2000 ES Plug Change

My wife's car... bought it new in Oct '99 w/ 4 miles on it. It now has 97,500 well maintained highway miles (Mobil 1 all the way).

In just the past couple of weeks it has started to stumble when sitting at stop lights. With nearly 100K I figured a tune-up was in order.

I replaced the fuel filter at 75K so I didn't worry about it. Ran some good fuel injector cleaner through it a couple of times and didn't help (injectors were cleaned by dealer at 75K, too).

I decided to go ahead and change the air filter (wasn't that old) and the plugs. Well, the air filter was easy. But now the tricky part...

HOW THE HECK TO YOU CHANGE THE REAR 3 PLUGS???

Also, anything else I need to look at nearing the 100K mark? Think new wires are in order, too?

It runs perfect and accelerates strong w/o a miss. Just has that stumble at idle.

THANKS!

I can't believe nobody here has replaced the sparkplugs on a V6 Stratus yet.

Anywho... You DO have to remove the upper intake manifold.

I'm looking for the same information, too. Thanks for the tip. The intake manifold has to be removed for my PT also. Did the spark plug change take long? And what type of plugs did you use? I'm considering using double platinum from Champion, to keep the car in tip-top shape.

UGH! What a pain! In all, it took me about 2 1/2 hours. Not too bad, I guess. My back was KILLING me afterwords, though (leaning way over).

The upper intake has to come off... Not all -that- bad if it were not for the two rear intake manifold "brace" bolts. They are total PAINS! I didn't even replace the driver's side bolt!

NOTE: Do the plug WIRES at the same time!! They are costly, but you have to do the same thing to replace the wires, so you better do them at the same time.

I used Autolite Platinum plugs and Chrysler factory wires.

UGH! What a pain! In all, it took me about 2 1/2 hours. Not too bad, I guess. My back was KILLING me afterwords, though (leaning way over).

The upper intake has to come off... Not all -that- bad if it were not for the two rear intake manifold "brace" bolts. They are total PAINS! I didn't even replace the driver's side bolt!

NOTE: Do the plug WIRES at the same time!! They are costly, but you have to do the same thing to replace the wires, so you better do them at the same time.

I used Autolite Platinum plugs and Chrysler factory wires.


Does the fuel rail need to come off with the plenum?

Does the fuel rail need to come off with the plenum?

Gosh, you are causing me to rack my brain here... I don't remember having to mess with it. I bought a manual (Haynes, I do believe). But it is fairly straight forward...

All the electronic connections pop right off and no two are the. You can kinda look at it and tell how it comes apart (and goes back together).

Only two things make this job suck...

1) The front bumper is so far away from the front of the engine you are leaning the upper 1/2 of your body way over (after a while you get sore).

2) Those two friggin upper rear intake brace bolts!!!

Other than that, it is simple. Plan an afternoon, and it isn't too bad.

The next car I buy I will check to see if I can change the spark plus. I can not believe how this is set up. Anyway, it is more simple than it first looks. All the electrical plug come off easily and on the driver side rear, there is a "hose" that looks like you need to disconnect it with a wrench but it simple pulls off. And those @#$! rear bolts.
Be careful with the throttle cable housing and the other "pipe" (behind the carb) I misthreaded one of the screws and had to get it retapped.
It can be done and you will save yourself at least $150.00 in "labor cost."
Good Luck

Just turned 100k on my 98 and this was not a job I was looking forward to. As previously mentione, the two Plenum support bolts in the rear are a major pain. It is IMPORTANT to change the distributor cap and rotor when you do the plugs because you can't get at it with the upper intake manifold on the engine.

when changing plugs get either Champion or Autolite. Bosch and Chrysler do not work well together. I found out the hard way.