HI All; my first post !

I've got an '03 Quad Cab 4x4 Hemi with about 30K miles and it is behaving suspiciously; maybe somebody else has already solved this one? (I searched around a bit without too much luck)

Any time (after sitting overnight or a even a good drive (25+ mi) at a sane pace (a rarity, I know)) the truck gets a ridiculously low idle, and shudders as if to stall. If I stomp on it, it seems to be only running on 4-5 cylinders (barely any power at all); won't break maybe 30 mph. After 10 seconds to 2 minutes it just wakes up; no fanfare or anything, just back to normal. This seems to happen about once every 2 weeks.

I am gearing up to bother the dealer, but thought I might be able to go armed for bear with some info from the forum....

Any help out there?

Thanks!

CGW

 

Wow. That is crazy. I wonder if it's an O2 sensor or something that is leaning the engine out. Please keep us informed.

 

is it triggering the SES light? my stratus did that for a while, but mine got progressively worse...turned out to be a bad plug.

high mileage?

 

Good point- No SES light. Ever. Plugs have crossed my mind, since the guy I bought it from seemed like the type that may have put some suspicious plugs in if someone told him they would make 50 extra HP... figured I should definetly scope that out before wheeling it in to the dealer; could be a little embarassing if that was the problem...

Mileage is not too bad- 30K.

CGW

 

With the dual plugs in each cylinder, I don't know that you would even notice that. Unless both went bad at the same time, which would be highly unlikely.

 

whoops...forgot about the dual plugs..that would be unlikely to die at once

 

Along the lines of what your thinking though, maybe a coil pack. Each coil pack fires 2 plugs, one on the cylinder it's sitting on, then another elsewhere that so many degrees out of phase with the original cylinder. I'd have to look at the manual to give you the firing order, but it's different.

 

Just thought of it too. A coil pack I think would give you a MIL for a misfire. So it's probably not that.

 

my truck does that too rarely, however mine won't get up to 30, when it starts it it either dies or I kill it, upon restart it's perfectly normal


my brother-in-law and sister first noticed it when they borrowed my truck to go pick up their four-wheeler that was stolen, but I find it happens alot when I use reverse, either freshly started or sitting at an idle (ordering at sonic, go to back out, it does it, get in it, start it, hit reverse it'll do it)


it's only ever done it to me like 5 or 6 times, but I can't reproduce the problem enough to take it to my dealer

it almost acts as if it's on bad gas, or a feul filter's stopped up, or even a bad plug

same truck as yours cept mine is a 2500, 31k miles

 

so it goes away when you shut it off,and turn it back on.,..thats very interesting...that would make me think it has something to do with the computer(pcm)...anyone?