I have a 03 dakota that im trying to fix for my mom im only 13 but i know my way around motors. I rebuilt my dads 360 by myself and rebuilt 2 four wheelers top to bottom. Anyways im not good with newer cars since they have all the extra efi and computers and all that. But her truck started running funny about 6 months ago, it was idling funny occasionly would stall and wasn't getting the same gas millage. It started doing it again but this time it dosent idle bad but still doesn't seem exactly right but now it eats gas like a tank we go through a quarter of a tank in 20 miles, it has bad throttle response if you put your foot in at all, it sorta shifts funny and it doesn't idle down as quick as i think it should. Also its probably because it mostly sits now and i didn't let it get all the way warmed up but it was spitting alot of fluid out of the tail pipe and i know its most likely condensation but it left a huge puddle and smelt like gas. I checked the gas lines they don't seem to leak and i checked what i thought to be the vacuum lines and they didn't have any cracks but i dont really know what im looking at (Theres alot less vacuum and electrical lines on old cars). I just wanted to know what you guys thought it might be and what i can do to check. Oh also is it normal for the rad fan on the dakotas to come on as soon as you start them i haven't seen that before

 

Well its kinda hard to tell but I would try cleaning the throttle body. It sounds kinda like a bad tps sensor but should throw a code if not working correctly I know in my moms jeep when it was tps the mpg would decrease majorly and then as soon as it was working right the mpg would come back. BTW its good seeing someone your age working on stuff and not sitting on your butt playing video games all day.

 

Thanks i acctually thought it was the tps at first when she told me but everyone i talked didnt think it was that so she didnt want to waste the 20 bucks for a new one

 

Well you can test it with a meter if you have one. Map sensor could also be another one I still say try to clean the tb as best as you can and clean the sensors also.