2000 Town & Country 3.8l Randomly Dies

[lesterl]

My mother-in-law has a 2000 Town and Country with the 3.8l V6. The Van has (on the last 1/2 tank of gas) randomly died with no warning and no obvious signs other than it wouldnt accelerate. Once was at a stop at the bottom of an exit, once while driving (cresting a hill), and another while navigating a parking lot.

My first suspicion was the lower ammount of fuel possibly being water or some bad gas as it is single digits nowadays. Fuel pressure was 45PSI on prime and low 50's running. Van has just under 100k on it. There was no lurch, no CEL, no loss of lighting/ etc. The van just silently quit running.

Any Ideas? I plan on a can of HEET for the time being and I had her top the tank off to see if it got better, dont have any miles on it since the top off yet so time will tell.

Thanks in advance.... LES :-)

[Alphabravo]

The way you've described it, it seems to me that it's stalling while her foot is off the accelerator. I would start by checking the Idle Air Control Valve for carbon build-up.

Good Luck.

[lesterl]

Good point, I did have her fill the gas tank up, it hasnt acted up since (yet), if it gets to acting up again, I will check the IAC. Thanks man....

[lesterl]

Update, Can of HEET, Tank of Gas, issue has not returned......

[sixseas]

Im not familiar with the 3.8L but had something similar on a 93 3.3L added heat did what I could to make sure fuel was fresh. It helped but after a couple months came back and got progressively worse. Found anything I did appeared to help for a short period of time. If it returns again and again note if engine starts right up after quitting and runs perfect. I had no error codes. If so suspect the crank sensor spacing (mine was rubbing and wore through the plastic cover) and cam shaft senor (in my case the connecting plug corroded inside). No repeats for a year now so think I finally got it.