I have a 2001 Dodge Durango 4x4 slt with a 4.7 v8. I have had the truck for roughly a year, it has 80k miles on it. Last week It started losing power for maybe 1/2 a second while driving down the road. It happend once or twice but stopped soI dismissed it. The following day, the problem returned. I noticed that the speedometer would drop 10-20mph along with that tach dropping 500-1k rpms butI never actually lost speed. OnceI got the vehicle home, it has a very rough time idling. I have to give it gas in order to keep it running. I have no codes at all. I used a Mentor scanning tool and can find nothing wrong with any of the sensors. After doing some test, I found the batterywas going bad so Ireplaced it. After the battery replacement the speedometer stuck on 120mph. I changed the speed sensor in the tranny tailshaft and in the rear end housing. The speedometer is working properly now. I still have the same stalling, losing power issue as before and now the truck will not idle at allwithout giving it about 1/4 throttle and even then it still loses power every 3-5 seconds. I have replaced the tps, and cleaned the iac. The mentor detects no misfires so that should rule out the crank sensor. I am at a loss on this one. Anyone have any ideas? I am not stranger to working on cars or with tools, but i am not too familiar with chrysler products. Any help / Ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

 

Rob:

Try a battery disconnect reset, and see if that helps. Good call on the battery. When they are on the way out, these Durangos do weird things just like you are having. BTW, new batteries have been known to be bad also. You might consider having it tested.

As an aside, when were your plugs last replaced. The OEM plugs in our Durangos are only rated to 30k. If yours are OEM, I bet there is no electrode left and the gap is crazy huge.

Don

 

I tested the battery thinking that may be an issue. Battery test great. I could see the plugs making it run a little odd, and have not checked them as of yet, but it strikes me as being an electrical / sensor issue. I will check the plugs still just to make sure, but i beleive the plugs were replaced just before i purchased the vehicle.

 

I checked the plugs, they are all fine. Gap is right on. I am beginning to wonder if it could be a bad pcm, but i cannot find a way to test it. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

 

Try replacing the TPS sensor, there have been some problems with them. Like causing the ck engine lite to come on for injector faults.and clean the ais motor too.

 

I have done both, still having the same issue.....

 

ONNI:

If you have a fuel gage, hang it on the rail and see what kind of pressure you are getting. Could be a fuel pump on the way out, or an electrical issue making the pump do weird things. I agree that it would seem to be a sensor issue, but you have already taken care of the major ones that come to mind.

Don