I have a 1997 Chrysler Town & Country Minivan with a 3.3 L V6

Recently / sporadically it has started loosing power all at once.

I will be driving along at Hi-way speeds (80-85 MPH) and suddenly become aware that the van has no power. If I take my foot off the gas and kick it into Neutral and pull over it will continue to idle @ between 500 & 700 RPM. If you try to give it any gas it will try to die. I was able once to get it to rev by patting the gas several times really, really fast.

If you let the van sit for a couple of hours it will start and run fine, until the next time. It does not do it every time. It seems to do it quicker if the AC is on…(God that thing has COLD air)


During the “Down” time it does not throw an error Code at all, No Check engine light no nothing it just will not run / start.

I contacted the dealership here locally and they said they need to replace the ECM. They can not guarantee me that it will fix it but it is a good start, And should fix the problem. Trouble is they want 400.00 for the unit and a 2-3 hundred to put it in and put the VIN into the ECM.

Does it really sound like the ECM? And if so why could I not get one from a salvage yard. Surely the VIN is not actually in there and if it was would that really keep it from working if the VIN were close.. Same model car, engine and Trans…

At this point I am ready to sell the van but would not want to sell a broken van to another person. Call it Morality, honor, Karma It’s just the right thing to do…..

Any Suggestions.. I can not imagine that I am the first to see this silly issue

 

First off(just for the record) I'm not real familar with the Chrysler products as this is my first experience with the Daimler line(and so far I'm not satisfied at all). A few things come to mine quickly though. I know that you say you're not getting any codes but have a local autozone pull a code list anyway(they do this for free) and if you still have nothing have a local shop do a check on the cat. convertor(I have seen some models never show a code for a partially clogged cat.) You can ask a local salvage yard about the ecm but I think they can make it work most of the time but sometimes the ecm on different cars of the same model control different things such as a/c or other options, but be sure to ask those questions first as any salvage yard I've ever dealt with is once you buy it's yours no returns no guarentees. If all this fails tell your local dealer to pull a wiring diagnostic(most all dealers have this capability). I friend of mine went through something similar to this on a Chevy lumina he replaced everything(fuel pump,fuel filter, f.p. relay switch,ecm, and about a dozen other things come to find out after a complete tear down he found a wire that was breaking down after it got hot and would short out the ecm killing the engine until the ambient temp of the wire came down to normal. With alot of tape and some cheap insulation the problem was fixed. I hope this helps get you started, good luck!!!!!

 

Well I read another post ( on another forum) that said their van did the same thing ONLY when it was at 1/2 a tank or less.
I thought back and sure enough that is when mine was doing it as well. Apairently when the tank gets that low and the seal in the fuel pump is bad it looses it's prime and dies.

I got out this morning and replaced the fuel pump, (Used a rubber jar opener wrench to remove the sending unit nut) > I put 2 gallons in it and carried 6 with me in a can. Drove 50 miles ( got 32 MPG) and no worries...

I can now list the van for sale....