hey whats up hope you guys can help with this. my 03 dodge ram with 4.7 v8 will die when i put it in gear, i start it put it in gear drive for a little while but when i go to put it in reverse to backup it just quits. almost like you shut off the ignition. there are no lights on the dash everythings just goes blank. engine light is not on. there is still power because the radio is on and i can still roll up the windows.

 

unplug your batter for an hour or so let the pcm reset.... (it will run funy when its first reset) but when its done resetting it SHOULD run fine... if not its more complicated than that and we can go from there... any other problems prior to this?

 

With out looking at it 2 things come to mind if battery voltage is less than 12 volts it could cause a stall at idle. also a dirty throttl body can cause a stall as well.

 

A vehicle is not a personal computer; you should never have to reset the PCM for proper operation. Anything that fixes will show up again as soon as it has a chance to re-learn everything.

Odds are it's a throttle body problem, or perhaps whatever these trucks use to control the idle airflow (usually an IAC motor but I'm still learning these trucks).

 

The two most prevelant problems causing stalling issues are dirty throttle bodyor bad EGR valve.
Start by cleaning the throttle body...

 

Battery, when you put it in gear the RPM's drop and the voltage drops. Computer under voltage picks up and kills it. Try putting it in gear and keep the RPM' up above 1000. If it keeps running you lost a cell. It happened to my last Dodge and it just happened to my wifes Honda.

 

If the EGR was stuck open it would idle bad period. I would think along the lines of a dirty throttle body or a bad or dirty IAC. These are common problems. The IAC is a solenoid with a metal shaft that get corrosion on it and disables it from moving freely. The transistion from park to reverse or drive to reverse is the greatest load on the IAC. The crap on it stops it from moving quick, therefore it cant compensate and keep the idle at 700 rpm. Ive cleaned many.

 

how hard is it to clean the iac. and where is it located.

 

The IAC is located on one the drivers side of the throttle body, ( i think ) It has two torx screws holding it in. It will look kinda a chap stick tube when you take it out of the throttle body. I usually clean them with a dremel tool with a small wire brush used for polishing metal. Cleaning it may or may not work. If it dosent work I would replace it anyway. Even if it isnt the problem now it will be sooner or later.

 

Hey flwalks, it sounds like you described my problem perfectly. When you say if it stays running by keeping the RPM's up I have lost the sale do you mean a cell in my battery?