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1996 Grand Caravan- no spark

My wife was stopped in a parking lot today when our Caravan suddenly died and wouldn't start back up. There is no spark, but otherwise everything seems fine--fuel pressure seems fine, and there are no trouble codes in the computer.

I searched around on the web a bit and noticed that there seems to be no shortage of people having similar problems with Caravans, but I couldn't find any posts where people came back to report the final resolution.

Rather than tearing apart the whole ignition system, does anyone know what the most common failure points are in the ignition? I have already checked the most obvious stuff, namely the relevant fuses, the coil, and the engine compartment connections.

Reply to
Joe
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By the way, this is a 3.3L engine, so it has electronic engine & a timing chain.

Reply to
Joe

Does the engine Crank? Did you check the battery, And battery connections. Did you check the starter, a bad starter will cause the car to stall and not re-start.

Reply to
David

Common problem on this van. Play the game of swap the releays. When it starts, bamm you found the bad relay. Replace it with new.

Reply to
none

Hi, We have a 97 Grnd Voy and we're having the same problem. My wife was driving down the road, turned the corner, and the van just DIED. It'll turn over but but won't fire. We've changed the D.I.S Coil, checked fuses and relays, and even checked plugs and wires. NOTHING! I've even checked the fuel pump and all of the fuses and relays but still nothing. I was wondering if you had found anything yet??? All this electronic stuff is giving me a huge headache:) Any idea's would be helpfull!

Reply to
ECV

What relays do you recommend checking, other than ASD? The only other relay I'm aware of that is wired in to the ignition system is the fuel pump relay (fuel pump is functioning).

Reply to
Joe

I still haven't gotten to the bottom of this, but signs seem to indicate that it may be the engine control computer (Dodge calls it a PCM).

Here's what I have found so far: on a '96, 3.3L w/ electronic ignition, the three wires from the PCM to the coil should be grounding about every half second during cranknig as the PCM sends its firing signal to the coil (lighted circuit tester is best for checking this). I found that they mostly do not fire, although they sporatically fire 4-5 times in a row, and a couple of times they fired but then got stuck on ground.

I don't think that the circuit should ever be left open like that, which tells me that the PCM may be doing something funny. I also have learned that the PCMs on these cars have a significant failure rate. I personally attribute that to the fact that they put it in the engine compartment--heat is the number one enemy of solid state components--but I digress.

I'm going to check around tomorrow and see if I can find someone to bench test my PCM, and also try checking my relays one more time per the previous post to this group. Otherwise I might see if I can try swapping in a used PCM.

Reply to
Joe

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