1996 Dodge 3500 Van: 5.8L (I think) automatic; only 62,000 original miles. Driving great, then suddenly, RPMs drop & engine light comes on. It continues to run, but feels like it is running on 6 or 7 cylinders. All gauges are working fine. Stop & add about 8 gallons of gas to make sure there is enough & drive on home.

Any ideas or does this need to be analyzed at the Dodge dealership?[/align]

 

The first thing you need to do is get it to some place like Autozone and have them plug in their code reader to see why the check engine light is on. Let us know what trouble code they come up with.

 

welcome to DF...

you can try the key on-off-on-off-on method to see if the codes will pop up on the odometer. I think that is only going to work on '97 & newer vans. I'd start with checking the fuel pressure, then the coil. your looking for an engine wide type of failure so look at the things that affect the whole motor... fuel & ignition...