Expert: Roland Finston - 1/18/2012

Question
I have a 98 Chrysler Town&Country with the 3.8L engine.Went to start it last night and it would start and run for just a second then die. If I continue to crank it will run for maybe 4-5 seconds but tapping the gas only kills it. I suspected the fuel filter and replaced that but the results were the same. The fuel pump was replaced aprox 6 months ago and after it was replaced the van often needed to be cranked several times before starting but once started had no issues. Their is currently no check engine light on. Could the strainer on the fuel pump be clogged or could the fuel regulator be bad? Is it even a fuel system problem? Thanks for any help!

Answer
Hi Jeremy,
There are several possibilities. One is that the theft alarm system is not disabled, but the symptom for that would be that it would start, run for about 2 seconds and then die. Do you have that system and what is the activation light showing about its status?
It could be fuel or a spark issue, but those are fairly unlikely for the pump or the spark coils to be bad. A slightly more likely cause would be the early failure of one of the two engine rotational sensors which have to put out a solid signal to the engine control module to tell it that the engine is running. If those are compromised signals then the controller will shut off the spark system and the fuel pump.
One final possibility is that the exhaust gas recirculation valve which needs to be shut tight is actually slightly ajar which thins out the mixture too much to allow an idle to be maintained.
Take a look first at that egr valve, located on the back side of the engine (firewall side). It is mounted in small diameter pipe that branches off that backside exhaust manifold and bends to the rear corner of the engine. The body of the valve is connected to that pipe and the valve's outlet is connected to the intake manifold. The valve has a vacuum-operated round fitting on the top (vacuum hose attaches to the top), and there is a flange area between that and the valve body. Hidden behind the flange you will see a rod, which is actually the stem of the valve and that stem has a circumferential slot. The stem/valve are in fact mounted horizontally. If you put the tip of a screwdriver in the slot of the stem you then can move it back and forth. Notice that there is spring-action that attempts to close the valve. If that action is gummed up then the stem may not close the valve to a dead stop even with the aid of that spring. So take a spray-can of WD-40 and squirt the stem where it enters the valve body and then use the screwdriver some more to loosen up the 'action'. Then see if the engine will start and run.
If not, then that is not the reason for the no start. The engine controller does have self-diagnostic capability and records fault codes in its memory. Unfortunately in the '98 model the only way to access the codes is with a plug-in code reader. You can get that done for free at an Autozone or similar nationwide parts store, but if you can't get the engine to run you can't get the vehicle to the store for a readout. You might ask around among your friends to see if anyone has a plug-in code reader. If you get the fault code(s) let me know and we can go from that point.
Roland