QuestionQUESTION: Hi,
We have been driving a 96 Plymouth Voyager for a year and it has given us good service. It has 165K miles. It the last couple of months it has started taking more cranking to get it going. This is especially true after sitting for a few hours. I took it to a local mechanic who seemed quite knowledgeable about the vehicle and he cleaned the throttle body and injectors, replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, air filter, and other things. All this did not help a bit. There is sometimes a faint smell of fuel. Once it starts it seems to run quite well, except for a bit of hesitation at times and gets decent fuel mielage. It has never failed to start.
Thanks for your thoughts.
ANSWER: Hi Don,
Have you used the ignition key to get any fault codes? Turn it :"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains 'on', to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure of an accurate set of flash counts. Tell the counts in order of appearance and we'll go from there.
Also, check the exhaust gas recirculation valve to be sure that its stem is not sticking slightly ajar which leans out the mixture too much to get an idle condition. It is located in a small pipe from the exhaust manifold on the side next to the firewall, which runs rearward to the throttle body area. You will see it has a round top with a vacuum line, the body of the valve is mounted in the pipe, and between those two parts is a flange inside of which is a rod with a slot which is the valve stem. Put the tip of a screwdriver in the slot and move the stem back and forth to see if it moves freely and closes tightly via internal spring-action. Try spraying WD-40 on the stem where it enter the body of the valve and then move the stem to loosen up the action. That may solve your problem.
Roland
PS I assume you have a V-6. If a 4, it too would have an egr valve in a pipe that branches off its only exhaust manifold.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks so much for the answers. I finally got a chance to really look at the EGR and it looks rather awkward to access it but I will try. The engine is a 3.3. Also I'm wondering if those codes I sent meant anything.
Don
AnswerI sent this answer back several days ago but you may have overlooked it:
Hi Don,
The code 12 says the battery supply to the pcm was disconnected sometime in the past 50-100 key cycles. If you haven't disconnected a battery clamp lately that might be a loose situation.
The 55 means end of readout.
The 31 is the evap solenoid circuit (related to the vapor recovery system's evaporation control) is open or shorted. The solenoid is on the right side inner fender, and has 12V supply on the white/black wire (when the ignition is on) and a control wire to pin 68 of the pxm on a pink/black wire.
It may be part of your problem, but do check the egr. I assume you have a 3.3 or 3.8L v-6 in these assignments.
Roland
