Hey I know I am grasping here, but yesterday my truck experienced it's first check engine light. It's a 98 Ram 5.9 bought in Oct of 97, has 56k on the engine. I was driving along and all of a sudden a loss of power and the check engine light came on. I was able to nurse it home, it wanted to stahl when I gave it gas. I popped the hood when I got home and all was fine. I am retentive about my maintenance and keep the engine spotless. All looked good.
I stared the engine and it would die after I race the motor up a few rpm's.

Being that the truck is over 8 years old now, I am believing it's the oxygen sensor, or one of them as they are original. I have no idea how much a shop would charge to replace it or them. Would it be better for me to go ahead and replace the sensors? I had a smililar situation on a Nissan pathfinder when one of the sensors went bad, the truck stahled and sputtered it was under warranty so I let nissan deal with it.. Any guess as to which one? I take it they are on the left side as the listing in Advanced Auto lists it that way, but another online asked if it was left or right.

I don't have a code reader and was wondering anyone had an idea.

thanks

 

first off, you can read the codes by turning the ignition key on-off-on-off-on. the codes should appear in the odometer window.

2 things come to mind on your problem... 1 being the TB needs to be cleaned, the IAC will get gunked up over time and will start dying on you. the other is the o2 sensors. the front one is the one you want to change... the rear just monitors cat effeciency.

 

thanks for the info

I never knew that about the engine codes appearing when you turn the ignition. Sorry about the typo "stahls", made me come across rather dumb.

I am somewhat inclined to try to replace whatever sensor shows bad myself.

I have never cleaned my TB, bad I know. but up until then it ran pretty good. I have to use 93 octane to avoid knock. Been through the pcm replacement (courtesy of mopar) and I don't consume any oil that would indicate plennum gasket problems, (been running mobil 1 synthetic most of its engine life). I bought one of the first 98 quads off the line I bet, as I received several manuals the first being a mix of a 97 and 98 pics in the book, and the octane recommendation is 87 or higher. Then the next book said 87 should work find, but it knocks, so does midgrade. There is some slight rough idle at startup, which someone said that running 93 will do until the engine warms.


She really books w/93 octane and keeping the o/d off like I do. That's when you know you have a 360 in there. No engine mod's at all.

I do more maintenance than most folks as far as the fluid changes and keep the engine spotless. Most folks think it's a new truck when they see it.

enough of my babbling, thanks again
Craig

 

did you check fuel psi, it is always overlooked and easy to ck.

 

WOULD YOU LET US KNOW IF YOUR PROBLEM IS FIXED AND IF SO WHAT IT WAS THANKS

 

Also could be the cat...I know I say that alot but I had to replace mine, and on 2 other Dodges. All 3 acted diffrently. Mine barely idled and made a really wierd sound when I gave it gas. One of the others didn't run AT ALL, just kept turning over. And the third did what your explaining. Idled fine but when you raised the RPM it ran really crapy then died.

 

when i bought my truck it would shake, stutter, die and would not go over 50 mph we bought it and hollowed out the cat and it runs great now .

 

yea pull off that tb and give a hell of a scrub with a toothbrush and some carb /tb cleaner... if you can try to take off the 3 sensors on it and clean them well too.. even the connectors .. while the tb is off.. get a good flashlight and maybe a small telescoping mirror if needed and peak in the intake plenum to see if there is some puddling of oil.. the truck may not conume any oil but its always good to check anyway.. if there is only a small thin film of oil then its fine.. after that tb is clean.. seeing that it has never been cleaned before... you can try droppin back down to 87 octane..... i did the same as you untill i realized that regular cleaning of the tb is needed and is one of the major causes of knock/ping.. also helps to run a bottle or 10 of injector cleaner through it and get on an open freeway and give her hell for about a mile... cleans the hell outa my motor when it starts idling like crap... well good luck and post your finding for others...

 

The check engine light only comes on when the a/c is engaged. I "rebooted" my truck by disconnecting the neg wire and (after tightening the air breather clamp I found to be loose), it runs ok but once I hit the a/c the check engine light comes on. As far as cleaning the tb, I decided to treat myself to a fastman replacement tb which is due in the next day or so. I also bought replacement sensors (map, tps, iac) to put on the new fastman. I plan on replacing the o2 sensor as well, already bought it. I don't want to look into the intake for oil. It's been a haunting thought ever since I heard about the problem years ago, don't want to deal with it now. My truck does not consume oil, even the synthetic I use and it does not knock when I run premium. It really books for a truck, solid power. I keep o/d off all the time unless I am going on a highway, so it gets it around town. I plan on trying 87 after the tb replacement. I also plan on replacing my plugs as they are 3 years old, they only have 8k on them, but what the fuh. The distributer, wires, and rotor all have only 8k. This truck is pampered. Probably too much. Ironically, the tb is the only thing i neglected over the years.

I had a problem in the past w/the a/c and the technician said it was a loose wire that cause the check engine light to come on. So I guess I am going to have to take it to mopar to have it fixed.

thanks for all the advice everyone, I really do appreciate it.

 

goodluck and have fun with the intsalls... post up after the new stuff is added on and give us an update so others can use it aswell...