that it cooks its oil to sludge like Toyota engines do. Fortunately they got bit hard, and the newer engines like the 4.7, 3.7, and 5.7 seem very solid. The 3.2 and 3.5L v6 engines were/are good as well, and the 3.3/3.8 in the minvans were some of the last designs from the good days.

Steve - Having said that, why would DC design in the 2.7L as the baseline engine in some of their new vehicles? Has the root cause of the problems been fixed, or are they stupider than a box of rocks (or believe that their customers are)? I've asked this before, but apparetnly no-one is in the know on this - hopefully one of these times, someone who knows for sure will post an answer.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

I don't have a CLUE. You've obviously proved that the 2.7 isn't universally bad, it just has a bad tendency that can show up under certain conditions and maybe statistically they feel that it is "reliable enough." And they may well have gotten it fixed in later versions.

But this isn't unique- look how long GM has held onto the 3.4L v6 despite its numerous problems (and how many millions of cars it is in that have had NO problems). Ditto the whole Ford Modular v8 family- Ford has spent a ton of time effort and cash into upgrading them to get rid of high failure rates. And I'm not just slamming Toyota and Honda either- they've both kept very questionable designs in production for years and years at a stretch- particularly Honda. They were fixing head gaskets for free 5 of 10 years before Chrysler engines even started having an abnormal number of head gasket problems.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'll invest getting her fixed. Trying to see if DC will help out since this is a known issue. But I'm not expecting too much help. But will post the results of my conversations.

MP