QuestionHello Roland.
Last summer whiles drivind north in cruise control I smelled rubber or plastic burning. I could not find anything and neither could Chrysler. But the car started jumping and stalling. Sometimes the engine would cut out and twice the whole electrical system would shut off, restart by itself or I had to turn the engine off and start again.
Now when I drive sometimes the engine stalls usually after I had the cruisecontrol on which I hesitate to use now.Chrysler people cannot find anything and tell me its the fuel pump. I believe that this is a computor problem?
AnswerHi Franz,
Well lets see what the computer has to say for itself. It has the ability to recognize faults with various systems and code then into two-digit numbers, from 11 to 55 and store these in its memory.
Reading out the engine controller memory for fault codes is the first step. Try using the ignition key: turn it "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on" (doing this quickly, no longer than 5 seconds). By "on" I mean just the normal position when the engine is running, not the cranking position. The 'check engine'light will remain on when you leave the key in the "on" position with the engine still not running. But then watch the 'check engine' light to begin flashing, then pause, flashing, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and keep track of the numbers. Repeat the readout and verify the counts are correct. Then group them in pairs in the order that they came out, thus forming two digit numbers. You may notice that the pause is shorter between the digits of a given number, and longer between the numbers themselves. Then send me a 'follow-up' question telling me the results of your readout. By the way, 55 will be the last number (two groups of 5 flashes each) and that is the code for "end of readout".
I have the troubleshooting manual for the 3.3 and 3.5 engines and we can look up the possibilities of what is wrong based upon what fault codes you show. There is also an essay on fault codes at the site:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
which gives the meaning of the code numbers. But then you need to get specific info for what exactly might be the diagnostic tests or parts to replace to complete the repair. Let me know the codes and I can give you some direction.
Roland
