2005 Dodge Dakota Truck will not stay running

JONATHAN72

MEMBER
2005 DODGE DAKOTA
4.7L
V8
4WD
AUTOMATIC
70,000 MILES

My 2005 dodge dakota started stalling while driving. It acted just like you killed all the electrical power. Sometimes it would clear up on its own, and I could just keep driving until it would do it again. Then it got to where it would die and I would have to pull off the road and wait for a few minutes before I could restart it. Now it will not run long enough to even back out of the garage. It starts runs real rough for a few seconds and then dies. If you place your finger on top of the fuel pump relay, you can feel it clicking when it is stalling and dying. When you start it you can keep pumping the gas pedal and keep it running for probably 30 seconds or so and then it will shut down and you can hear the fuel pump run continuously running fuel straight back to the fuel tank. At this point you have to unhook the battery to reset it. It never sets any dtc's. I have replaced the crank sensor, ignition switch, and relays. Any ideas? I am really trying to avoid have it towed somewhere.

2 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

Part of what you're describing is commonly caused by a bad connection where the smaller positive battery wire bolts to the under-hood fuse box. The resulting low system voltage can make various computers do weird things so the additional symptoms you've observed may not be good clues for this problem.

I would approach this by turning on the head lights and the heater fan on a lower speed to force enough current to flow through that connection to make the "voltage drop" show up. Measure the voltage on that stud on the fuse box, then on the terminal end on the wire that's bolted to it. They SHOULD be exactly the same, but if you find any difference, even a tenth of a volt, that indicates that connection has to be cleaned and / or tightened.