When it rains it pours…or bad luck comes in threes…or I been down so long I can’t get up?
In addition to a dead van (see my post from yesterday) the remaining vehicle has decided to demand some attentions as well.
99 dodge 1500 ram 8 cyl (not sure of size?) manual tranny - started hesitating a little bit a couple of times yesterday - not too bad and fine otherwise. No problems driving around for a couple of hours this morning, got back onto pavement and started to accelerate it did a bit stronger of a hesitation and then the went on ok - I glanced down and the check engine light came on. All other guages and indicators are fine and it ran fine for another 30 miles. I had a ford that always had the stupid light on - never seemed to matter and nobody seemed to get excited about it. On the other hand there have been dome blown engines in the past…and with the hesitation I just want to be sure I will be ok for a few more days untill we can get something else running!
Not sure if related or not, but about 3 weeks ago the gas gauge started asking strange - saying it was totally full or empty when it wasn’t, saying half full when totally full etc. Dirt road seemed to bump it back into place - figured float was going out or something.
Could there be a fuel problem? Coincidence?
Get the truck scanned for error codes at your local AutoZone or similar store. If the code is for single or multiple misfire, take a look here:
http://autorepair.about.com/library/a/1h/bl654h.htm
There were also intake manifold problems with this series of engines:
http://autorepair.about.com/library/a/1i/bl816i.htm