97 Caravan 3.0 quits running and speedometer issues

[rattler02]

We have a 97 Caravan 3.0 that runs great as long as you are not taking a trip over approx 200-300 miles. The van runs good then all of a sudden it will just lose power and quit, (sometime it will just idle) if it does quit running, it will not restart. After the van "sit's" a while it will crank back up ( sometimes after 2-3 minutes sometime after 10 minutes and one time it would not start back up for a half hour ) and then it runs like nothing happened, it seems to do this more if you are running over 70mph, and the only "common time" for it to happen is on a long hwy trips, we run the van all over locally and it never has any trouble.

And the van does NOT throw any codes when this happens.

The other wierd thing our van does is while driving down the road the speedo will "drop / bounce" down then up and resume working normally. This also happens at completely random times. When it does this the motor seems to miss just a little bit. Running diagnostics on the dash AND the PCM is not showing anything wrong.?

The van has 168,000 miles timing belt was changed a few years back when the water pump went, just replaced the fuel filter suspecting this was the problem but it did not correct the problem.

Any ideas why these things are happening,

[Bernard Feltzer]

When my van was doing the quiting routine only on the highway during long trips, it turned out to be the cat converter was plugged up except for the area in the center about the size of a quarter. At 136,000 miles.

[RIP]

Your speedo/miss sounds like a classic Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) failure especially since they are happening simultaniously. The VSS is used in combination with other sensors to adjust the idle air control motor for fuel adjustments and transmission shift control. It is also the sending unit for your speedo.

There is a chance this could be causing your stalling problem though I have some doubt. I would go ahead and verify the wiring to it is good then change the sensor (around $30) and see what happens. If you still have stalling Bernard"s cat experience sounds like a good possibility. It looks like something is heating up and failing.

Type caravan VSS or spell it out in the search function at upper right. There's plenty of threads on the subject.

[rattler02]

Thanks for the suggestions, I am going to have to start the process of elimination to figure this one out. I wil have to pull the cat and see what is going on in there.

This will be an interesting on as the only way I can possibly ( I mean that literaly as sometimes on trips this doesn't happen at all ) duplicate the trouble is to drive the van for long trips.

Is it possible for the EGR to be doing this???

[RIP]

EGR? I won't say no but, not likely. It tends to fail and give you constant problems or at least more often then on long trips.

Ya it's going to be tough to duplicate this. You'll likely have to change parts and as I said, see what happens.

[rattler02]

Well I have not forgotten to post the findings, it is just that it has not done it again yet. So I am unable to "find out / fix" what is causing this. When / if I do find out why this is happening, I will be sure to let you all know.

[rattler02]

Well I haven't forgotten about ya'll, it finally did it again tonight ( last time Jan now June, jeeze talk about a random occurance ) BUT I was only doing 65 this time. She quit but would restart and run like it was on 4cyl instead of six. I was able to hobble it down the road about a half mile to a safer place. When it restarted it ran like cr**, but it did get me to a safer but darker place, when I was able to get out and "look/listen" to the engine it would only idle, if I tried to rev it up it was almost like I was "choking it out" when it did rev up some it was missing badly. Something different this time though,the "cruise light" came on while it was idleing???

This time the CEL/SES light came on too so I hope it threw a code for me to find in the morning to hopefully point me in a direction to find out why it is doing this

Any ideas with the "new symptoms/lights"?

[RIP]

The code will reveal the path to follow.

[rattler02]

Well no codes present this morning...??? This is REALLY FRUSTRATING!!!!!
At least it does start and run now???

[Problematic1963]

I had a similar situation 2 years ago with my 3.0 Caravan, then at 110K miles. It was during a 1600 miles trip and 3 times I had to stop on the side of the road. Each time I was driving at highway speed (+/- 70 mph) when the engine would lose all power. After stopping on the side on the road, I could barely keep the engine running and pressing the gas pedal too much would make it die. Each time I would stop the engine, wait for 15 minutes and then it would restart and be good for another few hundred miles. During the ordeal, the check-engine light never came on.

When I got to destination, I went to a Chrysler dealership and described the symptom. They checked the PCM and found a +24 value in some adaptative memory related to the fuel system. Based on this, they changed the fuel pump and it fixed the problem.

I hope this can help...

Good Luck!

[ronmar1]

Possibility the the fuel pick up screen on the fuel pump is stopping up with dirt, rust ect. When you let it set for a minute or two they fall loose and allow the flow to start again.

Ron

[rattler02]

Originally Posted by Problematic1963

I had a similar situation 2 years ago with my 3.0 Caravan, then at 110K miles. It was during a 1600 miles trip and 3 times I had to stop on the side of the road. Each time I was driving at highway speed (+/- 70 mph) when the engine would lose all power. After stopping on the side on the road, I could barely keep the engine running and pressing the gas pedal too much would make it die. Each time I would stop the engine, wait for 15 minutes and then it would restart and be good for another few hundred miles. During the ordeal, the check-engine light never came on.

When I got to destination, I went to a Chrysler dealership and described the symptom. They checked the PCM and found a +24 value in some adaptative memory related to the fuel system. Based on this, they changed the fuel pump and it fixed the problem.

I hope this can help...

Good Luck!

Thanks, I am starting to think it is the fuel pump.

My DIAG software Auto enginuity ( which I absolutely loved BEFORE their new update which has erased my enhanced software codes, so now I cannot find out anything on my truck. I wish I hadn't updated this morning, I hoped it might have helped with the "new updates" but it kind of backfired ( no pun intended ) still waiting to hear back from them as to why )

The van is up to 175,000 miles so a tune up is definitely needed so I am going to do that just to see if it helps, and probably put in a FP soon also.


Thanks again for the suggestions.

[rattler02]

Originally Posted by ronmar1

Possibility the the fuel pick up screen on the fuel pump is stopping up with dirt, rust ect. When you let it set for a minute or two they fall loose and allow the flow to start again.

Ron

Thanks Ron, I thought that also ( or the old ping pong ball trick ) but I pulled the tank and replaced the fuel filter in the tank a few months back so it "shouldn't" be causing this. It looked pretty clean in there.
Good idea though, thanks.

[rattler02]

Originally Posted by Problematic1963

I had a similar situation 2 years ago with my 3.0 Caravan, then at 110K miles. It was during a 1600 miles trip and 3 times I had to stop on the side of the road. Each time I was driving at highway speed (+/- 70 mph) when the engine would lose all power. After stopping on the side on the road, I could barely keep the engine running and pressing the gas pedal too much would make it die. Each time I would stop the engine, wait for 15 minutes and then it would restart and be good for another few hundred miles. During the ordeal, the check-engine light never came on.

When I got to destination, I went to a Chrysler dealership and described the symptom. They checked the PCM and found a +24 value in some adaptative memory related to the fuel system. Based on this, they changed the fuel pump and it fixed the problem.

I hope this can help...

Good Luck!

Well I think you are right about it being the fuel pump BUT unfortunately I am not going to have the answer for sure on this one. I bought a new van and this one is going bye-bye.

I do really appreciate all the help / suggestions in trying to figure out what is wrong. But we thought about it for a while, and before we start putting lot's of money into a vehicle with 176,000 miles on it ( they don't run forever ) we figured it would just be better to get a new one.


THANKS again, Don