Hi,
I have an '02 Dodge conversion van, 6 cylinder, with about 50,000 miles on it. This morning I let it warm up for about 10 minutes before leaving for work. I pulled out of the driveway and there was suddenly very little power. It was sort of lurching along and making a weird banging noise (my wife said that from outside the car it sounded like little backfires). The noise was definitely coming from the front of the car.
The strange thing is that the noise and loss of power only happens when it’s in drive. When I put it in reverse (to get back in the driveway) it was fine. I put it in park and revved the engine and there was no sign of the problem. The fact that it’s only happening in drive leads me to believe that it’s transmission related, but I am not, by any means, an expert on anything auto related. Any ideas?
Thank you!
This is a bit of a shot in the dark but: There may be a broken or loose spark plug wire OR perhaps a loose/cracked vacuum hose that interrupts performance when the engine twists from : first torquing in one direction (in DRIVE), and then opposite in REVERSE.
Like I said, a shot in the dark.
See how it works in 2 or 3.