My 17 year old son has a 1995 Dodge Dakota. It has been having intermittent trouble with not starting or dying over the course of 5 months. It started out dying on a rare occasion, once while driving down a residential street, at an occasional stop sign, and while turning into the driveway. It usually started back up. The not starting is very recent and it would start to crank, but not turn over. Then it would just come on and not crank at all. Later we went out and it ran really rough. We kept giving it gas and finally it smoothed out and starting running okay. Usually when it died it was running rough. We were able to drive it, but it died once in a while. I got the codes off of it and they are as follows:

12 42 53 42 32 31 55

That was a lot of codes, so we cleared them by disconnecting the battery and seeing if it would generate new codes. The codes were in a different order, but there were still the same codes. With the 42 showing up twice.

Finally, last night I went out to the truck and it started right up. I revved it a bit, and decided it was running fine for my son to drive today. I got out and pushed the power lock and it didn't lock. It appeared there was no power at all. So I got back in and sure enough the truck wouldn't start and nothing would come on. It is completely dead now. I checked this morning and it was still dead. I figure it needs a new battery, but would this explain the previous problems I described? Is there more than one thing wrong with this truck?

We don't want to have to take the truck into the shop because as I said before this is my son's truck and he can't afford to put a lot of money into it. I would appreciate any insight or suggestions you could provide.[/align]

 

these are the codes

12 Direct battery input to PCM was disconnected within the last 50 key-on cycles
42 Fuel pump relay control ckt, Auto shutdown relay control ckt, No ASD relay
53 Internal control failure
42 Fuel pump relay control ckt, Auto shutdown relay control ckt, No ASD relay
32 EGR system failure
31 Evap purge flow monitor failure or evap solenoid circuit
55 End of error messages (If you get this only, no errors were found)

check the asd relay in the fuse panel under the hood. there is also a bad wire splice under that fuse panel as well. check this also https://dodgeforum.com/upfiles/948/4...DCB6682027.jpg

 

heeeey that pic is a hand lil sucker hahah, I had the same prob with my 92 3.9 where hot or cold it would sometimes roughly idle or stall right after starting but then run fine after a few seconds, RARELY stalling and refusin to start until minutes later.. And yes, it turned out to be the bad splic suic spoke of, fixable for FREE if you have stranded insulated wire and connectors, preferrably "crimp-caps" but twist on or crimp butt-ins are ok, I'd reeealy try to avoid the "twist and tape" if you care about the truck.

 

actually using any kind of crimp or twist connector is not really fixing the issue, it will just be a matter of time before it happens again. the best way to FIX the problem is to twist the wires to be spliced together nice an neat, solder (eliminates air, no air means no corrosion, and perminately bonds the wires), tape and heatshrink. im not trying to offend anyone here, just trying to give some professional advice

 

Correct, well, except for taping before heatshrinking. That's how all the splices are done on the aircraft at work.
Oh, and use rosin core solder. Do not use acid core solder.
But... using the crimp type connectors will work. That's pretty much how I've done all the wiring on my truck.

 

as far as ive been trained the entire purpose of the heatshrink is to ensure that the tape does not unravel. you are correct though, the crimp connectors "will" work, but from what i understand the reason the asd splice goes bad in the first place is the factory friction tape rots and then the splice corrodes. using any type of crimp connector is not going to eliminate the possibilities of it happening again, and i see crimped connections go bad everyday at work, which is the reason they are not allowed in the shop, everything i touch has to be soldered and taped/heatshrunk.

 

We unplugged the old idle air control module on this truck. Then it ran and idled better. So we bought a new one plugged it in and the truck idled and ran poorly like it did before. So we unplugged the new one and it and it ran good again. So we took the new one off completely so we could take it back to the store. Then we put the old one back on and then it wouldn't run well at all plugged in or not plugged in. So we put the new one back on and left it unplugged and nowit is running fine. What the heck?????? What does that sound like? Doesn'tthe truckneed that sensor? It talks to the PCM, so why doestruck run without it being plugged in? It seems like it shouldn't run without it.

 

Sound similar to what I had wrong with mine a while back. I had to change the starter because I had a dead spot on the windingI would run into once in a while before it quit all together. My EGR solenoid was also trashed and I noticed my plug wires were sparking on my valve covers because one of the holders had broke.