van randomly dies as i drive. - General

i have a 97 Plymouth Van, i just did the belts on it and new tension er few days ago. as i drive it'll die once and a while on me, yesterday it died on high way then wouldn't turn over for a while (30mins) then i tired again and it started and i got home fine. could it be a Spark plug issue? they havnt been done in some time and i think that might be the issue. fuel pump doesn't whine or make noise so cant be that (plus i've gone through few tanks) its fine on oil and pressure seems fine. belts are bran new. so ideas? could i be right. or something im forgetting.

get rid of it its a van no but really it sounds like an electrical problem could be the alt not charging the battery

i know i hate that van, but it was cheap. when it dies it turns over fine, like doesnt sound as though its slowing down as it turns over or not turning fast enough.

Yeah that's probably the alt then. It turns over but not fast enough means that the battery doesn't have any power and that it dies randomly could be that the coil doesn't get enough power.

[QUOTE=Ldesu;38056024]Yeah that's probably the alt then. It turns over but not fast enough means that the battery doesn't have any power and that it dies randomly could be that the coil doesn't get enough power.[/QUOTE] no is does turn over normal speed it seems, but holding a charge may be another thing, coil could be one, i feel like its spark plugs, but im prbly saying that cause its cheap haha.

My battery went all weird, it didn't have enough cranking amps but gave off plenty of 12v power to run the accessories. Might want to take it to autozone and have them run one of those free battery checks on it.

Alt is what charge and power the car as you drive it, if it's bad, you have a loss of power, and it also won't charge your battery. If it's bad, your car will die when driving, spark plug does nothing, you'd get misfires, not stalls.

Oh.. you said it [I]doesn't[/I] sound as if it's turning slowly My bad

so could be ALT or coil. ill give it a look, it threw a code, but here in hawaii its $40 just to read them... [editline]15th October 2012[/editline] could it be Cap and rotor?

Actually, your fuel pump should make noise, at least a hum, when it's working. Do these failures tend to happen when on an upward facing incline? If so I would suggest the fuel pump. Cap and rotor would cause a missfire or poor running, but you could pop the cap easily and see if that's the problem. It's been a while since I've had a car with a dizzy, but you can always sand the contacts on the rotor and see if it improves. if it's newer than 1996, you can just go buy an OBDII reader for $40 and read the codes yourself whenever you want... Or get a bluetooth dongle to connect to the OBDII port and read them off your smart phone. Those are usually less then $30.00.

[QUOTE=schwartz92;38055813]fuel pump doesn't whine or make noise so cant be that (plus i've gone through few tanks) [/QUOTE] But...the fuel pump is supposed to make noise. [editline]16th October 2012[/editline] Clock me

the fuel pump does make a noise i ment it doesn't make a bad or loud noise. [editline]16th October 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=schwartz92;38070355]the fuel pump does make a noise i ment it doesn't make a bad or loud noise.[/QUOTE] possble a ground wire i think, this weekend ill check

I was going to guess a dieing fuel pump or clogged lines. Maybe it pumps just enough fuel and gives out after half an hour. and wow, 40 dollars for a usually free service. [editline]17th October 2012[/editline] [url]http://www.amazon.com/OBD2-Reader-Diagnostic-OBD-MT-50/dp/B004IV58AY[/url] cheaper than getting it done, shipping to hawaii is another bitch.