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Hello.
My 2002 Caravan ran out of gas two weeks ago even thought the gauge said there was just a hair under 1/4 tank. I got pushed to a close by gas station, added fuel and a bottle of injector cleaner as I usually do every couple tanks. The engine started after a few turns, but was running rough. Missing, popping up through the intake. After a mile or two it cleared up. The van ran fine until a couple days later when it would start missing under accel, but would be ok at cruise ( about 2k rpm ) It progressed until the issue was worse. A lot of missing on accel, popping up through the intake, missing under cruise speed. Then the next day, it was fine. not one miss under hard accel or cruise speed, 65 mph. The MIL never came on until I really let it miss hard under accel then the lamp came on. P0303 and 306, cyl 3 and 6 misfire. I checked the plugs, wires etc. All ok. The plugs look ok at the electrode, they are Bosch Platinum Quad Fire plugs with maybe 40k miles on them. Yesterday, with ambient temps around 35, the engine ran terrible, same symptoms. Today, it ran perfect, idle ok, no miss under accel and just one misfire under load while opening the throttle going up a hill. I am thinking injectors ? But would two bad injectors suddenly get better than worse than better? No fuel pressure reading as of yet. No visible breaks in any hoses, or chaffed wires or loose connections.
Before the vehicle ran out of fuel, I never had one problem with it. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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ohh dear. Sounds like you had some of the issues as I with my Chrysler T&C. the big thing is to check for vacuum leaks, short of that, I’d check your connection to the Coil Pak, Check the condition of your wires. even a small crack can cause one or a few to peter out/fail. another good idea posted before is some mulm has been sucked into the fuel system from running the tank dry… Damage can also happen if you cranked an extended period with the pump out of gas. The gas cools and lubricates the pump. I would suggest a fuel pressure check. another thing that can happen if you’ve had a rougher idle before, the injection harness can degrade. our era of vans is known for it. but since you said it ran fine before I’m guessing it is fine.
Misfires under load are usually ignition related. I know you say the plugs are new but sometimes it’s the plugs that you use that’s the problem. Bosch works well in most German cars but might not work as well in your vehicle. That said, you can check for voltage leaks with this test.
The next thing I would do is a power balance test. A video on that as well as a list of other things to check can be found here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-performance-issues
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
Chrysler does not recommend fuel injector cleaners. I ignored this and the seals on my fuel injectors deteriorated and gave me a vacuum leak- had to replace the fuel rail and seals and this fixed everything. I wonder if this habit of injector cleaner caught up with you.
First of all Bosch spark plugs are junk. I have seen dozens of misfire and hard start problems with them. The Germans don’t even use them anymore in VW cars. They use NGK. I would install a set of Champions that were made for your caravan.
Second, it’s possible that you sucked a bunch of water off of the bottom of the tank when you ran out of gas and is floating around in the fuel rail. Since I think it’s a returnless system on that van the water has no place to go accept for the injectors. You could try a product designed to remove water or remove the fuel rail and dump out the fuel and any contaminants that might be in there.
The fuel pump may also be faulty.
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