My van broke down right after christmas, towed it home and scanned the codes and it only said the ckp sensor was bad. A little over a week ago I finally found time and swapped out the ckp sensor with a new one, cleared the codes and fired it up. It ran for 10-15 minutes idling in my driveway and I headed to the store. Halfway home it stalled out, no spitting or sputtering like before, it just stalled, like you turned it off with the key.

It will rev up and shift/drive fine, but intermittently stalls, I can't make it happen. Happens 1-10 minutes after you get it fired up, and sometimes you have to jump it to get it started again.

I took the alternator off and had it tested at autozone, granted they told me I can't use a marine battery in a car(didn't actually try it we were just conversing), they said the alternator tested good, for what that is worth.

I stuck a multimeter on the battery leads and fired up the van, before it stalled it was reading 14.4v, but as soon as it stalled the battery started draining, I watched it go from 12.4 to 11.4, fairly quickly.

I then swapped out the battery in my car to the van, and fired it up. It stalled within 3 minutes, and the battery was dead to the point it wouldn't start the car. I got fed up with it and need some help. I can't really afford to take it to a shop so somebody help me troubleshoot this thing please?!!

 

Could try this test. Instead of waiting 15 minutes for the system to "sleep" as stated, disconnect and hold both battery cables together for 10 seconds : http://www.ricksfreeautorepairadvice...-battery-drain

Sounds like something heavy like a starter is draining the battery. Remove the starter relay and see if the drain is still there. That will remove the control side input to the starter. Then disconnect the larger of the two starter connections. That's the hot battery feed to the starter (be careful or disconnect the negative battery cable). Wish I could have a dime everytime a starter, battery, alternator, etc tested fine at a parts store then was bad in the car.

 

A fairly cheap diagnostic is to get a voltmeter you plug into a 12 V outlet, ~$15 on Amazon. I got the Equuis model. I have ammeters in my old Chryslers, which they dropped in the 1980's. You need some diagnostic while driving. I see 14.4 V with the engine running and 12.6 V with the engine off. Don't use an "always live" outlet or may drain your battery.

Sounds like your alternator is fine and you either have a large drain or 2 marginal batteries. You can find the drain using a multimeter (free at Harbor Freight Tools w/ coupon). Disconnect the BATT+ and measure the cable side resistance to ground as you unplug fuses and relays. Some loads like the starter have no fuse. Anything less than 50 ohms sounds suspect (that could be a dome light), though to drain a battery in an hour would take <1 ohm.

My suspicion is it isn't dying due to low voltage, but to either a flexplate that cracked and rotated under the bolt holes messing up the crank position sensing, melted fuel injector wires, or old spark plug wires. I had all 3 in my 2002 3.8L. The later 2 caused misses under heavier throttle. The former was indicated by a vague sheet-metal sound for about a year, then a clunking sound when applying the starter at certain positions, though it never threw a crank sensor code (just "misfire"). I found the flexplate rotated 20 deg at the cracked circle. Unless you can fix that yourself, big repair bill. Yours is more likely the fuel injector wiring, which you can fix w/ $2 or silicone self-fusing tape. Search for photos.

 

Hey thanks for the advice guys. I love the links, electronics is definately my Achilles heel when it comes to vehicles. I've got a 94 aspire with a 94 protege motor/91 capri trans in it sitting in my garage with a megasquirt ecu next to it that can vouch this fact. I don't own an ammeter but I love tool shopping so ill get one today or tomorrow.

I was screwing with it some more a couple days ago after I read there is an automatic shutoff relay integrated as part of the ignition system. I swapped the AOD relay out with the horn relay and headlight relays but it didn't help the issue. The battery needs jumped every time now. I also noticed the lights flicker, like the milage and dash lights.

After speaking with a friend he said a bad coil could cause the issue too, so I need to get in the book and figure out if there's a way to isolate and check the coils individually.

I helped a friend fix his 98 voyager that had a melted injector socket, but I have been trying to avoid removing my intake to look at that. Like I said, I've got this comming weekend off so ill get it into a heated garage somewhere and see if I can figure it out. Thanks for the suggestions this far, I will look into it and report back when I do.

 

You don't need to remove the intake to get at the injector wires where they usually degrade. Look at the harness above the exhaust cross-over pipe. You can peel back the plastic loom, it is held w/ Velcro. You may find wires with degraded insulation, as many have. Search for posts w/ photos. I just wrapped each wire w/ self-fusing silicone tape, then an over-wrap. You can get that at any hardware store or even the 99 cent store. Don't use cheap electrical tape.

I wouldn't focus so much on the battery. If you are providing >12 V by some means - alternator, charger, another battery on jumper cables - the engine should start.

Coils are pretty robust, but easy to check you are getting a spark. I use an in-line spark tester ~$4 at Harbor Freight.

I vaguely recall that the AOD relay is special, with a few extra pins, so not sure you can swap it with other relays. I kind of remember that the AOD is for the fuel pump and has built-in safety so the fuel pump won't run with the engine off. You can connect a pressure gage to your fuel rail to insure you are getting pressure there (55 psig?).

 

I was just looking at those in line spark plug testers last night in harbor freight, I may go snag one today. It would be really nice if I could avoid breaking plug wires any more than I already have. I broke one on this van the other day messing with it, and had to splice the end back on. I keep all my old wires because it happens so often, my poor 4 cyl car has wires from 3 different vehicles. That would probably work well between the disty cap and wire, but I would also like to see how much power is being sent through, is there a setting on my multimeter that could handle that kind of power without frying the fuse?

The AOD relay had 5 pins like the horn relay, and the diagram on the side was the same..same part numbers on top too. I bought a couple rolls of polyken tape in a group buy on fordfestiva.com awhile back for 2$ a roll Haha

The van does start, it just stalls in a few minutes. I just need to go mess with it some more, its hard to do anything after a 13 hour day and an hour of driving back and forth.

 

I squeeze silicone "di-electric" grease into each spark plug terminal to keep out moisture. It also keeps the boot from fusing to the plug. You need to squeeze the boot to let the air out as you plug it in. To remove, try to rotate the boot first to free it. Best if you can pull from the boot end it to expand it. There is a tool for that, but I don't have.

After replacing the cracked flex plate and fixing the bad injector wires, I still got a miss at high throttle. I found that was due to the plug wires. It seems just the 3 on the backside were hard, since they get hotter. I put on 3 nice MSD ones I got at the junkyard for my 65 Dart, then replaced with a full new set from rockauto since cheap (~$10 I recall).

 

No way a multimeter can tell you anything about the high voltage side. Maybe you could measure the cable resistance when removed, but that is all. Besides an in-line spark tester, I use an inductive timing light (clamp-over wire type) to verify spark current in each wire.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I messed with it for a little bit last week and didn't really do any good. I removed the battery box and cleaned a ground wire right below it on the frame rail, and it idled good(no missing) for a solid 15 minutes(I timed it) then stalled, and then it was back to the stalling within 5 minutes after that.

I cleaned a ground strap over on the passenger side and one that was really corroded right below the exhaust pipe on the front of the engine, I think it was for the starter. No help. I really doubt this is a mechanical failure, it would have to be throwing a code or misfiring or something if it was. Something is drawing a lot of power when it shuts off, the volts drop off as fast as you can say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I am starting a new job soon so I need to get this running again...its just not easy to do anything when its below freezing out and you work 13/14 hour days. If anyone has a list of ground strap locations i'd love to see it.

 

I forgot about this thread, sorry... Ended up taking the van to a shop, I cleaned every ground wire and sprayed out sockets with contact cleaner, put more dielectric grease all over than the van is worth, and could NOT figure out what the problem was.

It cost me 360$ to have a mechanic tell me the crankshaft and camshaft sensors short each other out because they talk to each other, and fix them. I could have changed them myself but just wanted it done, an expensive lesson learned.