Alright, to start off I want to say hi, I'm new to this forum and jesus christ I hope this is the place I can get the fix haah. I have a 99 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport 4x4 and everything was running great untill a little while ago the truck started to idle oddly. I would get to a red light and the rpms would drop to 400 then jump to 700 then go to 200 and so on and sometimes even die. I have taken out the throttle body and spit shinned the damn thing, when I put the throttle body back on I reset the computer by holding the key in start position with the battery only connected to 1 post. The truck started great and then after 1 day went back to the same problem. I was thinking it could be a vaccuum line but the problem only happens once and a while, well I should say once and a while, been happenning A LOT the last few weeks. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!

As you can probably tell I am new to working on vehicles but hell, as a guy who likes to learn stuff this is def. my new favourite thing to do.

Hope you can help, thanks in advance!

 

do you get any DTCs? check your IAC it could be acting up

 

I'm guessing DTC's are codes on the dashboard? If so, no I am not getting any lights on the dash. Also, my buddy was saying the IAC could be the problem but how do I check that without going and buying a new one when it may not be the problem?

Thanks for the quick reply also!

 

i had the same problem a while back...it haunted me and gave me nightmares for like 3 weeks. it was hell lol. long story short, i replaced my tps, iac, cleaned tb, and replaced all my wires, my coil, and cap and rotor button...all to find out it was just an oxygen sensor that went bad because i had a exhaust manifold leak....$$$$$ yea. it was fun.

 

its hard to check for proper functions without a scanner, but you can remove the IAC and make sure there isnt any carbon buildup in there. unfortunatly, like wjavier said, there are many posibillities.

 

Thanks for the quick responses! So I took the IAC out and put a new one in and the same damn problem. I'm wondering about the possibility of the oxygen sensor having gone becuase I know I have a small exhaust leak, damn. How can I tell which sensor is gone?


Thanks a lot again!

 

usually the sensor that goes bad that screws with your air/fuel ratio and makes it run like crap is your upstream one(right before cat). but on mine i only had 1 o2 sensor, so it made it easy. you might have two, idk. regardlesss, its before the cat.