2002 dodge caravan Engine misses, sputters and hesitates

[justabcguy]

Greetings all,

New to this forum as a member, but have used valuable information in the past. I'd like to share my recent experience with this issue. I have a 2003 Grand Caravan with 127,000 miles on it and recently have had the missing and lack of power issues stated here. I am the original owner and have done all the maintenance since day one. I changed the plug wires and plugs and that solved my issues but the reason I am posting is because when I went to change the plugs, three of them were loose! I could have spun them out by hand. I have no one to blame here except me because I was the one who changed them at 76,000 miles. In all my years of working on cars I've never had plugs become loose on their own. The only thing I can figure is I never tightened them in the first place. Or maybe the heads were too warm when I did it. Point being I probably could have simply tightened them and the problem may have gone away (compression leaks), but I wasn't taking any chances considering the mileage. Please take the time to check this first and maybe you'll get lucky as I did without needless expense. By the way the van is running great. Good luck!

[MattoxL]

Having similar issue with 02 grand caravan 3.3l.. every once in awhile it would act like it was out of gas and spit and sputter when it did in fact have gas (fuel gauge also doesn't work so i go by mileage) then it just progressively got worse doing it more and more until it did it every time i drove it. Now it misses and backfires going down the road and will also miss during idle, but is definitely worse in drive or reverse and when going up a hill, acts like it isn't going to make it. you can feel a clicking in the gas pedal when it backfires and the oil light will come on when you come to a stop then go right back off.. I have changed the spark plugs and wires, the coil and did tune up. It also decides not to start randomly mostly when it is cold out and has to be jumped. Thinking I will most likely need a new battery as well.. i don't think it has a egr valve? unless i am somehow missing it but it is not above the alternator.. anyone have any suggestions??

[MattoxL]

i was told the plugs on the backside of the motor are hard to get to, thinking i will try double checking this issue first.. thank you!

[justabcguy]

The EGR/Transducer assembly is located at the right front corner of the front cylinder head. (Right front corner as viewed from the front of the vehicle looking at the engine compartment). You'll have to remove four bolts to get at it. Two on each end of the EGR tube. When you replace it, don't skimp on the gasket, get a new one if it doesn't come with one. Careful when removing the plug connector, it has one of those red locking clips in it. You'll have to slide the lock up then squeeze the release tab and slide straight off. As far as the oil light kicking on, that's just a sign of low idle or an engine that is close to stalling out. Perfectly normal indicators when the engine is acting the way yours is. Getting at the back plugs is a little tricky but it can be done. The first time I changed my plugs I removed the entire cowl assembly including the wipers. Made getting at them a whole lot easier but time consuming. The next time I "borrowed" the wife's make-up mirror and used that to see. It worked well. Good luck to you.

[justabcguy]

One other thing, If the fuel gauge is not working then there is a good chance the van has been run out of gas at some point. Bad news with high mileage vehicles of any make. You may have sucked up some dirt/debris of some sort into the injectors. Might be the next logical step if the egr valve and plugs don't solve it.

[MattoxL]

well, just chnaged the spark plus again and one was cracked.. bought the higher priced ones, seems to be running back to normal