Got in the car this morning and it started right up and then immediately stalled. We are the only owners and haven't had this type of problem before. It would crank, but wouldn't fire. After I got home, hooked a code reader up and nothing. Didn't see any fuses blown either. Disconnected the battery ground for a few minutes and then reattached. Car eventually started after holding the throttle on the floor and would idle OK and up to 4000 RPM. At 4000 RPM, it would start missing and never go above that. Any ideas? This is the first time it has done this. Thanks for any insight.

 

First check to make sure you have good spark. Then make sure you have the proper fuel pressure.

If all that checks out test or replace the engine coolant tempature sensor. A bad ECT will cause those symptoms.

 

I'm going to assume I have good spark as the engine, when running, was not rough and very smooth and didn't sound like it was missing. I don't have any way of testing fuel pressure, but again, after it started, it would run like normal up to 4000 RPM. Do you have any info on where the sensor is and how to test it?

 

Got in the car tonight and drove it to a mechanic to have them check it out tomorrow. On the way over there, it started right up and pulled hard all the way to redline, through 3 gears anyway. It's got 85K on it, so other than regular oil changes and tires, haven't really had any problems with it.

 

Please update us as to the resolution.

 

A high RPM miss can be bad plugs or wires. Don't go cheap here, if you need to know what to look for let me know...

 

If your in P or N when your running engine up to 4k then its running properly. The car apparently has some sort of limiter that at about 3k kicks in and won't let engine RPM go much higher - the engine simply does what I call surges.

I have just confirmed with a Chrysler Master Tech that the engine computer does have a rev limiter for when engine is unloaded.

 

I would start with the basics, fuel-spark. Then move on to all the sensors. Most readers(like at the parts store) won't tell you what the problem is, they only tell you what's being affected by the problem. A dealer computer(or similar) will tell you what sensor(S) is causing the issue. Some sensors like MAF can be finicky, sometimes the work others they don't. Make sure you have good spark and fuel delivery. Most everything else is computer controlled(timing etc.).

 

Sorry I hadn't gotten back sooner. OUGRAD was right about the limiter. In P or N, it will only rev to 4k and then cut out. Mechanic told me that was normal and someone else told me that was so someone couldn't do a wide open neutral drop and blow up the transmission. The mechanic checked it out thoroughly and couldn't find anything wrong, had a hunch that we may have had water in the gas, which we did fill up the night before. It has ran fine since with no reoccurance of the problem. While he had it, he changed the brake fluid, which he said looked like sewer water, and flushed the cooling system. Both needed to be done, just hadn't gotten to it.

I did put my Superchips programmer on it, which reads codes also, and it didn't show any before, but he said if I cleared it, that may have not shown him something when he used his laptop to check it.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and hope this helps someone else.