I've owned this truck for about 5 months and, on two occasions while driving it, it has shut off on me. Once while sitting at a traffic light and a few months later while cruising at 50 mph.

It's an abrupt cut off like if I had turned off the switch, no sputter at all.

Both times this happened, within a minute, it would crank back up and run fine.

Took it to the Dodge dealership and they could find no problem. No codes or anything. They drove it with a fuel pressure tester attached and it held fine and let it idle while jiggling wires all over and couldn't make it hiccup.

It's a 2000 1500 SLE 5.9L gas auto 108500 miles.

Any ideas?

Sonny

 

The PCMs are known to fry on those, they are in a bad location with poor ventilation and connections tend to break loose inside. Usually occurs on a hot day, there are a lot of articles online about it. But I would go that route as a last ditch effort as that is very expensive to replace, unless you go with a refurb unit. Check the Auto Shutdown Relay, swap it with the horn relay and see if you have any more issues or just replace it. They are $6 on RockAuto. Other option would be to test the throttle position sensor. Take an ohmmeter and connect it to the pins and turn the sensor with a screwdriver and watch the needle (analog ohmmeter is best) rise. If it suddenly drops at all while you twist the sensor up then it has failed and needs replacement.

 

Thanks! I'll give those things a try.

Hope the batteries in my old Simpson 260 haven't vented. ;-)

Found a refurb PCM for $300. Hope it doesn't come to that.

Sonny

 

Run the engine, get down and dirty, start wiggling wires, especially the primary wires that are going to the coil. If the truck just dies out, its more likely an ignition issue, based on my own personal experiences. My old chevy used to just die at random, it was just a loose coil wire.

 

Shutdowns like that are often a scroungy ASD relay.

So "within a minute, it would crank back up and run fine"... what happens in that less than a minute before it cranks back up and runs fine? Does it crank and not fire? Not crank at all? You never even tried to start it up again? Does everything electrical go down with the engine, or just the engine shuts off? Need Input!

I've not heard of a TPS causing engine shutdown. Could be it happens, but I've not heard of it. What I have heard of, though, is about half of all PCM replacements being unnecessary.

 

Bad crank sensor will also cause this to happen.

 

Sorry, I was kind of lacking on that description, wasn't I. Yes, when it shut off, I tried to start it multiple times with no luck. Crank but no fire and all electrical appeared to be fine.

The first time it happened, I tried multiple cranks and then, got out and looked under the hood, wiggling wires, re-seating relays in the power center and, by the time I got back in to try it again, it started.

The second time (it was raining), I tried just a few times to start it and then just sat there for, maybe 30 seconds and tried again when it started.

Sonny

 

Wouldn't that throw a code?

 

Not necessarily. When it won't start, does the fuel pump still run?

 

I have no idea. Can you hear it from inside the cab?