My daughter's got a '97 Dakota that wont start after it warms up and I think the idle control valve is bad or the fuel pressure is dropping.

Is there anyone up in the Bremerton WA area who would be willing to help diagnose it? Looking for an extra IAC motor to swap in & to check the fuel pressure... It dies when it's hot and she has to floor it to get it started. that tells me it's most likely the IAC motor...

 

Having to floor it to start it can also be an indication the Throttle Position Sensor is bad. Usually when the IAC has a problem it won't idle smoothly and will run really rough then stall out. Also some Dakota's from that year have a problem with the fuel pressure regulator failing. You can test by letting it sit with the ignition on in the run position for about 10 seconds before you start the truck, and if it starts after that the regulator is probably shot. Fuel pressure regulator is part of the fuel pump/sender assembly which is located in the gas tank. Are there any codes stored from the PCM?

Jimmy

 

no codes. my 1st thought was the fuel pump. My son is heading up there in 2 weeks and if she does not have it fixed by then, I'm sending up the fuel pressure gauge to check the pump out.

The IAC would usually only cause stalling which is what she's got, but she cannot get it fired back up unless she floors it. I also have a spare TPS I will send up when he goes... If the tps was bad I'd expect a code... and there is none.