96 Plymouth Voyager stalling once warmed up.

[atxjax]

This is for a friends grandma who is the widow of a WW2 vet. She is 85, still strong and likes being independant. Her minivan has gone tits up and my buddy and I are trying to fix it for her.

Its a 96 Plymouth voyager 2.4L automatic about 115K miles, doesnt smoke and is overall in very good shape. We get a code 43 when we scan the ECU for codes.

Starts fine, and runs good when cold, idles and sounds great until it reaches operating temp. Once it gets warm it misfires, hesitates, stumbles and shakes horribly. On the dash we can get it to flash a code 43 which means its getting a misfire. We can't drive it to autozone because it might leave us stranded.

So far we have checked all the vaccuum lines for leaks, checked the intake manifold for leaks with carb spray, changed the camshaft position sensor, changed the spark plugs, checked the plug wires for nicks and or cuts, checked the coils, and cleaned out the IAC valve. One thing strange about this vehicle is that we could not find the EGR valve.

What I am guessing is that one of the sensors is throwing it off once the computer takes over to control the emissions, hence why it only does it when its hot. I hate to have my buddy start throwing money at it randomly since we already replaced the camshaft sensor at $75 bucks and that wasnt the problem.

Weve been reading online and some folks say its the MAP, some say its the O2 and some say it could be the coolant temp sensor. Some folks say on this site it could be a bad alternator choking down the battery.

Im puzzled by this. Any help would be appreciated.

[RIP]

No EGR on the 2.4 ltr engine. Do your best do get a scanner on it. A MIL code 43 equates to 10 different scanner codes that can narrow down the problem in seconds. If that's impossible try to determine which cylinder or cylinders aren't firing. Connect a timing light to each plug wire and look for the missing flash. Disconnect each plug wire one at a time and see which doesn't change the idle. If you want to keep swaping parts find a donor at a junkyard.

[atxjax]

Originally Posted by RIP

No EGR on the 2.4 ltr engine. Do your best do get a scanner on it. A MIL code 43 equates to 10 different scanner codes that can narrow down the problem in seconds. If that's impossible try to determine which cylinder or cylinders aren't firing. Connect a timing light to each plug wire and look for the missing flash. Disconnect each plug wire one at a time and see which doesn't change the idle. If you want to keep swaping parts find a donor at a junkyard.

Thanks for the reply. I'm goign to have to get some software on my laptop and convert it into a scanner to try to narrow it down since I dont really want to drive it and get stranded. Here are the things I'm going to check...let me know if Im way off base.

1. Check the Temp sensor ( should be over 1K ohms cold ) about 400 warmed up.

2. Check the alternator. Should output about 14 volts when turned on at about 3K RPM

3. Change the fuel filter ( since its cheap and should be done anyway )

4. Do a fuel pressure test ( should be about 50PSI )

Anything else?

[jpb53]

If you can; look at the old plugs and see if there is carbon tracking down the sides. If so you need to replace the plug wires.

[atxjax]

Originally Posted by jpb53

If you can; look at the old plugs and see if there is carbon tracking down the sides. If so you need to replace the plug wires.

Only thing I saw on the old plugs were a brownish colored ring around the end tip of the wires. I think if the wires are bad it would run like crap all the time. Not to say that they arent....

[jpb53]

This site give a different description of a code 43http://www.troublecodes.net/chrysler...20253335.shtml

[atxjax]

Could be a bad coil that messes up once it is hot. You neve rknow. I would need to find a manual to test that coil.

[atxjax]

Looking for a bit more help. I was able to do some more testing.

Battery is good.
Alternator output is at 15V
temp sensor is good
coil fires on every cylinder but is misfiring when hot


Next up to change is the crankshaft position sensor. Any thoughts?