QuestionI have a 2004 Chrysler Town & Country with 3.8L V6. After I stop to refuel it and then restart the engine, any time within 120 seconds the engine hesitates, stutters, and sometimes dies. It restarts right away and might do this once again but usually not a second time. It then runs fine until next fillup. Yes I'm replacing the fuel cap until it clicks. My wife and I bought it brand new in December 2004 and it has just over 23,000 miles.
AnswerHi Dee,
That is an interesting phenomenon. One point for clarification: you bought the van in Dec. 2003, not '04 correct? That would be alot of driving to put on 23,000 miles in one month!
I have two thoughts though I haven't heard of this sort of thing before. First, I wonder if it really is the act of filling the tank that is the cause or something related to the running history before and during the fill-up. As a test, if you have a routine about filling the tank (a favorite station near your home that you go to first thing after starting from a cold start for example) I would like to see if you went thru the motion of the entire routine EXCEPT when you go to the station just park away from the pumps for the same amount of time that you would take to fill the tank, then start up as if you had filled the tank and see if the problem is there or not. That will differentiate the issue from the fuel system vs the other engine controller sytems. If the problem is not there, then it suggests that there is something about opening the tank and filling it that is causing the problem. I wonder if it has anything to do with how full the tank is after you fill it? You might try cutting off the fuel pump delivery before the filler hose does it automatically, maybe leaving a gallon or so of space in the top of the tank; then observe for the problem.
If neither of those approaches bears fruit, then I would go to a dealer or shop and ask them to readout the engine controller for the presence of any fault codes stored in the engine controller memory. If any codes are found you might see if those could possibly explain the problem. It may be possible to readout the controller yourself using an onboard diagnostic capability that may be present. (A 2004 model is beyond my range of expertise so I can't be sure whether this is present in your vehicle or not). You can go to: www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
where you will find a discussion of codes and their readout as well as a code "decoder" if you can get it yourself. It is possible to buy a code reader for around $75-100 but that may not be prudent unless you intend to do your own maintenance work.
I would be interested to know what transpires with your search for the reason for this problem.
