QuestionQUESTION: Hi,
I have the above mini van. It has 121000 miles on it. I was doing a lot of stopping and going in town and the van began to shake and sputter like it was going to die. I had the AC on and once I turned it off the sputtering calmed down a little bit. We then took it on the highway to see if it still acted up and we did not get very far because it died while driving it. We let it sit for a day and once we came back to it the battery was dead. We replaced the battery and the battery worked fine, but it would still not start. any clues as to what might be going on? also, i have the blinking light problem like another person listed has had how do you fix that?
ANSWER: Hi Sarah,
I have a suspicion but the best approach is to find out what the fault codes are that may be stored in the engine computer memory. No guarantee that this will work but try the ignition key: "on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the odometer window to see if the mileage reading is replaced by any 4-digit numbers or not. If not, then a code reader has to be plugged into a socket under the dash to find out.
Let me know the codes and we can go from there. I suspect that one of the engine timing sensors has failed but which of the two is useful to know and to verify that a sensor is the cause.
The flashing light? Is that on the a/c control panel? Which light(s) is flashing?
Also, tell me which size engine you have there, which should be written on the valve cover or the sticker on the underside of the hood.
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Okay, I will try that this evening and get back with you. the flashing lights are for the a/c, back windshield wipers, etc... The engine is 3.3L
AnswerPS: If you don't see any codes from the odometer window, then do it again and watch for the check engine light, which remains "on", to begine to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat again to get an accurate count. Then write back with the numbers of flashes in the order of appearance.
Hi Sarah
The flashing lights are part of a calibration procedure that is built-in to the heater/ac control system. It is a fairly complex process to use and interpret these tests. The best thing to do is re-start the test procedure and then see what you learn. There are about 7 pages of instruction in the manual that I could xerox and postal mail to you. If you would send me back three 42-cent stamps I will do that. Use the "thank and rate" tab where there is a comment section to list your postal mailing address.
