Hello All,
Just bought a 2003 Ram 4x4 quad cab SLT - 4.7L engine. I have an issue I am hoping someone can shed some light on. I was driving it today, went to park it and as I went to shift it to Park, by the time it was in park, the motor was off, I sort of ignored it....well...then I was driving down the road and shifted it to Neutral, sure enough it dies! Almost 9 out of 10 times it does this....any ideas? Also, if I am going from Drive to Reverse, it dies as well. Seem like a neutral safety switch maybe? I have tried resetting my computer by unplugging the battery...

Thanks!
Mike

 

I have no idea but just to make sure, you have checked the level of transmission fluid right?

 

I don't think that has any thing to do with it but I'll double check...what I noticed today, if I have the A/C on the truck never dies, I assume its b/c the motor is always idling at a higher RPM with the A/C on....I am leaning toward a throttle control sensor...I cleaned the idle control valve and didn't help.

Today I was pulling a trailer, slowed down to take a right turn and the damn thing died...usually it had only done it shifting to neutral, very weird.

 

Sometimes when coming to a stop or going around a curve the truck will shut off and most of the time guys find the trans fluid was low. Thats a bit different from changing gears but I thought I would ask. There have been guys whose truck would die while literally driving in a straight line and has been found to be a bad PDC (fuse box)

You said you cleaned the idle control valve but what about the throttle body?

 

I didn't clean the throttle body yet...mainly b/c I wasn't sure on the procedure. I have been looking for some tips on how to do that, do I have to take the body off the truck? Thanks!

 

You don't have to take the body off, there are a couple bolts, couple cables - for cruise control, throttle and the vacum tube. Oh yeah two plugs if I remember correctly as well. Should come right off. That reminds me, I need to do mine again also.

 

Good deal, I will take it off this weekend and clean it up. Can I use carb and choke cleaner? I thought I read somewhere that you should use brake cleaner? I drove the truck tonight and for the first time it ran fine. I wonder by cleaning the idle control valve if it took a while to do any good? Does that make sense? Didn't know if it took some miles for the computer and etc to synch up? Thanks again!

 

Yeah, use non-chlorinated brake cleaner and resetting the computer will help

 

What is a good way to reset the computer? I have read so many different things its crazy lol. I've seen everything from disconnecting battery for 15 minutes to disconnecting battery and touch the positive and negative terminals together (sounds weird to me)........

Thanks,
Mike

 

You could disconnect the battery but I dont like doing that because I loose my radio settings and everything else.

I pull my PCM fuse in the fuse box and then with it out I put the key in and turn the ignition on-off-on-off-on and wait a few seconds. You will get a chime from the truck letting you know it is reset. Then put the fuse back in and start it up.