I have been having a problem for several months now with my 98 Voyager: it will shudder for a second or two and then the gas pedal will stop responding. If I am going at a high enough speed (55-60 mph) when I floor the pedal, it will all of a sudden, respond, with the rpms shooting up from a start-point of 2000 to potentially as high as 5500. My speed, however, will only increase about 4 or 5 mph. As I do this, the transmission sounds as if it's shifting at the last possible moment. When it finally shifts, there is a steady decrease in speed until the van finally responds to the gas pedal being depressed and then there's the rapid increase of rpms as I described before. If I am going at slower speeds, it is much more difficult to keep it at a constant speed. As I was trying to keep it at 35 yesterday, there was none of the rapid rpm increases; although I had my foot on the gas, most of the time the van would just very slowly coast and occasionally speed up a bit, but my speed was normally somewhere between 10 and 20 mph. Also, it started to make a popping sound and I could feel something popping underneath the van on the driver's side. I noticed there is something hanging down there: I know I have a broken CV boot, and maybe that's it? But there was a time about a month ago that the same popping occurred and I didn't notice anything hanging down then. Also yesterday as I tried to make it through a series of stoplights, I could hardly get the van to respond at all--it would barely go when I accelerated and the transmission was shifting in a funny way. When the van is acting up like this, most of the times all I have to do is pull by the side of the road and let it idle for a minute or two and then it's fine--I've even driven it 45 miles without it acting up afterward. I have on two occasions smelled some burning smell after prolonged driving while it is acting up, but I have not smelled it if the van's been driving fine. The problem has occured several times as I tried to drive up a large hill. This problem does not occur every time we drive the van, nor does the engine die--the accelerator just does not respond. We have replaced the spark plugs and distributor cap, the fuel filters have been replaced as has the fuel pump and although we are unsure as to whether or not the mechanic cleaned out the fuel tank after he replaced the fuel pump, nearly everything else about the fuel system has been cleaned out. Two other pieces to the puzzle: my cruise control may or may not work during the same period of driving, and although the battery and alternator are fine, the van tested before as having an electrical output of 1.5 volts. The theory about my van is that it has some electrical problem which is causing the transmission to act up, and the problem is not with the transmission itself. The transmission has been replaced on this van, although the engine has not. We have let four different mechanics look at it, and none have been able to fix it. We are desperately in need of some help! If you have any ideas as to what is wrong, please let us know!
- posted
18 years ago