1996 Dodge Stratus Wheel Shaking & Fuel Economy

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cwp587

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Hello everyone! I have a 1996 Dodge Stratus 4cyl 2.4L DOHC engine.

I've recently replaced all three motor mounts, but shaking in my car continues to be an issue. It's not TERRIBLE, but if you move your hand in the right position, you can hear your watch t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t. This ONLY HAPPENS when I idle. The car is amazing when driving, so there is no tire issue. The spark plugs are brand new, the air filter is great, and I just added a 20oz Techron bottle before fueling yesterday, so hopefully it will ease up on some of the shaking. It seems to worsen whenever I turn at low speeds--not sure what this means. I called a mechanic once, and he told me that it may be the torque converter (which sounds like a "I'm going to ream you of all your money").

With the fuel economy, I get about 16-18mpg city (I only drive city). According to others, they push about 21mpg average for city only driving. These others don't have the EXACT same car as me, but they have the replicas in Chrysler brand name (Plymouth for example). I got a suggestion to replace the O2 sensor for it becomes less accurate the older the car gets. Any more suggestions?

Thank you for trying to help!
 
Why'd you make a new post, the last one had plenty of info in it I thought?

As for the shaking that is rather difficult to elaborate on. Maybe its a bad injector, maybe the O2 sensor is bad and it idles poorly. More shaking at low speeds could be because the engine is idling badly under load, augmenting the issue. In a lot of ways I'd point to an O2 sensor, especially if its old. I changed mine at 170,000km or so a year ago, so if its never been changed its pretty up there in wear.

Check your spark plug boots too, I've experienced rather "rumbly" idle because I neglected to use dielectric grease, plus my wires were bad an old. I found arc marks on the brand new plugs I'd installed. At throttle it was fine but it ran like a tank at idle.

If it happens idling in park though I really doubt its the transmission at all at least.

And yeah, the 22 MPG I get is driving like an animal in the city in Canada. That is on E10 ethanol, too. About the only thing that improves my mileage is its well maintained and the tires are a little oversize and a little overinflated, but I've been hard pressed to get under 20 MPG even before I did that.

A lot of your issues sound like bad fuel management interactions, though, the fact you're not getting a check engine light yet is confusing.
 
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It has a small shake in park. The shake is more or less a EXTREMELY small jerk once and a while when I'm in park.

What does this signal?

Also I didn't want to revive the other thread about this kind of stuff in the oil section! Haha
 
That steering wheel shake is inherent to the car design. My mother's 97 breeze 2.0 does this and always has. It really is the only complaint regarding the car, which is still running strong.
 
Is it really supposed to shake that bad?

I can hear my dash shake and I can see my steering wheel move up and down rapidly. Only 1-2cm max up and down, but I can see it!
 
I updated my last post, and yeah I suppose you're right, I lost track as to what forum what is in so I understand now what you mean :p

It sounds like an intermittent sort of misfire though, and I had that happen when my plug wires were bad. I never got a check engine light from it though. I did get a check engine light from my O2 sensor but that could be going out, too.

You can also do the "key dance" to get the check engine light to flash a series of number codes that you can look up online, but without getting a check engine light its likely no codes are stored.

Basically turn the car from Off to Run (don't start it, just turn it enough that the HVAC blower turns on and the radio). Do that three times. Off, Run, Off, Run, Off, Run, leave it in run. The check engine light will flash a pattern that you can look up if it holds any codes. For instance it can flash twice, pause, and flash once, which is a 21 code which has to do with an O2 sensor out of range. If it flashes 5 times and then 5 times again, that means its done reading off codes, and stops flashing.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes/index.html

Edit, again: It could be the power steering, somehow, though I've never experienced that issue personally. The problem is its really hard to judge how its "shaking" because that could be anything.
 
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Originally Posted By: cwp587
Is it really supposed to shake that bad?

I can hear my dash shake and I can see my steering wheel move up and down rapidly. Only 1-2cm max up and down, but I can see it!


Dash shake isn't right IME. 1 cm wheel shake is.

It's not a misfire, it's a harmonic.
 
A small jerk every "once in awhile" isn't a harmonic :p

Remove the balance shaft on the engine if you want a bad harmonic resonance...the car will, well, run like a tank, constantly.
 
The dash shakes because the steering wheel makes it shake. Like the shake from the steering wheel causes it to slightly bounce against dash which makes a d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d sound unless your hand is on steering wheel.

Also, I don't think this is a misfire. The only abnormal engine signs that it has is that once every month (or even longer) it will drop RPM's and make the whole car shake like mad for about 1/2second to 1 second. It drops to like 500 RPM when that happens, no big deal though. Also, when taking off after first starting it, I'll idle/cruise down the rode and the RPM's will randomly slowly rise to 1500RPM after gently tapping gas for a quick instance. Not sure why this happens...
 
Originally Posted By: cwp587
Thank you for trying.

Any other suggestions?


their is an active tsb on the 2.4L edz for changing the gap and changing the spark plug model from the one on the emissions sticker to a different plug. if you used just any aftermarket plug this may be your problem. google search for the tsb.
 
it is tsb 08-008-04

08-008-04 03/02/2004 Engine:Electrical -
New Spark Plug for 2.4L Engine
The new style spark plug is now recommended and preferred
for use in all 2004 and previous model years that are equipped
with a 2.4L engine. Spark Plug gap is to be set at .040
The new spark plug is more resistant to possible cold
engine carbon fouling.

Note: To eliminate concerns of a possible high secondary
ignition voltage flashover, caused by the thermal set of
the ignition cable spark plug boot(s), to the old style
spark plugs (RE14MCC5), install new ignition cables when
replacing the old style spark plugs with the new style spark
plugs, RE16MC or LZTR4A-11, for the first time.
 
an in line 4 cyl engine is normally out of balance ALL the time. that cant be balanced unless you add a balance shaft.
 
Your engine also has a totally different head then the newer (2004 era) cars. That TSB is irrelevant and its enormously dangerous to be suggesting that as a repair to a problem you don't understand the root cause of, as you could be suggesting someone put in plugs that would destroy their engine.

The 90's era 2.4L calls for a RC12YC plug and always has.
 
I have in Autolite spark plugs from Autozone.

Whenever I look up RC12YC spark plugs, it brings up the Champions. According to Autozone's website, RC12YC does not FIT my car!!!!!

So is Autozone full of [censored]?
 
This shake is not a spark plug issue, IMO, based upon experience of it existing immediately after a tune up, and being the case (not the jerk, which we dont get, but the vibration).

Plus ours is a 2.0 and I would define the shake the same, less the dash being as buzzy.
 
It looks like RC12YC doesn't fit, but RC12YC5 fits.

What does the 5 do to this spark plug?

Also, JHZR2 is the shake just part of having the car?
 
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