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

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

Reply to
Ken Day
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Sounds like the computer unit to me.

Reply to
GeekBoy

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)

Reply to
FMB

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.

We will find out :-)

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.

Thanks a lot

Ken Day

Reply to
Ken Day

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