Hi lady's and gents. I have a 2002 Dakota 3.9l automatic that is driving me insane! I am stuck at a couple places left to check but I'm hoping to get someone that has experienced the same issues before to maybe help me speed up this process of elimination. For some reason whenever it feels like it the truck will shut off. I'm pretty positive it's something that is tripping the signal to the fuel pump because when code shows up I don't hear fuel pump cut on and there is no fuel pressure at the fuel rail. The code is the "no bus" code will show up on dash...meaning there is no communication with pcm and engine or cluster or something like that. Point is...I have already cleaned every ground there is, checked all fuses, replaced crankshaft sensor, and have checked for voltage at sensor connections. All are getting communication so I assume it's one of the many sensors that are tripping this truck. That or a bad pcm but I don't feel I've done enough to check all sensors because I don't know how to check them. Any help would get grateful here. When it does not throw code it starts right up, runs fine then after a while or when gets hot will shut off and begin to get worse until it throws code gain and goes into dumb mode.

 

Welcome to DF. Moving to the correct section.

 

Sounds to me like a bad solder joint in the PCM. And no, you really don't want to open it.

When you get the no-bus message, check for 5V @ the sensors. TPS being easiest to probe.

 

It sounds like something is heating up and expanding causing a short. Scan tool would be helpful that shows live data as you may be able to catch it right before everything shuts down. Definitely want to check your 5v sensors after it occurs.