[olsarge]

2001 Dakota 4.7 will be driving down the road just fine then die (all electrical). Will restart. I'll be checking the battery terminals soon as I fix the broken doors to get back in. Any other ideas? No check engine light or codes.

 

[RichardD]

A thorough inspection/cleaning of all main powers and grounds would be a good start. Keep us posted.

 

[immattj]

I had a somewhat similar situation with an '03 with 5.9. Except intermittent and "will restart" devolved to a terminal "won't restart." When it was intermittent I used the shotgun method and threw parts at it (cam & crank position sensors, ASD relay, cap, rotor) and when it became terminal my troubleshooting determined that although I was getting batteryvoltage to the coil I was not getting a trigger signal from the PCM to the coil so that led me to sending out the PCM for repair which fixed it.

Which is not to say that I am suggesting that your PCM is necessarily at fault; however, I have read a ton of posts that come down to buggy PCMs on Gen 2s. The troubleshooting that I referred to above has to be performed when the vehicle will NOT start, which can make things tough if it is intermittent and will always (so far) restart.

And on a quick edit: I never did get a CEL when this was going on.

 

[immattj]

. . . another consideration would be the ignition switch.
On an '01 (through "04) it is a 14 pin connector, and in 'run' there should be six pairings (combinations) of pins with continuity between them.
Without looking hard at a schematic, I cannot tell you which pairing would provide power to the ASD relay, but assuming that the contacts were going bad in that pairing, whenever it failed to make continuity there you would lose power to the coils and injectors. Without looking at the schematic, I cannot say what else (if anything eles) would also lose power when that happened.

You could take a meter and ohm out between the applicable pairings when in 'run', but again, it has to be in a will not restart mode or everything would ohm out good.

 

[olsarge]

So far I haven't been able to get either door open. They seem to unlock but the doors just won't pull open. Just working on it as I get the time.

 

[TLAC]

I don't think there fully unlocking

 

[olsarge]

I haven't had time to fool with the locks as it is not primary vehicle. Will update when I do.

 

[olsarge]

Finally got the doors open. Something on the door panels was really wedged tight. When I pulled hard enough the doors opened but popped off the inside panels. ??? figure that out another day. Throttle body was not gummed up bur cleaned it anyway. No Better. Battery cables were tight. Tomorrow I try a new idle speed sensor.

 

[immattj]

Tomorrow I try a new idle speed sensor.

Idle speed sensor? I am not familiar with that sensor.
Regardless, is that what you would think would be randomly shutting your engine off while driving?

Are you maybe referring to the IAT (intake air temp) sensor or the TPS (throttle position sensor)? I still don't think either of those would cause random shut downs.

 

[olsarge]

It's one of two sensors on the intake possibly tps but when i asked for the idle speed sensor I got what I was looking for. That's what my parts diagram referred to it as. My sil has been the current owner of the truck and I figured out it was only when coming to a stop and idling. Only other issue I have experience causing that it low transmission fluid. I found out it wouldn't even idle in park and changed the sensor. Seems to have fixed it for now.

 

[immattj]

It's one of two sensors on the intake possibly tps but when i asked for the idle speed sensor I got what I was looking for. That's what my parts diagram referred to it as.

That's interesting--maybe I am missing it, but I cannot find anything with that nomenclature on rockauto or my in FSM; I guess it wouldn't be the TPS as that is on the TB. Regardless, if you have got it fixed, that's the main thing.

 

[olsarge]

OK Idle Air Control Motor chapter 14 page 53

 

[immattj]

OK Idle Air Control Motor chapter 14 page 53

Ahhhh, the IAC Valve . . . gotcha. You threw me off with sensor nomenclature--the IAC Valve is not a sensor. Anyway, good job on getting it fixed.

 

[olsarge]

So far that has fixed it.