Re: 1998 Dak loses power while driving

From: Matt Beazer (teseract@enchantedbookstore.com)
Date: Sun Feb 15 2009 - 20:36:01 EST


Check your O2 sensor wiring first to make sure it's not damaged. The "$11
O2S11SWCT" relates to the heater on the "front" O2 sensor (bank 1, sensor 1).
Either the O2 sensor needs replaced or the wiring is shorting or not grounded. I
don't know about the Dakotas, but the O2 heater wiring on the Neon runs off the
same fuse as the fuel pump and ECU, so I suppose it's possible if it's
intermittently shorting for a split second it could cause it to die when the
power supply to the fuel pump/ECU was interrupted. More than one Neon owner has
been stranded by a shorting O2 sensor heater wire on the after-cat O2 sensor.
Dropping a gear and popping the clutch would put enough jolt into it to move the
wire and keep it from shorting. I'd think it would pop the fuse in the
distribution center, but odder things have happened. For all we know a former
owner replaced the fuse with a bent paperclip. ;) I've seen used cars that
previous owners had used golf tees on to block off broken vaccum lines, so who knows.

If the wiring is fine, it still sounds like it's time to replace that O2 sensor.

And yes, check the TPS too - a friend of mine's 2000 Dakota was famous for dying
at stop lights. Replacing it fixed the issue.

P0505 IACS - Idle air control - you might want to check the wiring to the
throttle body for that as well and possibly clean the throttle body, perhaps the
pintle is crudded up on the IAC motor. Has the idle been erratic, especially on
cold starts?

Can't hurt to use some contact cleaner and some dielectric grease on the throttle
body wiring as well. If it was the MAP I'd think it would toss a MAP code, though.

MattB

On Sun Feb 15 17:18 , 'Geoffrey Hausheer' <dakota1998@phracturedblue.com> sent:

>
>On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Bernd D. Ratsch wrote:
>> Yup...sounds like a cat to me too. How much exhaust flow is coming out of
>> the tailpipe when the engine stalls and restarts?
>>
>> - Bernd
>>
>Well, I've never been able to reproduce while sitting in my driveway,
>so I don't really know. The truck only has 50k miles on it. It
>starts fine, and there doesn't seem to be any hesitation when reving
>or accelerating and exhaust seems normal while reving in the driveway.
> If I pull the cat will I be able to easily tell if it's plugged? the
>cat seems to be welded to a 3ft length on the input side which is
>twisted enough that I doubt I can see directly through to it.
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Rick Barnes
>> is the engine shutting off or just gradually losing power...if it just
>> loses power, could be a clogged cat.
>
>I don't know exactly what you mean. If I push in the clutch, the
>engine drops rapidly to 0rpm, there is no response to throttle, so I'd
>consider the engine to be off.
>
>.Geoff
>



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