I have a 99 Durango. Starting in Jul/Aug this year, when there is a lot of moisture in the air, I get a lot of hesitation until it warms up. Twice the engine light came on at around 50-55 mph and went out within a few seconds. No codes were returned. It has been getting worse since it started getting colder and when it rains it is terrible. Acceleration is normal but I feel the hesitation/bump. Onceit is warmed upI feel it less but it still happens. Any ideas where I should start looking?

 

Most likely your ignition components are getting wet or seeing moisture. For a 99 I am guessing you have a 318. If that is true, have the distributor cap/rotor or the ignition wires been checked lately? I would be willing to bet one of thise is your problem. I would start with replacing the cap/rotor, pretty inexpensive.

 

You're probably going to have to take it to a competent technician and let him have your vehicle for as long as it takes to duplicate and diagnose the problem. Intermittents are a bitch and, even if it seems like it's all the time to you remember, you drive the thing how many miles a day? Once a week is very often to a vehicle owner, but it's an eternity to a technician with 15 other cars to work on and only so many hours in the day.

Edit: When I get one like this I give the customer two options. Either you can pay me for every hour I spend on it and I will not deviate from your vehicle until it's fixed OR you can pay the standard 1 hour of diag time and leave it with me for as long as it takes me to duplicate the problem during my down time when I'm not loosing moneyon other jobs by screwing with it.

I had a Subaru Impreza awhile back that would occasionally stall and would usually restart with no problems and no codes. That customer opted for the #2 option. I drove the thing home, to lunch (or anywhere else I could without being stranded costing me too dearly) and had my scanner hooked up the entire time. It took me two weeks and nearly 300 miles to make it act up long enough to diagnose the MAF failure. Still only charged him the $90 for the original diag, plus the part and for the fuel we had to putit.

 

2 weeks for a MAF sensor diag??? If any of my mechanics spoke to a customer in what you just said(option #2)above, they would have a boot in *** out of my shop. Any how Casterg I would reccomend a tune up plugs, wires, cap, rotor.

 

2 weeks before the vehicle acted up for longer than a fraction of a second. It only ever stumbled maybe a half dozen times, andit felt like a single misfire until the final time when it stumbled long enough for the datastream to show airflow that didn't jive with throttle percent, RPM and load. It was suspect for a long time, but I don't guess with a customers money.

Maybe you should look at "your mechanics" as peers instead of pee-on's. If the owner of the company ever referred to me as though I were a posession of his, I'd walk right the f*&# out.

The two options I give in such cases are perfectly reasonable. They always have the third option of continuing to drive the vehicle until it fails. But when the customer is insistent that I find his/her intermittent problem, they have to appreciate that I also have bills to pay and cannot afford to loose money on their vehicle. We're not talking about a misdiagnosis that resulted in the problem not being fixed after we took their money. Those get priority over everything, and I always end up being the one that has to deal with them (shop will sort-of comp me, but it's never full boat). We're talking about taking the time to correctly diagnose the vehicle, but doing it in a way that doesn't cost the customer a ****load of money or cause me to lose money.

 

From the times this comes up on the forums it is always the wires/distributor. Do a tune up.

 

Thanks to everyone for the info. I feel a lot more comfortable heading to the dealership now.

 

I employee some of the area's most compotent and highly paid mechanics(mechanics are experianced, technicians are green horns with a degree). As a owner yes I refer to my mechanics as mine,belonging to me, possession, etc.As I take dam good care of "my belongings". until you own your own shop you are still "OWNED!" My LUBE TECH ask's "how many phone calls did this require to confirm a MAF sensor?"
I was refering to # 2 ("duplicate the problem during my down time when I'm not loosing moneyon other jobs by screwing with it.") That I find very unprofessional.

 

Semantics. You say tomAto, I say tomato. What you call a green horn I call a tech schoold grad ASE certified master tech who taco's a driveshaft by improperly rackinga vehicle his firstweek on the job.

Employed. Owned is a slave. I can leave whenever I want and have done so after very short periods working for shop owners and managers like you. You can't possibly pay me well enough to put up with such an arrogant attitude.

Are you insinuating that it is acceptable to use a telephone suggestion in place of a true diagnosis? That can be a great place to start (or IATN, etc), but is not a diagnosis. IATN is just a more professional version of message boards like this one.

You find it more professional to charge them out the *** (an option I give, very unpopular) or throw parts at it and gamble with their money based on educated guesses?

I'll only do that (throw parts) if the customer requests that we use our judgement based on experience with similar problems, and I make damn sure they understand that I cannot 100% guarantee a fix without a proper diag. Some folks are OK with this. The customer with this particular Subaru was not.

And the words I use are not going to be verbatim what I posted. The reason it needs to be that way is delicately and thoroughly explained. I've never had a customer become offended that I don't work for free. Every time I've ever had to do this, they were very understanding and more than happy to leave thier vehicle a bit longer in leiu of spending hundred$$.

 

Wow this went waaaayyyy off topic. [sm=lockeddance.gif]