Dodge Stratus Anti-Freeze Leak Repair

Our Dodge Stratus is nearing the end of its useful life.  It has over 150,000 miles on it.  The exhaust is held together with clothes hangers, the suspension is bouncy and it is leaving puddles everywhere it goes.  Recently it overheated and I discovered it was about a gallon low on antifreeze.  The next time I checked it was low again so I took it to a garage.  They estimated $450 for repairs so I said "No thanks" and took it home.

I could not find the problem at first because I was looking at the engine.  The problem was fastened to the inside of the passenger side wheel well.  You have to remove the antifreeze reservoir to get a good look at it as in this next picture.  The lines to the heater are rotted out.  They get even worse just out of the view of the camera.

So I removed the one hose as in the above picture.  Then I removed the other one where it attaches and coupled the two hoses together with a short piece of pipe and a screw tightened pipe strap.

The top hose attaches just below the thermostat and the bottom hose attaches someplace under the engine.  Taking the bottom strap off leads to a antifreeze leak so I held my thumb over the end of the hose until I could get it up to the junction.

So far so good, but I would not recommend this repair to anyone.  For one thing you no longer have any heat!

Comparing Sony Cameras DSC-h2, H10, H50 and DSLR Alpha A330

I have preferred Sony cameras for years.  I once saw a Sony camera that produced a picture that was much better than what I could see with my eyes and that sold me.  I have owned several Sony cameras over the years and now I have a Sony A330 DSLR camera.

In these pictures the A330 is on the left, followed by the DSC-H50 then the DSC-H2.

The DSC-H2 runs off ordinary AA Cells.  It makes a great backup camera.

The DSC-H10 is a little plastic toy.  The flash quit after a couple of months.

The DSC-H50 is a GREAT camera.  I use it for most of my videos and stills.  It does not do wide (16:9) aspect ratio video.

The Alpha A330 is a nice DSLR.  However it does not do movies.  The standard lens does not do zoom. It is my first professional camera with a interchangeable lens.

I have recently added another camera.  It is a Sony Alpha A3000.  The A330 does not do video, the A3000 does.  I thought I could use my old lenses, and you can with an expensive adapter.  However for a little more than the price of the adapter I also bought a standard lens for the A3000.

These pictures have the Alpha A3000 on the left and the DSC-H50 on the right.