Car stalls after reaching warm operating temperature

ANTHONY UPCHURCH

MEMBER
1988 CHRYSLER NEW YORKER
3.0L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
184,699 MILES

The car will start without a problem. Once I get started it will run for approximately twenty minutes. After running for twenty minutes the car will start to stall and idle heavy. If you are to stop you must place one foot on the brake and one on the gas or the car will shut off. If you remain steady on the gas the car will run for an undetermined amount of time. Either way it will shut off soon. If you try to start the car after this happens, the engine will respond to the key turn but there will be no start. After the car has set for enough time that the engines temperature gauge registers a low too cold temperature, you may try to start the car and it will probably run. If it does run it will only run until the car gets warm again. Note this is not the car overheating it is just the car reaching an optimal running temperature.
Codes: 13, 26, and 54. It runs unleaded gasoline.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

I had a similar problem with my 1988 Grand Caravan with a 3.0L engine. It ended up being the ignition coil. It took a year and a half to figure it out because it only acted up on the hottest days of summer, and once I got the hood open, I already had spark and the engine would restart. Finally one night it quit running permanently, then it took all of half a minute to find it was missing spark. For that reason, try a different ignition coil first.

The logical suspect would be the pick-up assembly in the distributor. That includes an ignition control module as one assembly. These have a very low failure rate, but it is the type of assembly that on any car can fail by becoming heat-sensitive, then they will work again once they cool down for about an hour.