[machinist]

hey guys,
I've got a '99 ram 1500 4x4 with a 5.2 and manual tranny and 82K miles. It's always been a little cold natured (i bought it new) and the check engine light has been off and on since the first cat plugged up 30k ago. That was a factory defective converter though. Then, anytime I lugged the engine at all, the engine light comes on and goes out after a while. I have had the code read a few times and I forget what the number was but it said "right bank" something or other.

Now this may not be related, but I was driving slow up an incline a few days ago and it started to miss and the check engine light came on. The miss didn't go away when it warmed up. I took it to autozone to get them to read the code and they said there was no power to the recepticle. Then today when I was leaving work, the engine light started flashing.

I need to get this fixed asap--just wondering if anyone has had the same experience.

 

[machinist]

Weird--it acts like it is trying to heal itself. It's freezing and snowing here and tonight it ran smooth except when it was going up hills--it kept cutting out and was running choppy then but smooth otherwise. I hope I can get this tracked down soon.

 

[razman131]

double check your O2 sensors and the sensors on the TB. also, have ya ever replaced the bely pan (plenum) gasket on your intake?? this will cause ping and bog your motor down under load (and oil consumption)

 

[machinist]

I'm thinking I may have got a bad tank of gas--it started right after I filled up. The mystery is why did the code recepticle not have power--that seems to make me think there could be something more serious wrong. Can sensors cause this?

 

[machinist]

Is there any way to check these sensors outside of replacing them? That could get costly in a hurry if it isn't the problem.

 

[machinist]

I was too worried about sensors and complicated things...I should have checked all of the obvious things first.

The truck has 82,000 miles on it:

at 50,000, my cat plugged up. at the same time, I replaced the spark plugs and plug wires, but not the cap and rotor.(actually, I didn't realize it was a standard distributor with a cap and rotor...duh)

Anyway, the engine light has been on and off every since that incident. My valves have been pinging badly practally since the truck was new unless I used premium gas. The truck has almost always been cold natured--rough idle, hissing, since it was new. Then it started to miss and only got worse.

I just replaced the plugs, wires, cap and rotor and she runs as smoothe as silk...good power, valves don't chatter, starts and idles smooth at least down to five degree temperatures.

82,000 miles on that cap and rotor--it's a wonder it even still ran at all. It was pretty eroded inside.

Now it will be ineresting to see what my gas milage goes back up to...

Thanks for suggestions everybody.