Questioni have a 95 dodge caravan, it has a 4cyl engine. the issue i'm having is that when i start it in the morning, idles fine, but when i start done the road, it acts like it's running on 2 or 3cyls, then when it shifts, goes normal until it's ready to shift again. then after it goes into 3rd, runs fine until rpms go up. after i take my foot of the gas and wait a second or two, then give it gas again, it seems ok for just another few seconds. but once it's warmed up, will it run fine. help!
AnswerHi Frank,
It could be the temp sensor which controls the mixture or something else like a sticky egr valve. But you can take advantage of the self-diagnostic abilities of the engine control module to find out what is likely the problem.
Take your ignition key and turn it "on-off-on-off-on and leave it on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light which remains 'on' to begin to flash, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, then repeat the whole thing and verify that you have the correct counts. Then group the counts in pairs in the order of appearance to form 2-digit numbers that are fault codes.
The last number will always be 55 which means end of readout. Then let me know all the other numbers and we can go from there. There also is a fault code listing at www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html but you will probably need some explanation ever after getting the translation. So write back for advice once you have the codes. Getting the codes is the most practical way to find out what is wrong.
Roland
