Hola everyone, noob from the Texas coast....I drive my Standard 99' Dakota SLT 4X4 up and down the beach all I can, and tow my boat when the lady likes to hit the bays for some fishin....

I got a really good one for you....now, I have read back a good handful of pages and done a search, and didn't see this covered....also wanted you all to know I at least tried to do some "homework" on your fine site here before I charged in and started a Captain Obvious thread.....

Anyhoo, my dakota has been acting funny past three weeks....I start it up just fine in the morning and start heading to work (15 miles, first 5 @ 45 MPH and the last stretch pretty much down the freeway at 70 MPH)....so, about 2-3 miles into the commute, just as the temperature seems to be getting to normal, the truck stalls and slowly dies, forcing me to pull off the road...when it starts going, it will sputter, backfire if I touch the gas, and the RPM's jump all over, but eventually wind down and the truck dies......so, I sit there for like 2-4 minutes, and the truck will start fine and run great the rest of the way in to work like nothing happened! then I can run it all over town, shut it off, stop, start, drive normal no problems....when it sits for a while like 8+ hours, goes through the same deal....

it seems to occur when 1) I let off the gas just a little and 2) right before the truck gets to operating temperature....and it only does it once!

when its dying, it kinda sounds like its jumping timing (variable RPMs and some light backfire).....

I have done NOTHING to the truck since buying it used 9 months ago....don't want to throw parts at something I can't put my finger on....and its really only a minor inconvenience.....BUT, I would like it to run normally....

when it dies, the CIL will come on and if I go STRAIGHT to Autozone the code is P1391....(for those without the book its described as "the ECM detected the actual CMP position disagreed with the expected CMP level.")

the dudes at Autozone tried to sell me a new crank position sensor for 85 bucks.....I told him to go jump off because he didn't sound like he believed himself.....he was flat guessing and admitted it.....I hate throwing parts at problems...

the weird thing is, after a start or two and the engine is running fine, the CIL goes off, no problems at all....just that first one in the morning, and *sometimes* (not all the time) it will do the whole thing in reverse in the evening on the way home from work.....although it has never once hiccuped on the freeway....only at lower speeds.....

so.....what do you masterminds think? want any additional details?
corpus fisherman aka Jay G.

 

could be the iac or tps, easy fix and easy to check. start w/ that

 

oh joy....hoping you wouldn't say that thunder, but thanks for the tips....it DOES make sense....

who in the smokes designed these motors with all the goodies and the danged distributor all the way in the back tucked up underneath the edge of the firewall anyway? can't even see the IAC without using a mirror!

 

while your at it clean the whole tb comes off w/ a few bolts. i think both those sensors are on the tb but i could be wrong.
if you want my guess its the fuel system try some system cleaner in the tank. obvious answer but its another easy fix.

 

My guess would be the tps or the iac as well.

 

do u have the 5.9? or 5.2. b/c on the 4.7 it takes about 10 seconds to remove either of them

 

naw sorry its the 3.9L V6.....decent motor but doesn't seem to be holding up well, other things going bad like a whine in my A/C and the wiper fluid motor no-worky....

thanks for the replies guys, just went to Autozone and got a different code (in addition to the 1391)......this time it also came up with P0306, of course the non-descript cylinder misfire, which doesn't really tell you didley....

this give y'all any more clues?
jay

 

my money is on the iac or tps. also try disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes and see if the codes comeback

 

if you want to save the trip to az you can check the codes yourself. just turn the key on and off 3x and leave it on (don't crank it) and it will show you all the codes on the digital display on the gauges, then it'll say pdone when its over.

 

I thought I read here on the forum somewhere that the tripmeter codes were only on the '98 and before? I'll give it a shot, only after checking the before-mentioned parts....