Hello all! Im new to your forum and hope to learn some things. Im not new to forums im a very active member at gmt400.com for my truck. But now I need some help with my wifes van so here I am. Anyway yesterday we were driving down the road and the van just died, has had no problems of any kind until that point. So got towed home now here is where im at.... it cranks all day but will not start, ive replaced the crank position sensor, camshaft postion sensor, spark plugs, and the coil pack. Earlier when I checked for spark at the coil pack there was none but the plug leading to it had power. After changing all these things I checked again and it had spark but still didnt start. Thats when I changed the plugs because theynwere horrible.went to start it with fresh plugs and now im back to not having spark off the coil anymore. I took the top cover off the timing belt and it appears fine... also im not sure if im getting fuel the schrader valve will spray fuel when cranking but the plugs arent wet when I take them out... sorry for the long post but im just at my wits end here and any and all help will be greatly appreciated... the van is a 2004 caravan with a 2.4l four cylinder

 

Well thought I would report back with what I found after scratching my head on this subject all day ive found that the timing belt must be broken. Like I said the engine will crank fine but wont ever start so I took the top timing cover off and spun the engine and yup the cams nor belt are moving. My only issue with this is that I thought I heard somewheee that this is an interference engine and if the belt breaks while running the valves will hit the pistons and basically ruin the engine. While turning it over theres not any crazy noises coming from it so my question is..... is there any truth to my engine being potentially ruined ?

 

According to the Gates Corp timing belt guide the 2.4 ltr in the 2004 Caravan is a non-interference engine. The 2004 Dodge Stratus with the 2.4 ltr engine is an interference engine. That may be where the confusion lies.

BTW - Your Caravan uses a Gates T265 belt and should be changed every 120K miles.

 

Yeah I got it figured out today and thats the same thing I ended up looking at this morning but I put a new timing belt on it today and its all back to running great like nothing ever happened

 

Nice work and thanks for posting the fix.

 

What actually ended up happening was several teeth tore off the timing belt creating a flat spot where the crank pully was just spinning inside the belt instead of turning it. As long as a person is relatively handy with some wrenches and has a haynes manual its not too bad of a job to do. Ive never replaced a timing belt on a dual overhead cam engine before. And its back together as of this afternoon and running great! So I wouldnt say its a beginers job but you dont have to be a professional mechanic either

 

Ok well a couple days have passed and now its not running so great.... it runs fine as long as your moving but if its idling in park or gear it runs rough... the other day it gave me p0172 saying it was running rich... I have since cleared that but havent gotten it again. Im just at a total loss here I dont know what to check since that code is so vague, like whats the rundown on checking all the sensors and which ones would be the culprits here? Like I said it runs fine and very smooth as long as your giving it gas. My guesses right now are vacuum leak, ect sensor, or o2 sensor. Does it sound like im anywhere close on this? Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is my wifes vehicle and she hasnt been able to go anywhere in a week now, so she is starting to get frustrated with it. Also its a 2004 caravan 2.4l four cylinder

 

As far as the P0172 code here's a very basic explanation of fuel trim and what is happening when things go wrong:
And here is an explanation of the code and things to check. It mentions a MAF sensor. You have a MAP sensor. Same function: http://www.obd-codes.com/p0172

 

Ok well I got some carb cleaner this morning and checked all the vacuum stuff out and no change so I believe its probably not a vacuum leak and cougar thanks for the link ill check that stuff out... any other ideas keep bouncing them off of me... thanks!