Plymouth Grand Voyager has been randomly stalling. If I’m driving the van will auto restart if I wait long enough. If it stalls as I’m coming to a stop it usually will restart without trouble. If it stalls while I’m stopped already then sometimes it refuses to restart. Once it wouldn’t restart so the cops helped push it to a nearby parking lot and then it started right up, as if the move shifted something. Today I had a similar experience, where it refused to start, so I let it roll and abruptly braked and then it started. This problem disappeared during the winter. I live in the panhandle of Florida. Someone please help me.
Year and mileage? Does the check engine light come on? Does the engine crank and not fire or nothing when you turn the key? Just curious what do you mean by auto restart. The ignition switch could be failing. More information would help.
1996 almost 200,000 miles it always cranks when I turn the key but sometimes it won’t fire up. No check engine lights. Had a misfire issue due to spark plug wires but that is fix now. It has new plugs, wires, coil. The auto restart is similar to a manual push start. I’ll be driving along, the engine will stall and within seconds fire back up without any input from me as long as it keeps rolling. And it’s not a manual.
You should wait for a better answer from someone else in the forum, but I’m going to stay with a problem in the ignition switch.
Yeah, we can’t help you with your ‘living-in-the-Florida-panhandle’ problem.
I have my own ‘living-in-sw-ct-problem’.
Seriously, does the alternator light come on right after it stalls?
Note I’m not suggesting your alternator is at fault; just that it coming on may point to a cause.
No alternator light. Switch wouldn’t let it even turn over. Right?
I will double check the alt light. I’m second guessing myself.
These vans had a problem with stalling when lt is warm out due to black gunk building up in the throttle body. Disconnect and remove the tube from the air cleaner to the throttle bodyand sprey carb cleaner in there, scrub with am old toothbrush and wipe clean with old rags or towels.
How about sea foam
You could clean the throttle body with seafoam - but there are things called throttle body cleaners. If you’re wondering about using seafoam without pulling the air intake and manually cleaning the throttle body, that won’t work well.
Has a mechanic looked at it? If so, what was checked & how?
Without a check engine light/error codes you’re just left with plenty of possibilities. One thing that will cause stuff like this is an issue with a crankshaft position sensor or its wiring. A failing fuel pump is another possibility. I also believe that the Voyager/Caravan/T&C vans are prone to problems with their “automatic shutdown” (ASD) relays. Sometimes there are multiple relays of the same type in the box & you can swap a known good, but non-essential one for a while as a test. I can’t give you the specifics on this van though.
When you try to restart & it won’t, do you ever try holding the gas pedal down a little? One cause for a stall at stops or off-throttle coasting is a bad idle air control (IAC) valve. Holding the throttle a little on restart would make up for that if its stuck closed. The first thing would be to clean it & its intake port. This can easily be done w/ the throttle body since that’s where it mounts.
You can start carrying a spare plug & can of starting fluid for the non-restart episodes. Then when it won’t start you can check for spark & use the starting fluid to see if its fuel instead.