Is the second problem a failing fuel pump? When the car dies while running can you still hear the fuel pump running?
If the ignition has been bad, the draw might have been that it keeps the fuel pump engaged which draws sown the battery. This could also then be stress on the fuel pump which is now failing also.
The way the tach hangs there after the engine died seems like a clue. I know nothing about this family of vehicles, but it seems like it took it a split second to even realize it had died with the tach just frozen? I'd think that points more toward ignition/computer than fuel.
Replace the PCM fuse. Make sure the PCM connectors are seated tightly. Look around for any chafed wires in the engine bay. Any loss of power to the PCM will cause the engine to die and the cluster to freeze in the last known position (due to loss of data on the bus). Once you cycle the key off and on, if the PCM isn't getting power, you'll have no fuel gauge reading, etc. so you're guaranteed a crank / no start until the PCM comes back to life.
In reply to rslifkin :
Noticed in my video that the fuel gauge doesn't come back until the engine starts again.
assuming the truck was fine prior to towing it as it was driven from PA to ohio full of drugs, and that it has never stalled on them moving it around including driving it from shop to house and that a shop had it and did $1448 worth of work(if they knew something else was wrong they would have charged to fix it), i am gathering the issue must have occurred while sitting. So i'll have at the pcm fuse and connectors and give everything a looking at. One would assume that any damage while sitting could be from moisture or mouse, not much else to go wrong there. It's currently cold and snowing sideways so it won't be this evening.
Love to diagnose electrical problems outside in winter.
In reply to Patrick :
The good news is, you've got an idea of what you're looking for. Because it does come back on its own, the issue isn't a short to ground. That would blow the PCM fuse. So it's most likely something loose, making poor contact, or damaged that is intermittently losing connection. And it's gotta be in the power feed to the PCM, so a pretty small number of places to look.
In reply to rslifkin :
the googles seem to say pcm's on these tend to have this stall/no start/comes back and starts again as they start failing. So if i don't find anything wrong in power to the pcm then it could just be a very poorly timed pcm death.
Good news is they're not terribly expensive, bad news is they're not free.
Patrick said:In reply to rslifkin :
the googles seem to say pcm's on these tend to have this stall/no start/comes back and starts again as they start failing. So if i don't find anything wrong in power to the pcm then it could just be a very poorly timed pcm death.
Good news is they're not terribly expensive, bad news is they're not free.
Good thought. I think those are still a variant of the JTEC PCM. If so, I've killed a few over the years in the Jeep. To the point where I keep an eBay sourced spare on the shelf at all times. I had one fail where it would get flaky and start acting up if the PCM got too warm, but as long as it was kept cool enough, it ran fine. One lost an injector driver, one lost a coil driver. Both of the driver failures were out of the blue with no warning, both occurred right at startup too.
Check the FCM aka fuse box under the hood on the driver side. My 04 Ram 3500 had all sorts of electrical issues, mainly lights in my case, due to corrosion and failed solder joints on the circuit board.
The fusebox is a very common issue with those gen Dodge's.
Update:
convinced it was the computer because i got it to quit while tapping the ecm, i ordered a replacement and just swapped it out and we still have a problem. The underhood fuse box looks clean from above but i'll figure out how to pull it and check the insides.
i can basically get it to stop while running it to the rev limiter in park, pretty consistently. The thing is running perfectly smooth otherwise. I am losing it, have the truck sold and need the $ but can't follow through with the sale unless it leaves here working properly. I can't throw any more parts at it, need to diagnose and fix it for good, and i'm feeling defeated.
ecm and fuel pump relays warm to the touch, same after swapping them for the wiper relays. I feel like that's probably normal because they're both constantly powered?
Pulled fuse box but don't know if i can take it apart to see the circuit board. Little bit of corrosion on the pins of a few plugs, may be indicative of trouble inside but also can't fire the parts cannon at it. Does anyone know how to take it apart and see if the board looks bad?
I had an issue with stalling on my '06 Ram Hemi after changing out I think it was rear O2 sensors with Bosch. I swapped in the OEM O2s and it ran fine after that.
it would cut out exactly as you described, no warning, no stumbling, just all of a sudden the engine wasn't running, Mileage was right around 150k.
i can basically get it to stop while running it to the rev limiter in park, pretty consistently. The thing is running perfectly smooth otherwise. I am losing it, have the truck sold and need the $ but can't follow through with the sale unless it leaves here working properly. I can't throw any more parts at it, need to diagnose and fix it for good, and i'm feeling defeated.
Im not completely clear on this, are you saying that if you floor it in park it stalls when it hit the rev limiter?
Seems like time to check fuel pressure when doing that to see if it drops below acceptable levels when making it stall.
I'd also look at live data to see if any of the sensors flat line or spike as RPMs climb to the rev limiter. It may not be sufficient to cause a code, but could cause ignition or fuel to be cut if readings suddenly change as a step rather than analog signal.
In reply to No Time :
it does. Runs smooth to the limiter and when it bounces back it cuts off, tach stays put for a couple seconds then drops to 0. It could also sometimes quit when you jabbed the throttle quickly. When I drove it home it quit leaving 2 stop signs. I'll whip out the fuel pressure tester. There is a receipt for a new sending unit last year but no mention of pump.
when it quits, it won't crank again until key is cycled off, is that significant of anything or just how these work?
In reply to Patrick :
I'd want to hunt down the wiring diagrams for that no crank situation. At least on the older JTEC PCM stuff, there's nothing that prevents a re-crank after a stall. I'm not sure if the newer ones run the starter through the PCM or something that may be unhappy and need a reboot before allowing it to crank.
In reply to rslifkin :
Is the 2003 Ram Daimler-era? My wife's VW requires the key to be turned all the way off if it fails to start for any reason, can't just crank it again, so I wonder if it is a German thing?
In reply to eastsideTim :
That might be a German thing. The 2003 Ram still uses a version of the JTEC PCM that the trucks (and Jeeps) used starting in 96 with OBDII. At least on the slightly earlier stuff, the PCM doesn't have any ability to prevent cranking as the starter relay isn't powered through the PCM. I'm not sure that changed on later JTEC stuff.
There's an easy way to confirm. Pull the PCM fuse and see what happens. On the JTEC setups I've seen, the fuel pump should run continuously at key-on (rather than just the prime cycle), you should have no dash gauge readings, and if you crank it, it'll just crank as long as you want with no fuel or spark.
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