well, i'm having some issues w/ keeping her running, complicating the matter is the fact that i'm in the middle of the 4th gen dash swap. The problem actually started prior to the dash setup (i probably should have tried fixing one problem at a tim). Neway, here are the symptoms.

I was driving from our local hooters, giving a friend employee a ride home, just after pulling out of the parking lot, the engine completely seems to die, "hesitate, or stumble, but it wasn't like a -I'm running out of gas- stumble, but a flat on it's face fall....tenths of a second later it was back on and driving w/o me trying to restart"

We get on the highway, and the car does the same thing (maybe 20 minutes into the drive, a real sharp hesitation, goes from 2300 or so RPM down to nill, then back to 2300 all in a seconds period of time.

Get to her house, drop off the girl, friend and myself are now returning home, upon getting off the highway, and pulling to a signal light, the car died. I realized this when i momentarily stopped at the flashing red, and then tried to go again, no car.

Started right back up, so we babied her home, along the way, she decided that she'd continue to do the sharp hesitation thing again, very intermitently , maybe every 5 minutes or so, sometimes less, sometimes more....

We get home, i park the car in the garage, and close the door and comence driving our other cars for the week. Two days later i decided i'd see if my car was still doing the problem (driving locally) i start her (fine) and drive her to my g/f's house (block away, does fine) after the car warms up some and i'm returning home, it does the same hesitation again, so, i baby it home once more and park it in the garage for the remainder of the week.

Since i've got multiple cars at my disposal i start thinking well, i've got time to get this one fixed (my shop couldn't take it for another week or so) so i said, "start that 4th gen dash swap, got the dash in, and am now working on the wirign gremlins (getting the tach to work, headlights to pop up etc). While performing some tests to make sure everything was working right, i started the car, car ran fine for a few, then stumbled and died....she did it again later as i treid to start her again, also, the only way she will start is when i give a little gas. Anyone got any ideas, i'm thinking (hoping) the problem is related to the problem i was having when i parked the car, and not some major screw up in wirign (don't think i did any-major screw ups) any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

TPS, fuel filter, or Coolant Temp Sensor (CTS).

 

all seem to make sense....on the fuel filter note, my friends 93' dakota has a bad fuel filter, the car will stall w/o gas being applied, however under load the car will continue to run...while this is somewhat like my problem, i've had the car running w/o the gas, it simply dies kinda "eventually" ....

Also, this past year i changed the ignition pick up coil (along w/ a million other ignition parts) i was wondering what if it was going bad once again, just at a much worse rate than b4, although, i'm sure i would have noticed some of the warning signs as i did b4, but this time i didn't....i guess i'll work out my dash, and then work out this issue...maybe a new TPS will be in the works. any more help is always appreciated...thanks again.

 

You say the symptoms occur when its at operating temperature?

Check the spark plugs. Worn out plugs can increase in gap when they heat up, which can cause the "stumble" you describe when the engine is under load.

Thats all I can think of atm.

EDIT: Also, the TPS isnt likley to be the problem. If it was bad, you would have bad hesitation problems even if the engine was cold. Unless the heat from the engine causes a bad connection, due to wires expanding and flexing.

 

You can check the fuel filter by removing it, blowing compressed air from both sides, then reinstall it.

 

check your coil

mine did the same thing

 

well, lets see....

fuel filter is a lil old, haven't replaced it in a few years now, so it's definately a possible.

coil is new as of 4-5 months ago....its just a factory replacement
did it the same time i did the pickup coil, wires were done at the same time also, along w/ new plugs, cap, rotor, etc....tried to get her running well.

the problem had seemed to be occuring when the engine was warm, however the first stumble as i left hooters, the engine wouldn't have been warm yet, if it was, not very warm. Then the other day, it had finally just gotten warm, i think it's more a matter of time then temperature, does it on occasion.

Now the engine won't even remain running w/o gas being applied....so we can definately say that the problem will also occur when cold.

lets keep the good ideas comin, and hopefully we'll get this solved w/o a shop charge. thanks again.

 

I don't think this will neccessarily be a concern with the V6 due to wire routing differences (I can't go look, my wires are nowhere near their stock location due to what would be a nonexistant proximity to the exhaust manifold leading to the turbocharger), but I had a similar problem with my '88 when I bought her.

She was fine cold, but after she got nice and warm, all hell broke loose intermittantly. No codes for 2 weeks... finally flat died and threw a 22 one night.. had to check it on the spot, she wouldn't even start. remove air cleaner, stare at tps.. all good.. follow wires.. hmm, missing wire loom and bare wires resting on valve cover. Pull wires, kinda sticky. Inspect wires, melted insulation. Bend wires away from valve cover, replace air cleaner. Attempt to start, VROOM. Problem solved.

 

Try this: start your car, open the hood, and jiggle the two two-wire connectors that go into the coil. If your problem happens, then fix those connectors. Mine did something similar when I put a new coil in because the clips that hold down the connectors broke off and the terminals inside the coil weren't tight enough to hold onto the connectors. You can also try bend the pins on the connectors out a little to ensure they make a good connection.

 

i'd do the start my car trick, but unfortunately i can't start it, it now doesn't even like starting all that much. Neway, i've noticed something else that's different now also, if i have the ignition switch in the on position, and then turn it back to the off position, theres a funny noise coming from the engine bay. The best description i could give would be a ra-tata- rat at at. very quickly, but goes on for a couple seconds. I've done it a couple times but i'm always the only one there, and as a result i can't fully hear what's going on, so i have to turn it on, and run to the front. But so far, it actually sounds like it's coming from the top of the engine on the passenger side, almost seemed like it was in the vicinity of the TPS, however it probalby wasn't, instead it's like a toasted relay on the firewall, but only a little more time will tell.

 

do you have good fuel pressure

it might be a fpr

 

Thats your IAC ticking. Its one of them things you never notice until your looking for problems. I have done it myself. Might wanna clean it anyways.

 

yep, i just noted it myself...i got on the pass side of the car, and i thought the sound was coming from the driver side, went to driver side, sounds like it's coming from pass side....had my g/f do the switch again, and boom, it's right on top of the TB, guess it's normally and i never noticed it b4....wow, sounds like it's on crack. so the list as follows,

TPS, FPR, Fuel Filter, Coil (doubt, but possible), plugs (doubt but possible, although after i had it running i know the timing was off for a period in time, might have screwed em, and they're i finally at their breaking point. That's all i can think of for now, i'll nearly guarantee it's electrical, as that what's 99% of thirdgen probelms are, stupid 1980's technology trying to power automobiles. Think i'll continue hunting down the problem after i finish up my dash wiring issues, although i'm not to worried about getting those headlights to pop up at the moment (have those super bright foggies anyway) but that'll definately be on the list of things to fix.

 

well my 4th gen stuff is nearly finished up, so now i'm starting to look towards the anti-running engine part of the car. Since the car is now past the intermentent dying stage, and has moved onto the "I DON'T WANNA START" section, i'm starting to think that this one isn't sensor related.

My thoughts, correct me if i'm wrong, car needs three things to run, gas, air, and spark. Im pretty sure it's getting air, especially since throttle blade's moving, i know it's suckin it in on the intake stroke etc. It's got compression and whatnot, and it's also getting fuel (i can smell it after trying to crank a few times. Leaving me w/ spark, i'm about to go down and take a look at a couple of plugs, and see how i'm getting spark at the plugs, also take a look to make sure i'm getting spark at the coil (which i bet i am) and am guessing that the reason my spark is weak, or non-existant is somewhere in the coil, if i'm lucky, ignitino module, if not, then on to the next thing. That's my train of thinking right now, cause , if i had a bad sensor (just about any of them) i'd expect the car to either start, stumble, and die, or to drive normal, then stumble and die, or to simply not run optimum. So, i'd have to assume that a "no" start situation would normally mean that i'm having a much more simple issue, which hopefull won't be nearly as big of a pain to hunt down.

 

alright, so...
as of last night the engine wouldn't start, it'd just sit there crankin and cranking and crankin.....so i'm assumin issues with the ignition and whatnot....suspect the only old culprit i have left in the distributor which is the ignition module (easy fix) so, i take off cap and rotor, pull off the module, and then take a peak at the cap/rotor combo, i keep thinking that the gap between the rotor (lil sparky thing) and the caps electrodes is a tad big, alright, but maybe it'll still jump it....unfortuantely i didn't test things this morning to see if they were running b4 i started tinkering. So, i take the module up to advanced auto, they test it, it's good...bring it back home, take a look at the cap/rotor again, and go back, have the guy pull his cap/rotors and i look at the gap between them, much less (not incredible, but less) so i buy em, bring them back slap them on, and it's running...crank over easy, starts easy, etc. at the same time however i did push down all connectors i could find at the cap, the ones into the ignition module, the ones at the coil, etc. so it might have been a loose connection around that area, and we'll know if it comes back w/ a vengence, but for now...problem solved, and simpliar than i had thought. WE THINK!!!! LOL.

hopefully so, cause i'm just dying to drive the car w/ the new dash in it. thanks for all the help, if somethign returns, i'll let ya'll know.

 

If your car does the same thing again, check the connectors on the coil as I mentioned above, because if they were loose before, they may come loose again. Try jiggling them right now with the car running and see if it causes problems.

 

yeh i know, i actually tried that just after setting things up and didn't notice anything. At the same time, my wires at the coil seem pretty tight, but a connector ( snap) broke a long time ago at the distributor where the coil wires come into it. So, i'm thinking that was my issues, possibly. Also, i once recieved a EST code from the computer, we'll see if i can get all those worked out here soon enough. Hey, did i mention that w/ the exception of the HVAC stuff, my 4th gen dash is now finished...still have bugs to work out, but i took the car for a drive tonight, and wow, talk about beautiful 4th gen back lit lighting, just makes ya feel like a million bux.