This is right around the time (both age and mileage) where you might begin to suspect the fuel pump is on the way out. I've had three vans with in-tank pumps and none of them just suddenly went, all three gave me ample warning before quitting for good.

None of them in a convenient place at a convenient time I can assure you.

 

I had the same symptoms as the poster , didn't know what it was! Car would just die on its own! Sometime's it would sputter and continue on! I did a test for fuel pressure and it was fine! My problem was a intermentent fuel pump failure, but I didn't know it! Tore the whole car apart trying to find it! Threw alot of parts at the car!

I read about a test where you place a amp meter (in series) to the power feed to the fuel pump and watch the amps!!! It took about a hour of idleing in the driveway before anything would happen! The meter would show about 6 amps when running normal,when it started to sputter or die the amps were climbing like crazy, about 15 amps! This was on a Olds!

Harbor freight sell a cheap inline amp meter (about 12 bucks) that plugs into a fuse socket, This tool is also fused! not sure if the Dodge's have this fuel pump fuse though!

You could also tape a fuel pressure guage the windshild and watch for the pressure drop when the death shows up!

 

Sounds like a good weekend effort. Would trying to find it with the lights out be any help? Hoping there may be a spark that would indicate where the issue is.

 

Monitoring the current draw of the fuel pump makes sense. If it's bad it's either going to pull much more current than normal or drop to near zero. Either way it's not good. I suspect mine is bad cause the engine is missing and sputtering intermittently too.

 

Hi all,

Thanks for all the feedback. Now that I've been running the van for a while it seems that I only see the engine cut out when I'm on the freeway and it's more likely to happen when I'm accelerating. every once and a while I get it going into work doing 35. I'm not getting any sputtering just a momentarily cut out on the engine, 1/2 - 1 second at the most. One time I was doing a U-turn and giving it some gas at the same time and it cut out and came back to quickly that I "slammed" the gears in the rear differential hard enough that I got out of the vehicle as I thought someone had rear ended me. This is why I'm thinking it's electrical versus a fuel issue, no sputtering.

Is ti possible for something in the distributer to go out? Again, I'm getting no engine light coming on. I had done some work where I had to pull the transmission back from the engine and when I bolted it back up it wouldn't start. I noticed that I had pinched two of the four wires of the four conductor ribbon cable/wire going into the distributor in between the engine block and the transmission. I got it out and then the engine would start. I wiggled the wire but didn't get any reaction so I wrapped some Gorilla tape around it and called it quits.

With no engine light coming on this is hard to diagnose. I suppose it's possible the coil I bought is flaky (BorgWarner). Is there a way to test coils?

Thanks in advance,
M. Wagner

 

Sounds like the exact issues I'm having. Started with just cutting out a second or 2, now has progressed to full blown, sitting on the side of the highway waiting for it to cool and run again. So far I have replaced the coil and the crank sensor. Worst part is, replacing them one at a time made the problem go away for about 2 weeks each part swap...

I'm currently thinking computer. Their on ebad for $170... Don't know what else to do being that there are no codes. Have noticed the one time I checked that there was no spark, and lately it does seem to start running weak before it quits.

Have had suggestions of fuel filter, but the no spark would seem to rule that out. Also distributor, but the no spark was from the coil and of course the plugs, but the fact that there was no spark from the coil would seem to rule out distributor.

My van is also a 1999 b1500 long bed, w a 5.2 Mileage is 250K

 

I replaced the cam sensor as someone suggested. Made no difference. One thing I noticed on the old sensor was that it appeared that something has been rubbing on it like maybe the crescent shaped metal below the rotor although I'm not sure if that rotates. I have a rebuilt ECU that I purchased some time back due to bad information from PLX regarding their gas milage meter that would just need the correct milage reprogrammed into it but I was hoping to return it for a refund. Other then the coil what other item could get faulty and not activate the check engine light?

 

A failing crank pickup has the exact same symptoms and often will not trigger CEL codes.

 

I've replaced it twice but I could do it again. Do you think that's more likely to be the problem versus I may have purchased a bad coil (BorgWarner)?

 

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