Need help with Dodge Truck drive-ability.?

Question

99 Dodge Truck - 318 - auto - air
Other than the normal tansmission woes, no problems.  1 week ago, it needed an inspection.  I only drive the truck about once a week, for about 5 miles round trip, so I noticed the battery was getting weak because it didn't turn the engine over as fast as it normally does.  Of course, I just drove the thing to get the inspection, figuring the miles would charge the battery.   Got the inspection done, and needed a new belt.  Changed that, still no problem.  Truck sat for two days, would not turn over.  Dead battery I figured.  Put the battery on the charger, 12V, 6 amp, for about 2 hours, then the truck turned right over.  In order to charge the battery fully, I turned the charger down to 2 Amp and left it overnight.  Next day, truck turned over no problem.  Good power.  (here's the problem - the truck will not idle).  Got about 100 feet from the driveway on my weekly trip to the dump and the engine shut off.  I slipped it in neutural, cranked it right back up, but had to play the old keep the RPM's up the whole trip game by down shifting and left foot braking.  Every time the RPM gets down to about 600, idle, the engine dies.  

SO,,,, do I have just bad timing, did I pick up a code in the computer somehow,,,,,heck, I don't know and I'm really crunched to even find time to work on it.  Suggestions to help cut down my diagnoistic time would be apprciated.    

Thanks,

zack o · Accepted Answer

normally when a car runs great until the battery dies or gets disconnected the problem is a dirty idle control valve (iac). you can do two things one is remove throttle body assembly and iac clean both 
which is what dodge recommends every 30,000 miles anyway. or just drive it with two feet for about 20 minutes and it should fix its self. the computer has whats called adaptive learning over time your throttle body and iac get restricted with carbon so the computer raises iac counts (valve position) when the computer loses power it resets to really low iac counts until you either drive it long enough to relearn or you clean it out

Pedal2TheMetal45 · Answer

HI
It could be a couple of things one being the throttle position switch or TPI. Or it could be a plugged fuel filter or plugged fuel line or dirty injectors.. Throw a can of injector cleaner and see if that helps. If not it might need a tune up.
Good luck
tim

Anonymous · Answer

You probably need to change the catalytic converter, I know it sounds odd but mine did the same thing and although I had my foot on the gas pedal it still lost power. It's about a $200.00 repair at the muffler shop.

Need help with Dodge Truck drive-ability.?

3 Answers