2002 Chrysler Town and Country Engine Stalls

Tiny
CSRB7007
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
  • 3.8L
  • V6
  • AWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 75,000 MILES
My daughter (with 4 kids under the age of 6) owns a '02 T & C which has started randomly stalling out, actually over the past year. This normally, but not always, occurs while the engine is cold. The van has been in the shop numerous times with the standard diagnosis of "cannot duplicate symptoms." She's spent nearly $800 on these useless shop visits. Her brother-in-law has replaced the coil pack 3 times. Each time the car runs well for several weeks and then reverts back to the stalling condition. I haven't heard whether the removed coils were found to be bad. One point of interest (at least to me) is that the stalling seems to always occur when she has the vehicle in drive and at the brief point between braking and then going to hit the gas. After a thorough interrogation, she revealed that during that brief moment between braking and acceleration, she can watch the tach drop to 250 rpm and stall. The only engine process (at least that I can think of) involved in the transition from braking to acceleration is engine vacuum. What do you think? I'm willing to do whatever I can to help my daughter's family. This is an unsafe situation and my wife and I are contemplating giving her our '07 Sienna.

Any help and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Richard
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 AT 6:05 AM

5 Replies

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Check fuel pressure with a gauge autoparts rent it. Should be 53-63 psi. Then try cleaning throttle plate on both sides and iac hole with choke cleaner.
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Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 AT 6:35 AM
Tiny
CSRB7007
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  • 3 POSTS
Thanks for the help, I'll definitely give this a try and let you know how it goes. One of the potential remedies I've noticed mentioned several times concerning this issue calls for the replacement of the Camshaft Position Sensor. Does that sound logical to you?
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Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 AT 10:57 AM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
With a cam sensor normally the check engine light would be on and would give a code for it
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Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 AT 11:58 AM
Tiny
CSRB7007
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
I was under the assumption that a defective camshaft position sensor would cause a code to register but I've read numerous posts which stated their stalling problem was "cured" by replacing it. Does that sound "fishy" to you?
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Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 AT 4:04 PM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
You can try it because sometimes that works but a lot of these guys just figure they can replace parts without scanning first. If you really want to check it go to an auto parts and they wil scan for free.
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Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 AT 4:13 PM

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