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Please help - engine sputtering, truck shuddering, multiple DTCs

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Old 02-24-2010, 10:19 PM
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to test the trigger you can use a test light or a 12v bulb and bend the wires into the plug.. your trigger will be on the outside one not the middle one .. theres only 2 wires on your conector .. the third is a blank .. just put the bulb leads into the conector and get someone to turn it over and it should flash if you have a trigger not a fast flash .. and mine was running rough all the time and also make sure you have power on the middle one with the key on .. the pcm triggers your ground not power.. hope this helps..
 
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Old 02-25-2010, 08:27 AM
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Originally Posted by If you can't Dodge it, Ram it!
Thanks for your insight on the rattling noise. What does a cam follower look like, and where is it supposed to go?
The cam follower is where lifters would normally be. It's a strip of metal that the cam uses to push down on the valve with. You'll have to pull the valve covers to see if there's any that have fallen out. Just push it back into place if you find one lying in the top of the head. A little convincing with a plastic hammer might be needed.

I used the spray Seafoam on mine. Take off the box on top of the throttle body, start the motor and spray one and a half cans into the TB. You'll have to keep the rpm's up a little to prevent stalling. You shouldn't get much smoke during this time. Once you've got that much seafoam in there, let off the throttle and keep spraying until the motor dies. Let it set for a minimum of an hour to let the seafoam work, then run the fire out of it. That's when the smoke will roll. Do it after dark and no one should notice....?!
 
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Old 02-25-2010, 09:05 PM
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Originally Posted by sickj123
to test the trigger you can use a test light or a 12v bulb and bend the wires into the plug.. your trigger will be on the outside one not the middle one .. theres only 2 wires on your conector .. the third is a blank .. just put the bulb leads into the conector and get someone to turn it over and it should flash if you have a trigger not a fast flash .. and mine was running rough all the time and also make sure you have power on the middle one with the key on .. the pcm triggers your ground not power.. hope this helps..
Originally Posted by KingsMan
The cam follower is where lifters would normally be. It's a strip of metal that the cam uses to push down on the valve with. You'll have to pull the valve covers to see if there's any that have fallen out. Just push it back into place if you find one lying in the top of the head. A little convincing with a plastic hammer might be needed.

I used the spray Seafoam on mine. Take off the box on top of the throttle body, start the motor and spray one and a half cans into the TB. You'll have to keep the rpm's up a little to prevent stalling. You shouldn't get much smoke during this time. Once you've got that much seafoam in there, let off the throttle and keep spraying until the motor dies. Let it set for a minimum of an hour to let the seafoam work, then run the fire out of it. That's when the smoke will roll. Do it after dark and no one should notice....?!
Thank you both for the advice. Sickj, if I get a chance I will check that trigger signal this weekend. I'm only worried that even if the PCM is bad it's going to show up as being good in the driveway since it doesn't act up all the time. KingsMan, yours is great advice too but I'll probably hold off on that until I get the other problem figured out. Thanks again.
 
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Old 02-25-2010, 09:39 PM
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I'm starting too woory about these trucks, they all sound likesh3T BOXES! Really You guys' build'em then wreck the pcm cuz It thinks something is f$#@ed In the stock truck. Or you guy's are beating the living snot out of them. What gives?! Trannys ,no pwr,sh$tty gas milage,rough ride,lights come on when not in use,Gotta be the look cuz I got a 06 love the look but I baby this cream puff stomp on it only after rolling and never tried to light em up. YET!!
 
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Old 01-28-2014, 10:07 AM
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My 2002 ram is at the dealer now with the same issue. They told me its a lifter spring. $900
Originally Posted by If you can't Dodge it, Ram it!
Hello all,

I've been having this problem for some time now (since December) but had put it on the back burner for a while to get some front suspension components replaced, but now that that's done it's time to turn my attention back to this. My truck is a 2002 Ram 1500 QC 4x4 with the 4.7L V8 and automatic trans. It has roughly 100K miles on it. When the problem first started out it would sputter on occasion whether at idle or going down the road, sometimes bad enough to make the whole truck shudder or buck while driving at a constant speed or downshifting under acceleration. The check engine light would come on and when I pulled the codes I had the following:

P0300 - Random/multiple cylinder misfire detected (this code would not come up every time but the following 2 did)
P0304 - Cylinder 4 misfire detected
P0308 - Cylinder 8 misfire detected

Now I had just bought the truck used towards the end of last summer and didn't know the history as far as maintenance so I figured I'd start with new plugs. I changed them and found #4 to look almost new with very little wear or discoloration, and the rest were well worn with the center electrodes worn almost flush with the porcelain insulator. None of them were wet at all. All the plugs matched as far as brand and part number so it would be my guess that they were all put in at the same time. While I was changing plugs I also swapped the #4 coil to the #2 cylinder and the #8 coil to the #3 cylinder to see if the misfire would move to cylinders 2 and 3, but it hasn't--cylinders 4 and 8 continued to have the problem. Last night I retrieved even more codes than before:

P0300 - Random/multiple cylinder misfire detected
P0304 - Cylinder 4 misfire detected
P0308 - Cylinder 8 misfire detected
P0442 - Evaporative emission control system leak detected (small leak)
P0455 - Evaporative emission control system leak detected (gross leak)

I was thinking maybe I'll swap injectors around next to see if the problem moves with them, but it looked like a pain in the azz to do so figured I'd check with you guys to see if that's the next logical step or if you had other suggestions. Has anybody else here had this problem before?

Also, one other thing I thought I'd mention - when the truck is cold and I start it up (especially for the first time of the day), I hear a rattle for about the first minute or so of it running. Sounds like a pushrod V8 with lifters that just don't want to pump up but I know there's no pushrods or lifters in there. A friend with a 4.7 Durango told me this is normal - is this true?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.
 



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