Hello All,

I have a 2001 Dakota in really good shape. V6 4WD. It needs brakes. I use the truck for hunting, fishing, hauling wood, it's not my everyday vehicle. Since it needs brakes, I haven't been driving it for about the last 3 weeks and I guess I hadn't started it since then either...

So, I got in it today to move it and the battery was dead... no big deal, I jumped it with the wife's car and it started up.... but immediately died (I did have the jumper cables set up correctly -- not backwards). This repeated about 4 more times, so I let it charge while hooked to the wife's car for about 20 minutes. Started it again, same result... it fires up, I give it gas, it revs, then dies... never makes it to idle. Now as long as I give it gas it runs, but will NOT idle, just dies.

I removed the jumper cables and tried starting from the battery, which it did... but I ended up draining the battery in my subsequent attempts to keep it running so I gave up.

The only thing I've had to replace or repair since I've owned the vehicle was an O2 Sensor and well the rotors and pads on the front need replaced (why I wasn't driving it).

I checked the P codes and get nothing... just "P Done" displayed.

I'm hoping it's not the alternator... it won't even run off the charged battery, like I said, it just dies... could it be fuel system related...filter, line, etc... could it be a switch stuck open or shut, or am I going to have to replace the alternator?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

 

i'd check the relay, and swap it with a known good one, and get a meter and check out some basic engine control circuits and make sure the ecm is working properly, is it a stock ecm replacement, or from a different year or something?
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Autopartswarehouse

 

First you need to check the alternator.Your battery being discharged for so long let the computer forget the idle speed.So you need a good charging system to let the vechile run and relearn the idle speed etc.It should relearn everything after a good drive.