OK I am getting tired of problems with this van. I am sure it will be great when it finally runs reliably! OK when it has been off for several hours in cold weather about 38 degrees to 29 degrees and I start it up it will want to die unless I rev it up a bit. The tach will basically bounce from 400 to 1300 rpm rapidly if it doesn't just die. I did get a code indicating "bad ingnition module/ or mkissfire". Once it is warmed up I clear the code and it won't return. Once it has warmed completely up the problem goes away and won't return until it has sat overnight again. I have replaced the crank position sensor, the cam position sensor, done a complete tune-up including lifetime wires, mopar O2 sensor, fuel filter ect. I have checked the grounds and all are good. It has 125k miles. Now a few days ago I noticed a strange and barely noticeable high pitch sound coming from the drivers side of the engine bay while driving and lightly accelerating it sounded like it was either the throttle body whisteling or the computer. That sound is gone now and this problem is here. I have thouroughly cleaned the idle motor and the throttle body and have used plenty of injector cleaner. I also tried unplugging the throttle position sensor and the problem remained, same with idle speed motor. I have purchased another ignition coil and engine computer but I won't try them until the problem returns. Any ideas? Thanks
gas28man
12-13-2005, 08:58 AM
The problem, and probably your problem all along, is with the idle air control motor. You might not need to replace the part, but is attached to the throttle body. Cleaning up the throttle body, and the inlets may be enought to solve the problem. Part of the IAC motor has to slide in and out of the venturi area, and if it gets to gunky, it gets hung up, and you get the symptoms you're experiencing. If you put off cleaning it, the motor will eventually burn out, so cleaning could save you the cost of a new part. Get yourself some spray fuel injection cleaner (not carb cleaner; STP makes a good one) and a pile of rags and paper towels and just go to town. Just spray and wipe until all the black/brown deposits are gone and all you can see is nice, silver metal. At 125K miles you probably have quite a bit of buildup in there.
Good luck and let us know if this works.
Rick
bjorkmae
12-13-2005, 10:34 AM
Well twice now I have test driven the car when it is cooled down in the cold since my post and it has not acted up since. What I have done since then is replaced the missing bottom front mounting bolt for the coil pack since I lost it a few days ago before this happened in an attempt to diagnose my reverse shudder. I am curious if this could possibly indicated either that the coil wasn't properly grounded, which doesn't seam likely, or that the coil has micro cracks and occassionally grounds out to the intake manifold like bad over head cam spark plug wires that go 3 inches into the valve cover can do. As far as the IAC motor wouldn't the problem go away or at least behave differently when I unplugged it? Because I got the same exact symptoms with it unplugged. I think I might take the IAC out anyway and clean it. I am just worried that this problem will happen again at a bad time like halfway through an intersection ect.
bjorkmae
12-14-2005, 12:40 PM
Ok I replaced the coil just to check and the van runs very noticeably smoother although it seamed to run ok before just even better now. The problem still hasn't come back so I might just leave good enough alone for now and not even touch the IAC motor. SO basically I am thinking that if it runs noticeably smoother now with a new coil either the old coil was faulty and was causing the stalling problem or the coil was just a secondary issue and not the actual cause of the stalling. Time will tell. Thanks for all the replies.
boomboy64
12-16-2005, 03:37 PM
Ditto on the cleaning of the throttle body with the intake cleaner. I had the exact problem with my '98 Caravan and it actually took about one and a half bottles of intake cleaner and lots of elbow grease (and wipes) before the problem went away. I was amazed at the amount of crud that was coming out. The reason it took so much cleaner is that while the intake and throttle plate were easy enough to clean, the idle passages were the culprit and it took that much to eventually flush them out.
Now it works like a charm, even in -20C.
Cheers,
Boomboy64
(in Winnipeg)
bjorkmae
12-17-2005, 05:29 AM
Well I have driven the van in cold weather several times now with no problems so I am farely confident that the problem has been fixed. The van continues to drive much more smoothly then before so I am just glad that the problem is gone. Thanks again
kickinkz
12-17-2005, 12:44 PM
Is it located where the intake hose from the air cleaner mounts to the intake?
Thanks
Phil
kickinkz
12-17-2005, 01:25 PM
ehehehe...I just went through my van...it seems as though the spark plug wire for the number 6 cylinder was a wee bit corroded in the distributor cap...ok, a lot corroded.....I cleaned it up, what was left of the connector, I'll have to buy a new set of wires....I put a new cap and rotor in....
Hopefully that takes care of it....
Later
Phil
bjorkmae
12-18-2005, 01:43 PM
You must have the 3.0 because my 3.3 doesn't have a distributor it is a dis.
kickinkz
12-18-2005, 07:35 PM
Ya, I have a 3.0....says so on the intake....funny thing was, I stopped to get a cap and rotor at Napa yesterday, they told me I didn't have a distributor...
Uh...ya I do. They had to come and see for themselves....
I miss having knowledgeable people working at auto parts stores...
And yes...it was the spark plug wire....I pulled my snowmobiles to hit the trails last night and it was bad....this morning going to my nephew's b-day party it was bad, then I stopped at the local parts house...got a new set of wires....fortunately it was a front wire....swapped it out and badda bing....no more bucking no more backfire....
