1999 Dodge Durango Stalling

LAJOE27

MEMBER
1999 DODGE DURANGO
164,000 MILES

I have a 99 durango and recently the truck has been running poorly lately. It stalled out on me twice, once while driving and once while stopped at a red light. The truck started right back up both times. I took it to my mechanic, and he said that the throttle body was dirty, so he cleaned it and the truck drove great for about two weeks. Now the problem is back, any suggestion of what is wrong with the truck? Also my oil pressure gauge would drop to zero and the check gauges light would come on but the oil pressure gauge would return to normal. My mechanic said that if my oil is low that it the truck would shut down to prevent engine damage. Is this true? Could this be the reason for my truck to be stalling?
Thanks,
Joe

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,879 POSTS

When you have an engine problem you need to state which engine you have. Oil pressure is not monitored by the Engine Computer and low pressure will not shut the engine down. As proof of that, some drivers don't understand that they are supposed to stop the engine immediately when there is no oil pressure. They keep driving and cause serious damage to the engine, then wonder what happened.

If your oil pressure gauge drops off suddenly, especially at idle, and comes back up suddenly, suspect a defective sending unit. That was a fairly common problem along with the gauges reading unusually low at idle speeds.

For intermittent stalling the place to start is by reading the diagnostic fault codes. If there is one that mentions the camshaft position sensor or crankshaft position sensor, that is the circuit that needs further diagnosis.

Stalling when approaching a stop has a real common cause and easy fix, but if the engine also stalled while you were driving at a steady speed, that doesn't apply. Most commonly the crankshaft position sensor is the cause but typically the engine will not restart until that sensor cools down for about a half hour. If there are no fault codes, your mechanic can drive with a scanner connected and record the event when it occurs. The problem is getting it to occur. Later he can replay the data slowly to see what changed when the stalling occurred.