MY DAUGHTER BOUGHT A PLYMOUTH ACCLAIM ABOUT A YEAR AGO. I REPLACED THE CAP, ROTOR,WIRES, FILTERS,ETC. ON IT. A FEW MONTHS LATER THE CAR WOULD CRANK AND NOT START AND IT WAS TOWED FROM WHERE SHE WAS TO A GARAGE AND THEY REPLACED THE PICK UP IN THE DISTRIBUTOR. SIX MONTHS LATER SHE NOTICED THAT THE CAR SEEMED TO BE HESITATING AND THE SAME PROBLEM OCCURED WITH THE CAR CRANKING BUT NOT STARTING.THE CAR LATER STARTED AND WAS TAKEN TO A DIFFERENT GARAGE AND THEY SAID IT NEEDED A PICK UP FOR THE DISTRIBUTOR. THREE WEEKS LATER THE SAME PROBLEM OCCURED AND THE GARAGE SAID THE PICK UP IS BAD. I HAD WORKED IN THE AUTO PARTS BUSINESS FOR MANY YEAR AND PICK UPS DID NOT GO BAD VERY OFTEN. THE FUEL PUMP AND RELATED PARTS HAD BEEN REPLACED WHEN SHE HAD A NO START PROBLEM IN THE WINTER.ANY SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT COULD BE CAUSING THE PICK UPS TO GO BAD.
Am I correct in assuming she has the 2.5L 4 cylinder? The HEP in the distributor is a common failure, but they don’t go every few months. Start by pulling any diagnostic trouble codes using this procedure and post back:
yes,it is the 2.5 engine. i’ll find out what codes are being displayed.
thank you
I had a 1990 Dodge Spirit that would sometimes fail to start, but normally would stall while driving and then fail to start. In my case I wasn’t really getting any meaningful codes either. Anyway I replaced the ASD (fuel pump) relay and that fixed my problem. I only mention this as a possibility because even the Dodge dealer I took it to didn’t diagnose that as the problem. They’re not terribly expensive and easy to replace. There’s a set of three relays near the battery on the fender, and I believe someone mentioned before that the horn relay is the same part number as the ASD relay, so you might be able to just switch those two relays and see if the no start problem goes away. So if you can do this yourself it won’t even cost you anything to check. BTW to get the codes turn the key on-off-on-off-on (without starting the engine) and then count blinks of the check engine light. It blinks it out the 2 digit codes with a pause in between, so blink-blink-pause-blink-blink-blink is 23, which is then followed by a longer pause for the next code, 55 means no more codes.
Joe
thank you very much about finding out how to get the codes. my daughter has had a problem with it stalling twice so she took it back to the last garage to diagnose and replace the distributor pick up and they said they couldn’t find what the problem is but replaced the pick up again. she had the fuel pump and relay replaced during the winter but i’ll try your idea.
thanks again
i just got a chance to get the codes from my daughters’. i tried a few times and what i seemed to get was 1 pause 2 pause 2 pause 5 pause 5. so i guess the problem code was 14. according to the site you sent me it could be a problem with the MAP sensor which sometimes causes a stalling on deceleration and then hard starting which is one of the problems she recently had.
thank you very much for your help.
I’m going to guess that the second “2” is actually “1” and “1” (11), which indicates no ignition reference signal detected during cranking (bad Hall effect pickup) OR timing belt skipped one or more teeth. A broken timing belt would also do it. Is the car running at all now?