My 2013 Dodge caravan has been trying to die after it’s warmed up when I’m stopping at stop lights. And today when I finally had it over a half a tank of gas it stopped doing it so my guess is it does it under half a tank of gas only. Does anyone know why this is? Thank you I have some car knowledge but not enough. I did some research and guessing it could be clogged somewhere but don’t know enough to be able to figure out what it actually is doing.
Have the fuel pressure tested.
The fuel pump may be getting weak.
Tester
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Good idea above to test fuel pressure. There are some emissions systems related functions that behave differently depending on the fuel tank level, so that’s a possibility to at least consider I guess. I’m doubting the fuel level is related however, just a coincidence.
Remember however, there are nearly as many reasons why an engine might stall as there are engines. Best bet is to take your Caravan to a well-recommended shop and let them diagnose it for you. They’ll listen to the engine as it warms up from a cold start, take it for a test drive, connect their computer gadget to the diagnostic system, determine if the engine computer has already flagged the culprit, etc etc. You could use the forum search feature for ideas too, upper right this page. One common cause of stalling by reports here (on most cars, not just yours) is the throttle valve sticks rather than moves freely, b/c the throttle-body (a bolted on part of the engine) has built-up deposits of gunk from years of driving. Sometimes cleaning that solves the symptom.
Coincidentally, similar topic on last week’s posted Car Talk podcast. Might want to take a listen to what Ray and Tom thought:
Dave from North Carolina is a VW Quantum owner in search of a few quantum mechanics. He’s convinced that his car gets worse mileage when the tank is less than half full. Will fixing this one require Heisenberg’s uncertainty principles or can our two Weisenheimers tackle it? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
The next time this happens, open the gas cap slowly in a quiet area and listen for any air getting sucked into the tank. Also see if the problem goes away for a while after you do that.
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