Our Community is 940,000 Strong. Join Us.


1995 Dodge Ram Van 3500 died at highway speed


rhinologistics
07-26-2006, 07:23 PM
Looking for some ideas on what could be wrongwith my 95 van. I was driving west on I-94 about 70mph about 90 degrees outside A/C on and suddenly the engine stopped accelerating. I jumped over to the slow lane and continued coasting to the next exit. while coasting I noticed all my gadges were normal, normal temp normal oil pressure battery charging everything appeared to be fine. I feathered the accelerator but no response. after coasting for a hundred yards or so the engine quit, It was still running it appeared but was not picking up speed. I noticed the oil pressure drop and the light come on which is normal when the engine dies. I shifted to neutral and attempted restart but it would not start. The engine turns over very strong no issues with the battery. After coasting off the highway and into a parking spot at the BP station (damn lucky) I popped the hood and opened the fuse box in the glove compartment. I pulled each fuse as well as the maxi fuses under the hood. All fuses checked good. I looked at the fusible links along the firewall and they appear to be intact as well. Next I checked the codes stored in the ECM and it returned a (CODE 55). So I then took out a can of ether and sprayed it into the breather hose and attempted to start again. Did not help. I have changed over the past year the computer, crank position sensor, coil, and fuel pump. So i believe it is not one of those. Any ideas would be appreciated because I need to get it back up by tomorrow. It was running without any problems and getting 15mpg prior to today. Am i misssing something simple??
Rhino Logistics

stamar
07-27-2006, 01:18 AM
as far as your poll

I could not in any stretch of the imagination call my dodge reliable

I have only 85 k miles and I have done maintenance on it at a ridiculous level

And have had numerous problems. All weird little things like um, distributer cap crack, battery cable bad, starter dies, fuel injector dies. hoses burst.

weird little maintenance related things. but constantly.like a breakdown ofsome sort about every 1000 miles. and it mostly sits. now from nowhere the oil pressure starts to fall after its running for a few minutes which is possibly head gasket leak.

I could not recomend this vehicle to someone looking for a van
It takes a very active owner. almost like the vanagon I had for a while.

I mean, I dont drive it anymore really. I want to fix it all up and sell it. I think the vehicle I wanted is actually a toyota van, or previa. I only tow my geo metro so Ive never needed the v8, I just need a van that is sleepable and has a rear axle for towing.

when you look at the survivability of the dodge van vs the fords or chevys, i mean the percent sold vs how many on the road, they must be better built. but mine no way. made with very shoddy electrical components.

I have had worse vehicles. they were ford. Ive owned a lot of vehicles, and Ive always known this but now its come to an apex. Only buy japanese. forget what anything else tells you, only get japanese.

I may have this van for many years Im not sure yet. but when Im done with it,its my last american thing Im going to own.

rhinologistics
07-27-2006, 01:39 PM
additional info on my problem child. I have checked for spark from the plug wires i am getting spark. I am getting 8 volts to the camshaft position sensor which is to speck but it is still not starting . I can hear the fuel pump engaging when the key is turned on I also hear the injector clicks that I have always heard in the past. One other point we sprayed starting fluid directly into the throttle and turned over and nothing happened. It cranks produces spark at the plug and when ether is sprayed in why would it not attempt to start. Any ideas ??

stamar
07-28-2006, 12:28 AM
nothing i could come up with in the short time you needed.

I was going to say something about fuel pressure but no. If you get no run on with starting fluid at all and you get spark... starter cranks....

Could only be mechanical failure, no compression broken rings Im not sure.. I mean its mechanic time I think.

cant think of what would cause a car to not start if it has fuel and spark.

I mean Im going back to problems people have with DIS ok but that prevents spark lol.

Ok um one last time

SPARK is going to the combustion chamber.

Starting fluid is in the combustion chamber. meaning fuxor the fuel pump, fuxor it all we got our own stuff. ok spark the fluid.....

And it doesnt start? Well if youre right its mechanical failure. I think youre going to be wrong I think its going to be a fuel related problem still and you are using statryting fluid incorrectly.

after trying to crank, do you pull out a spark plug and you smell gas?

rhinologistics
07-28-2006, 11:40 AM
Hurray! It was the coil. After getting a few idea i was following up on one to test the coil. Primary resistance was 1.6 ohms but the secondary resistance was 10.12k ohms... spec says it should have been between 11k ohms and 13k ohms you would not think 2k ohms would make you dead in the water but i guess it does thanks for all the help!

palosheights
08-13-2006, 05:10 PM
i have a 1995 dodge 2500 conversion van, i just got back last week from florida diriving up to chicago. i had two breakdowns on the way home.

1. just coming out of chattanooga the van ran out of gas and i had to pull over on the side of i-64 in the mountains. tdot came about half hour later and gave us some fuel to get to the nearest gas station. when i filled it up i found i still had half a tank left (my gas gauge doesnt work). i was 98 degrees out and i had been driving for 600 miles from disneyworld so since i was driving from in the heat i figured it must be the fuel filter, haven't changed it yet, i did make it to chicago with no further incidents of this sort since the weather was only in the 80's and the evening was coming with cooler temps yet.

2. when i got into kentucky my oil light came on and stayed on and the tappets were clicking away. checked the oil and it was full. same thing happened to the van about 3 years ago and then i thought i just got an oil change about a month before so i thought it was just a loose oil filter. but after this incident i knew, not sure though, that it was just the oil filter. i went back to a local walmart and they changed the filter for free since i bought this in the chicago area six weeks earlier. no problems so far.

could this be caused by sludge in the system. for the oil filter going out i haven't a clue.

andy

Add your comment to this topic!