haunting ghost in my truck

[jmarsh223]

I have been having an issue that's come down to being a major pain in my ***. My truck began to have a slight miss in the pedal, rough idle and would die at times. So I ran some codes and Saw 0216. My mechanic said a miss in the pedal is probably the vp44 taking a dump. About 2 weeks later the truck died! All signs pointed to vp44 so we changed it out. Mind we didn't diagnose, just assumed that it died and wouldn't restart that was it. After changing vp44, 3 days later it acted up again. We check fuel pressures, and pressure tested the pump and checked for air. we found a voltage issue, a battery was shot, replaced it. Decided maybe it was the vp44, claimed warranty and got another. With the new vp44, it happened all over again. Pulling on wires, checking grounds, checking connections the mechanic was worried it maybe the ecm. I sent the ecm off to rebuild, had issues with the rebuilder, so I bought another. Pulled ecm in truck runs, ran fine just had strange codes, 0230,0575,0370. Later down the road it started to have a miss pedal, then the idle went to hell. Pulled over checked voltage on the alternator, it bounced all over 13-14,5,0,18,16,13-14,5,0 and so on. It finally leveled off at 13-14 and idled and ran just fine. Few days later, drove down the road same thing. This time lots of white smoke, and it died. Waited a few minutes then it started up and ran fine for about 50 yards and did it again. Sat and waited 15 mins or so started up and ran fine. Next time, I limped it home and tested ac ripple, 23-25 mV on charge side and voltage was fine. Idle sucked, I turned all electronics on, while checking ac ripple and it was barely loping. Today I took alternator in to test it passed everything. Ran codes with alternator off and only codes I get now are the 0216 and the 0230. I'm going to check all grounds again, clean, ohm, and retighten. I just find it odd 2 codes are gone now the alternator is off, granted I didn't check them before I pulled alternator.

[jmarsh223]

Anyone have any ideas?

[JAG1]

I don't know a lot about these trucks except what I read. At any rate I think that you should have tried the Timbo Apps upgrade after doing the first VP 44. It is an aftermarket upgrade which affords a much smoother Accelerator position sensor that's proven itself to be much more reliable with less occasion for dead peddle problems. The factory APPS is almost 500 bucks and is made cheaply compared to the 162 dollar Timbo APPS.

I think you should do the Timbo Apps before any more money is spent on the more expensive items. Timbo APPS is a good upgrade if you wish to keep the truck for the long haul.

Only other info. I can offer is to check for the computer damaging AC voltage being tossed out by a bad alternator. It can really mess with the dc system and you need an expensive Fluke volt meter to check for AC voltage. In the Articles you can read how to test for it and I think the AC voltage shouldn't be any higher than .10, No higher than that. Even new/ rebuilt alternators can emit too high of AC too.

[jmarsh223]

Thanks, I'll definitely try it. I'm up for anything right now. I'm almost $3,500 down from all this

[Mopar1973Man]

Thanks, I'll definitely try it. I'm up for anything right now. I'm almost $3,500 down from all this

Ugh! That's expensive.

[jmarsh223]

Ugh! That's expensive.

Trust me, I know. I order one of those scan tools obdlx and I'm gonna set up a day where I can drive it until it acts up and see what happens

[98whitelightnin]

Wow! Could have done a p7100 swap for about $2k and never worry about electronics again. Hope you get this figured out!

[jmarsh223]

Wow! Could have done a p7100 swap for about $2k and never worry about electronics again. Hope you get this figured out!

Yes, I'm just finding this out now.

[JAG1]

Let us know what it was on your truck    

[Mopar1973Man]

Personally I'm not a fan of the P7100 conversions. More or less like ripping electronic fuel injection off for a old school carburetor. Like the carburetor it was not as efficient as electronic fuel injection. Like the p7100 its very limited it tuning also it has zero timing advancement like VE or VP44 has.

[jmarsh223]

I drove it today, got maybe 100 yards and it died. Took forever to get it to restart. When it did it didn't stay up for long, died again. Idled rough, put it in gear and it went to hell quick step on the clutch and it'd idle but crappy. Even in the idle, it would die, got it close enough to push to the house and parked it. I had to go on an emergency storm call so I may not be able to put more to it until a week or 2

[notlimah]

This is tough to read! I hope you get everything figured out and fixed!

[JAG1]

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a fuel clog somewhere in the tank screens or the old screen they used to put in the inlet side of the lift pump. I think you should drop the tank, check it out. You might even have the intank lift pump with clogs or failure.

I could be wrong but, I know Dodge screws up pretty bad not putting on a large filter outside the tank, one you can get to. I know they short cut this for their own benefit since a lot of guys take it to the dealer with fuel problems. On a boat with single or twin diesels, lives depending on those engines at sea, they never rely on screens, it's always a big filter that not only can be quickly changed but, has a lot of capacity before clogging.

[jmarsh223]

I have a fass, there are no screens. We also took the entire fuel unit out and changed the line for tge pickup tube just incase air bubbles just to rule that out

[jmarsh223]

Thanks everyone for your help! I've finally found my issues!

[JAG1]

Please, please tell us what the issue was okay?

 

I think Mike Nelson gives out Booby prizes for the one that guessed right. Was it the APPS?

[jmarsh223]

No, it was actually a combination of things. The alternator was producing large amounts of ac ripple. After replacing that, still had issues so I removed engine grounds and cleaned them. Front ground was good and passenger ground didn't seem loose but had dirt and grime build up. Cleaned retightened and no more issues... I wiggled wire several times and it never moved I guess when the engine got warm grime loosened up.

[JAG1]

Thanks, I'm so glad you found it. Do you think the VP needed changing since it showed the 0216 code? My gut tells me you didn't waist money all too bad.

[jmarsh223]

Not sure, even after changing vp it still produced 0216 code so it's a tough call there. I look at as its bought and paid for, same for everything else. Those parts should be good for a long time now. I've learned a lot from this, it's given light to alot of things

[JAG1]

It is interesting that there might be other causes to bring up the 0216 code because I drove long distances for 4 years with the 0216 code present. It would always come back up too but the truck performed beautifully. Now that Mike Nelson changed the VP it has not come back.