Hi, I'm new to this forum. I got a 2001 dodge ram 1500. Yesterday I noticed when I was getting on to the highway and pressed the accelerator all the way down to merge in with traffic that the motor started to bog down making a hesitating shutter plus the check engine light flashed and than stayed on. It only did it when it went into the over drive gear when I floored it. All the other lower gears sounded normal. It did this once before a few weeks ago. The roads were just cleared of snow and I took it out of 4 wheel drive before I left. When the shutter started I thought maybe I didn't take it all the way out of 4 wheel drive before I left ( made that mistake before). So I fittled with it and got back on the road and everything was fine and light went off, until now. Now it's doing it again and the 4 wheel drive is completely out of gear. Plus the check engine light isn't going off this time either. I'm having a hard time figuring it out what it is. How come it only does it hear and there. Also I replaced the spark plug and wire's a few months ago. I was thinking that maybe it was the distrubutor cap ,or ,rotor, but wouldn't it do it all the time, if that was the case. Well if anyone has ran into a simlar problem or has any ideas on what to look at, it would be greatly appreciated, Thanks George

 

1st, you don't have a cap or rotor. Try this............codes. Post back with what you get for codes.

 

Sorry I took so long to get back to you guys, I was working late the last few day's.
In this case, the motor I got is a 5.9L that utilizes a distributer cap with a rotor. It has about 61000 miles on it. I should of replaced the cap and rotor 30,000 miles ago, but being in a tight space I kind of pushed it off I did run it through a OBD check and it came up with cylinder 6 & 7 as::: misfiring or not functioning accordingly::: When I pulled the wire boot off of the # 6 cylinder to check the spark plug (I had a problem with a cracked spark plug in the past that caused a similar problem, but much worst symptoms) it was fine. However, when I went on to check the spark plug on the # 7 cylinder the internal contact from the wire boot was still attached to the spark plug. Changed the wire out and alas a back to normal engine. Changed out the distributer cap w/ rotor and now it runs brand new. Thanks for the code check idea casper, that helped out a lot, I have a friend who told me Auto Zone does a code diagnosis check for free and it norrowed the problem down greatly. Here's the curve ball though, when I was going through all of this, it was the day after I had my transmission filter and fluid changed by my dealer (for routine maitnance, I don't like touching tranny parts). The transmission shifted fine before I took it in, despite the check engine light being on with the distributer wire problem. He questioned the light and asked me if he wanted him to look into it. I told him not to worry about it, I would look into it, I didn't want to bring up any large bill, because I was out of the warranty and would have to pay out of pocket. He did suggest to check the ignition system. The thing is that now that I solved the problem with the ignition system, the 1st gear of the tranny is sticking and not changing into the next gear until it hits over 4500rpms, right before red lining it. It never did that before, even with the ignition system problem, and before I took the tranny to get serviced. The dealer told me to get any kinks out of the ignition system before he would look at it, cause this can effect transmission perforemance. I did it, and the engine runs like a gem, but the transmission still shifts out of 1st at a high rpm. I'm wondering if it might a vacuum line that came loose during the process or what?? I'm stumped. The dealer's gonna take a look at it, this monday, but he's talking to me as if I had a bad tranny to begin with and I thought that a fluid change would do the trick , which is totally not the case. And a check engine light the day before doesn't help the matter. I don't know, if any one has any clues I would be grateful, thanks again George

 

There is something wrong with the transmission. It has either a blockage somwhere or bad parts, or low fluid. It is shifting centrificaly, not hydruliclly.

 

I had the same problem on an older Chrysler product. The more I pressed the gas down the more it bogged. It was the spark plug wires..... Warranty, thank gosh..