Ok here is the deal. When I drive my truck after starting it up it starts to loose power and backfires inside the throttle section of engine a little ways down the road and the vehicle just kind of putts its way ahead even when the pedal is all the way to floor. Eventually it will either start getting more power(not electrical, I mean horsepower) and go or if I throw it in Neutral and rev it up it will be fine the rest of the way to wherever I am going. Reving it in Neutral fixes it everytime and after that it is great. The vehicle has lots of power on start-up and there is no hesitation or loss of power at high speeds, just after that intial start up and sometimes it doesn't do it at all. It also sometimes has a little bit of a shake and rumble to it when idling, but again a simple rev seems to fix the problem. Has anyone had this problem?

I have a 1998 Dodge Dakota V6 3.9L Engine

Suggestions from several mechanics are that it may be Ignition Coil, Dist Cap or Fuel Pump

Please let me know if you have experienced this problem and if anyone has the fix for it.

Simple Breakdown: Loss of Power and backfires from engine section, rev up engine to solve problem and usually never repeats after that, but next start-up it will do it again. Need a fix.

 

I had the same problem on my 02 3.9L SXT. A bottle of the cheapest "gas line water removal" stuff found at most gas stations seemed to help, as I thought it may have just been bad gas. Later that week, my battery stopped being able to hold a charge. Replaced the battery and the chugging/no power/backfire problem stopped happening.

You might try putting a load meter on your battery to see what it does. Perhaps the same will work for you?

 

a tune up never killed anybody, cap and rotor must be included in yours. a problem like this should throw some sort of diagnostic code. i would suspect a funky fuel injector or exhaust blockage if you continued to have the problem. how many miles are on it and when was your last tune up?

 

Thanks for the Info soo far. I have put fuel injector cleaner and 91 Octane Gas in my vehicle and I am still having the problem.

I bought the truck with 62,000km on it and I don't really know when the last tune up was. I have had two mechanics look at the problem and they hboth said, it isn't plugs or wires, not anything with exhaust. The only suggestions they had were again ignition coil, distributor, and fuel pump.

I thought it was bad gas at first too, because it happened right after I got gas, but I have since filled the tank from empty to 3/4 and put 91 Octane gas and Fuel Injector cleaner and ran the hell out of it. Seems to have got a little bit better, but I think this is just a temporary fix.

I have research some more info on the Dakota, It does have a known Coil and Distributor problem because of its high output. The Plugs and Wires go bad pretty quick, but I checked all those and they aren't black and the the gaps are good.

There are several other posts on other forums and no one seems to have a fix for this problem. Lets just hope someone can let me know before I start replacing parts one by one. Everyone has been a great help soo far. Thank you

 

Sorry I forgot to include the milage on the vehicle now. It has 74,314 right now.

 

my 5.2l had only 48k miles on it and its rotor was all burned up. do a tune up: cap, rotor, wires, and plugs. its part of your scheduled maintenance and your over due. i bet when you pull your distributor cap the rotor head will be burnt and have all sorts of build up on it.

 

Thank You. I just went online and found out that the output on the Distributor cap is very high for the Dakotas and that most people need to change their dist cap, wires and plugs like every 30,000kms. I am having my oil changed and tires rotated in 1,000km so I will get that done than. I will update the forum to let everyone know how it went.

Thanks For the help everyone

 

I agree the tune up might help and that cap is probably all burnt up. if I were u do the tune up with a dodge dealership because I see a lot of people do the tuneups with aftermarket plugs and the car runs like crap fo some reason and we have to do a tuneup all over again. for some reason dodge motors have to run on the right plugs. and ur v6 will always have a little bit of a rough idle. that's just how the dodge v6's run. if the tuneup doesn't work them u might have to get a pcm. that should have set ur check engine light if it running like that or the correct name now (mil) light. so if that's on take it to the dealership and have them go into the pcm an check for codes. I recommend u get a throttle boddy wash and a fuel injector flush because it runs right through the fuel rail into the injectors instead of the tank. going that long with out a throttle body wash and injector flush will build a lot of carbon build up and it should smoke like a train lol hope that helps

 

could be timing, i have the same probs, I'm having the mech at work check it out tomorrow, I'm due for a tune-up soon anyways, I just put it in second at it'll run fine. but earlier it backfired on the highway, and that means its getting progressivly worse.

it's not going to be solved with any injector cleaner, i run a bottle through every month.

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just finished the tune-up,
Cap,Bosch wires,Bosch platinum plugs, rotor.
all problems solved, no low idle, stopped backfire and loss of accel. Runs so much happier.
have'nt opened it up yet but i will tomorrow and post.
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