Strange problem with 97 Dodge MinVan 3.0 V6. A real head scratcher

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Ken Day - 10 Mar 2006 06:25 GMT

My son , who lives out of state called me and told me about this
strange problem with a 97 Dodge MinVan. Been a real good vehicle up to
now at 180,000. After it gets warmed up it starts missing and shuts
down completely. As this is happening the interior dome light comes on
and starts flashing.....the windshield washer and wipers also come on
and neither will quit no matter what is done until the battery cable
is removed. When it quits it acts like a bad coil will do after
heating up , but he has replaced this , new plugs simply because it
was time for them and new distibutor cap and rotor. Also replaced the
plug wires .
He can't get it anywhere to get a computer diag because it won't won't
run but a few blocks.It quits after about two-three minutes driving ,
when it gets up to temp , or about five minutes idling. It will not
start again until it cools for 30-40 minutes.
When trying to flash the code the only thing that comes up is "battery
has been disconnected recently".
I hope one of you can shed some light on this. Sure would appreciate
any help I can get.

Thank you very much

Ken

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GeekBoy - 10 Mar 2006 06:35 GMT

Sounds like the computer unit to me.

> My son , who lives out of state called me and told me about this
> strange problem with a 97 Dodge MinVan. Been a real good vehicle up to
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Ken

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TBone - 10 Mar 2006 13:34 GMT

Me too

Signature

If at first you don't succeed, you're not cut out for skydiving

> Sounds like the computer unit to me.
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> >
> > Ken

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FMB - 11 Mar 2006 15:40 GMT

> Sounds like the computer unit to me.

If it were the puter, and
if it is acting on a change of input from the temp sensor, and
he didn't want to tow it to a shop....

could he 'fool' the puter by providing a 'cold engine' input from the Engnie
Temperature Sensor?

What would that look like? Would his engine continue to run after startup
if you pulled the sensor wire and the engine warmed up? What if it was
pulled and grounded? I wouldn't apply voltage unless I could do so
accurately and had the documentation that said exactly how much voltage to
apply. Same with resistance to ground (there goes the grounding of the wire
idea).

FMB
(needs more coffee)

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Ken Day - 11 Mar 2006 22:12 GMT

>> Sounds like the computer unit to me.
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>could he 'fool' the puter by providing a 'cold engine' input from the Engnie
>Temperature Sensor?

I'll call and have him do that. He has tried to flash out the code
with engine cold and gets the same result. Battery removed
recently..or something like that.

>What would that look like? Would his engine continue to run after startup
>if you pulled the sensor wire and the engine warmed up?

We will find out :-)

> What if it was pulled and grounded? I wouldn't apply voltage unless I could do so
>accurately and had the documentation that said exactly how much voltage to
>apply. Same with resistance to ground (there goes the grounding of the wire
>idea).

He is a pretty good 'shade tree' mechanic , but I don't think he
should try that with me trying to instruct him by phone , especially
since I'm not sure of how to do it LOL .

What about a bad ground somewhere causing feedback ? The blinking dome
light and wipers refusing to turn off sounds like the classic symptom
for that on a non computerized vehicle. I told him to double check the
ground from battery to engine /vehicle and from engine to chassis.
I've fixed things like that many times on RV's. I've seen some really
crazy things happen on them . They don't have a very good grounding
system.

>FMB
>(needs more coffee)

Thanks a lot

Ken Day

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