Hi,

I'm a new member and this is my first post. I have an '02 Ram Van, 3.9l 6cyl, with the Elk conversion.It has52,000 miles on it and I'mthe original owner. I've had very little work done to it, aside from a tune up almost a year ago. Regular oil changes, of course, and I replaced the front brakes myself last February.
Here's the issue:
Sometimes when I'm driving, usually under 40mph or so, it'll start backfiring (I think) over and over. It sounds like I'm making popcorn in the engine compartment. This is accompanied by a serious loss of power. The more I press the gas pedal, the more it makes this popping sound. When it's happening, it won't really accelerate at all. I can make it stop temporarily by flooring it and forcing it to downshift. This also happens sometimes when it's idling. It starts sounding like it's idling really low and rough for a while, then it corrects itself for a while. When this is happening, if I depress the gas pedal, it'll do the "popcorn" thing again. This happens in both neutral and park. I took it to a very reputable local mechanic, and of course, when he drives the van, it's fine. He was going to replace the plugs and wires, but when he opened it up, he said everything looked brand new (from the tune up last year), and that replacing any of that stuff would be a waste. He did replace the ignition coil after noticing that it was very worn and had some cracking. It didn't help my problem at all, though.
It's been so bad a couple of times that it would stall out when I took my foot off the gas. I've noticed that when it's happening, my oil pressure gauge fluctuates somewhat. I did the "turn the key 3 times and read the code on the trip odometer" thing, and it said "pdone". The mechanic is baffled and obviously, so am I.
Oh, and another thing, it temperature doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever. I live in NH and we've had single digit temps in the morning the past few days and the van has started up like a champ only to start sputtering and popping a few minutes later.
Anyone have any ideas?

Thank you!

Andrew

 

First off your "reputable local mechanic" isn't very reputable. Just because parts look new doesn't mean they're working right, he was just being lazy in not wanting to check out the problem. The distributor cap or a spark plug could've cracked and be causing this problem, regardless of how newthey look.

Other possibilities include a plug wire jumping to ground, a failing speed sensor, intermittent throttle position sensor contact,or a failing fuel pump.

 

Hello,
I had this exact same problem with my 02 v6 Ram Van. It was the ignition coil, the one that gets a constant salt bath every time you drive it.
Tracy

 

Due note there is a TSB on the routing of the ignition wires. It is very critical to follow the routing to prevent the so called "popcorn" effect when pressing down on the pedal.

The TSB came out in 1998, but is good for the gen-2 Ram Vans to follow regardless of the year.

There is a Dodge Truck TSB website with all of the info. I don't have the link bookmarked on this computer I'm using.