I have a 1999 Dodge Durango with Erratic Problems. It has a 5.5 inch lift, Toyo M/T tires, 5.9, K&N cold air system, Gibson Exhaust, Automatic, 4x4.
It’s been a great ride until about a month ago when it would just stall..Sometimes while driving down the road sometimes while just idling at a stop light. At first it would start up again but has started getting worse and it has to cool off before it will start again. And while it’s stalled the engine will turn over and “NO BUS” will appear in the odometer window but will not fire.
After doing some post reading it seems to be a serious problem with the Durango, seems that the ECU gets hot and shuts down and gets progressively worse over time. So I drove the truck for a few days and did some diagnostics.
First thing I replaced the battery and checked the wiring and terminals in all of the areas from the ECU plugs under the hood to the battery cable connections to the starter and battery. Unplugged the plug on the ECU closest to the fire wall and made sure all of the pins were straight non corroded and in good shape.
And drove it sure enough second day of driving it stalls out, it cranks but doesn’t start, I opened the hood dumped some cold water on the ECU and started right up.(probably not a great idea to dump water on the ECU but when your stranded in the middle of an intersection..you got to do something quick and I wanted to verify the ECU theory)
I have no problem buying a ECU if it will solve the issue but I’ve read a lot about this particular issue on a lot of forums and even after having a dealer replace the ECU it only solved the problem for a few Durango’s for no more than a month or so, is it a wiring bus issue? What am I missing?

 

it sounds to me like your pcm(ecu is the ford term) is overheating it is caused in older, dark colored trucks when they sit in the sun all day bc the pcm gets hot sitting still, and this can affect the contacts in the computer, just like i fyou overheat your desktop computer it will shut off, on newer models of the durango (idk 2000 or so and newer) they put the pcm on spacers so that the heat wouldnt transfer through the fender to the computer, and it seems to have solved the problem, so if you buy a new one try and mount it with plastic(or some insulating material, IE NOT metal of any kind) spacers around the mounting bolts to prevent the problem from happening again

 

Check your grounding lugs in the dash and around your PCM to chassis. Then replace your PCM. They sell em pre-flashed on ebay for about $200 for direct bolt in.

 

Vent some air to that replaced PCM as well.

The one you have is toast, but the replacement should last the lifetime of the D.

IndyDurango