Last summer I bought a 2001 dodge stratus 2.4L with 14,000 miles on it.  It
had been sitting in a garage for more than a year at a ‘little old lady’s’
house.  The little old lady put less than 10,000 miles on it, but parked by
braile.  No mechanical damage tho’.

Before I bought it I drove it around a bit and checked the codes at the
local Autozone type store.  No codes popped up.  While I was driving I
noticed that I could feel a sort of pulse as I drove it at speeds over
40mph.  I figured bad gas at the time, but not much has changed since then.

I’ve put many a tank o’gas through this thing since then and the problem
still exists.  I don’t know if it’s mis-firing/engine problem or if there’s
a trans problem.   The pulsing is only noticible while at a constant
speed/constant rpm.  The pulsing isn’t felt during accelleration or
deceleration.  One problem that has happened twice since I bought the thing
is that while on cruise control, traveling between 65 and 70 and going down
a long hill (mountain really) the transmission droped down a gear.  I dunno
if these two probs are related tho’.  Still no error codes and no change in
severity/frequency of symptoms over past 6 months.  The ‘drop down a gear
problem’ hasn’t occurred since last July.

The question is, where do I start?  Highspeed/lowspeed sensors or somewhere
else.  Or, Am I being too sensitive.

Thanks.

chuck

Well the steering was getting wonky, so I think I’ll take this as an omen.

Now, does anyone know of an AWD Caravan/Vger available in New England for
about $500 or so. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to run halfway
decent…

Oh…the damn water pump was OK…  :(

Thanks.

Have had my Nitro SLT for about 3 weeks now and I love it! First gotta
say that I gave up a Mitsubishi 3000 VR4 for this, and that I really went
to the dealership looking to buy a Magnum AWD.

The Magnum, which was "kinda fitted out to my specs" was about $46,000
before taxes. I could hack this no prob, but it just didn’t seem like it
was my cup of 10w50 "cuz, although it was a big block HEMI, it still
didn’t have all the I wanted – plus they (the Magnums) are all sissy
shifters (arrrrrrgh). So, I went for the Nitro at $29,000 which had more
amenities, a V-6 (3.7 Liter), and more room, which as I get older and
seem to acquire more crap, seems to make more sense.

Things I love about my Nitro:

It’s really comfortable.
The heated leather seats.
The in-dash 6 CD/MP3/DVD player. (My ol’ cars had them in the trunk.)
Terrific gauge cluster/menu system which tells you almost every thing
that one could think of and is really simple to use.
Pull out rear tail-gate tray that converts to table for tailgating,
camping, etc..
Two AC outlets.

Things that need improvement:

Nothing so far, except my gas mileage is about 14.7 mpg combined.

Let me know what you think. This I the first time (out of about 15 cars I
have owned) that I have bought a first year production model – big no no
right?

Fair winds and following seas,

SCPO