Vehicle Data Hub

1996 Dodge Stratus engine problems

357 complaints about engine have been filed for the 1996 Dodge Stratus, which is 46% of all its NHTSA complaints. It is the most reported problem area for this model year.

At a glance

Complaints
357 46% of this year's complaints
Typical mileage
90,000 miles 23 complaints with mileage
Crashes and fires
1 and 23
Injuries and deaths
2 and 0

Source: NHTSA owner complaints

When engine problems show up

Engine complaints by mileage, 1996 Dodge Stratus Complaints by odometer reading in 20,000-mile steps. The median is about 90,000 miles. 0k to 20k miles: 2 complaints 20k to 40k miles: 1 complaints 40k to 60k miles: 3 complaints 60k to 80k miles: 4 complaints 80k to 100k miles: 5 complaints 100k to 120k miles: 3 complaints 120k to 140k miles: 2 complaints 140k to 160k miles: 0 complaints 160k to 180k miles: 2 complaints 180k to 200k miles: 1 complaints 200k+ miles: 0 complaints 040k80k120k160k200k miles Typical: 90,000 miles
Based on 23 complaints that include mileage. 26% were reported before 60,000 miles. The amber marker shows the median: half of these complaints happened before that mileage.
View the numbers
MileageComplaints
0k to 20k miles2
20k to 40k miles1
40k to 60k miles3
60k to 80k miles4
80k to 100k miles5
100k to 120k miles3
120k to 140k miles2
140k to 160k miles0
160k to 180k miles2
180k to 200k miles1
200k+ miles0

What the data shows

Of the 23 engine complaints that report mileage, the median is about 90,000 miles, and 26% were reported before 60,000 miles.

These complaints mention 1 crash, 23 fires, 2 injuries.

What owners wrote

Recall 96 v 006 000. Vehicle is leaking oil from galley plug. This vehicle is not included in recall due to VIN. Manufacturer notified. Engine had massive amount of oil leaking, engine caught fire and consumer burned her hand, there was $2800 worth of damage, mecahnic replaced gully plug and head gaskets along with burned hoses and belts, mechanic stated head gasket was leaking very large amounts of oil, also stated that fire was probably related to gulley plug oil leak. *slc

FireInjury

One of the oil galley plugs on the 2.4l engine of our daughter's 1996 dodge stratus came out, and the car spewed most of its oil out into the engine compartment. Chrysler had a recall (#671) on these back in 1995 as several fires occurred. Our VIN fell within the range of vins affected, but we were told it was not part of the recall. The recall ended with cars manufactured oct. 13, 1995 and our car (we were told) was manufactured oct. 14th.

Reported at 130,000 miles, October 2006

Other problems reported for the 1996 Dodge Stratus

Engine problems in other years

Engine problems across all Dodge models