My son has a 1999 Ram B1500 3.9L. Van has had a PO132 and a few misfire codes when he bought it a few months ago. Drives very good minus a mildly rough idle at start which corrects when driving. 3 days ago he blew the heater hose off while driving drenching the engine block of his car. We replaced the clamp, reattached the hose and filled it back up with coolant and water. Drove fine. No over heating issues. The following morning he went to start it and he had his typical mild rough idle. He put it in gear and it stalled. He left it parked for a bit then started it up with out issue and took it to town to fill up with half a tank of gas and do a bit of shopping. No issues. Drove it home and parked it. The following morning it wouldn't start. It turns over strong and sounds as if it is trying to catch on a few cylinders. We jumped, no luck. Checked battery and cables. Good. Swapped the battery just in case with no difference to starting issue. We can hear the fuel pump kick on and have fuel pressure at the fuel rail. Spark on coil appears strong and have spark at the wires. Checked starter relay which is good. Son says he can hear each of the injectors working/priming. Pulled codes which were PO132, PO302-305, PO300. Some of these were set before the vehicle stopped running and we bought it. I know firing order on this engine is 1-6-5-4-3-2 so I'm a little suspicious why we have misfire codes for all cylinders except 1 and 6. I'm also at loss how it drove fine the night before and wouldn't start the next morning. Ideas? Where should I start? Thanks!

Neutral safety switch?
ECM?
Cat?
Cam or Crank position sensors?
Bad gas?
Jumped timing?
Issue with cap, button or coil?

 

Verify you are getting spark from the coil. If that's ok, pull the distributor cap, and check condition of that, and the rotor.

 

I have spark at the coil. I've already checked button and cap. Went ahead and pulled it off again to inspect it and examined the distributor. They look near new. Tried to start it for grins and giggles. I was not surprised to find it still doing the same thing. It sounds like it will catch every 3rd or 4th cylinder so I floored the gas to clear the system then started pumping the hell out of it. Honestly I was mad and frustrated. My son had to drive his other POS with out insurance today to work with a bad tranny. It worries me. So I guess I just took out my anger on the poor van and just didn't care about its starter. Just gassed the f**k out of it. It started. Runs normal again. No clue. A friend believes my son might have had water in the gas that effected some of the injectors. My son put injector cleaner in earlier today on a whim. I might have just had to keep giving it gas to get the cleaner up to those injectors maybe. I have no clue. I am happy it's running, but really scared it will happen again. Codes are clear except the O2 sensor. My son is building this van (van life) to drive out west after high school graduation this summer. I know enough about cars to be scared. Still would like to know what the issue is to keep it from happening again.

 

Yeah, those can be fun. Ya have a few months to make sure it's sorted though.

Does the temp gauge read properly?

 

I haven't tested it but it appears to read correctly. Previous owner stated he had 'an overheating issue' on the van and replaced everything related to the cooling system finally figuring out it was the fan. It should be noted the morning it wouldn't start it was below freezing here. My son assumed it was just too cold to start, but then it wouldn't start when it had warmed above freezing that afternoon either. The van seems pretty clean mechanically. The muffler has a gaping hole and the steering feels loose to me but otherwise handles well. It has 123k miles and he picked it up for $1200 so I didn't have high expectations. I'm not a Dodge fan (please don't hold that against me), but I'm kinda partial to this van. It just 'feels' like a beast. It's been a while since I've gotten excited about working on a ride, but this van...just feels different. I'm a single mom and have had dreams of working on cars with my boys since my first was born and put to sleep by the Flowmasters in my Mustang. It's only been in the past few years I've gotten to do this. I think the hardest part about him taking this out west isn't the potential mechanical failure, but rather I won't be there to help him if it does. I think that's really the epitome of letting your babies fly the nest. A proud moment, but scary and hard at the same time. If I can verify the soundness of his ride now, it might make my nights while he's gone more restful.

 

That's actually not a bad price. If the body is still in decent shape, he can sink a fair bit of money into it, and still not be in too deep.

The van should start regardless of the ambient temp, unless it is truly stupid cold out. Below -40..... I don't think it gets that cold in Tennessee.

If you have a scanner that can read live data, it would be interesting to see what the PCM thinks engine temp is, when it's stone cold.

 

When it won't start, has anyone tried using starting fluid to see if that get the engine to fire? If it helps there is a fuel delivery issue, if it doesn't then it's an ignition or compression issue.

FYI, the multiple misfires is often caused by a failing crankshaft position sensor.

 

We have tried starting fluid with no avail. It's back to not starting after sitting for a while. After I started it yesterday I drove it to his work 8 miles down the road to swap cars with him. It drove normal. When he went out to start it after work a few hours later he had to give it a lot of gas to start again, then drove fine. This morning, it would not start. He had to take his other car in to school again. It seems like the longer it sits the less likely it will be to start. I think we might go ahead and replace the cap and button, look at replacing the crankshaft sensor. I'm wondering if this is a bad gas issue. He has added injector cleaner, but I'm thinking of adding a fuel dryer additive and high octane to see if that helps. It's a really big tank that I think we'd have to get professionally dropped and cleaned. I don't so much trust hand pumping the tank to get rid of all impurities. Still, part of me thinks maybe not gas because it drives fine. My friend, 40 year master mechanic, believes it's tainted fuel. Is it possible when the heater hose popped off drenching his undercarriage and engine it might have damaged a sensor that would cause this type of issue? I'm fine doing repairs but don't want to through a bunch of funds at it my son doesn't have. On the other hand, he needs a safe and reliable car especially if he plans to take this out west. Thanks for everyone's feed back. I really do appreciate it.

 

Gas floats on top of water, and the pump pickup is toward the bottom of the tank... so, if there is water in there, the longer it sits, the bigger the problem. Driving it stirs it all up, so, less of an issue. So, it *might* be bad gas.... or at least, that might be a contributor. When it won't start, need to see if you are getting spark, and is the fuel pump running.... having a pressure gauge would be helpful..... 99 should be right about 49 psi at key on.

Could try cycling the key a couple times, and THEN trying to start. See if that makes any difference.

 

It's getting spark and the pump is running, fuel on the rail. I don't have a fuel pressure gauge. Once we get it started it runs fine but possibly lacks a little power. It appears harder to start the longer it sits. We are going to treat the gas and see if that helps any. No new codes and misfire codes haven't returned. Just the O2 code at the moment.