Viper sputtered and lost power temporarily yesterday

[AaronFL]

Hi,
I was on my way to a car show in Naples, FL yesterday morning. I was cruising down the highway in 6th gear and about 180 miles into my trip the engine started to sputter and the rpms dropped and she stalled. I coasted off the exit that happened to be there and pulled off the road and took a breather and tried to start her again. She sputtered and idled at about 100rpms and stalled again. I pressed the gas pedal to the floor and tried a half dozen more times and finally she slowly sputtered back to life. I immediately drove it to the nearest gas station and filled her up. I didn't have any other troubles for the remaining 350 miles of my trip. What do you think it could be?

I had a little under 1/2 tank of gas. I purchased the car 2 weeks ago and it had been sitting for a couple of years prior to that. I have not ran the tank down lower than 3/8 tank since I have owned it, but have put about 25 gallons of gas through her since I purchased. There was no check engine light. The car is a 2001 RT/10 20K miles, Striker heads, 708 cam, belanger headers, corsa exhaust. I had the oil and battery replaced last week. I have also had the car stall when I push in the clutch when coming to a stop. I am assuming this is a symptom of the pcm "relearn". I looked through the service records for the car and it looks like the spark plugs and wires were replaced in 2009 right before the car was put into storage. I measured the fuel economy at 19.6mpg for those 180 miles.

I am new to mechanical work (eagerly wanting to learn), but my guess would be there was some crud in the fuel tank that caused a blockage and the car sputtered out . I plan to have the fuel filter replaced ASAP (by the viper tech). I am going to clean the IAC and throttle bodies today too. I have the service manual.

It was kind of scary being stranded for a few minutes on the side of some dark back road at 5:00am. Thanks for the help everyone! I appreciate any thoughts on what this could have been.

Attached is a quick picture from the car show. No Vipers

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[shine]

I think you're on the right track with something in the fuel system, either pump or filter. Possibly water in the gas tank from condensation after storage?

 

[99 R/T 10]

Starting with the fuel filter is smart. If the last time the plugs/wires were switched out was 2009, wouldn't hurt to do that now. Use the SRT-10 Champ Plug(RC12ECC) and a good set of Mopar wires:

http://classifieds.viperclub.org/sh...and-new-mopar-performance-wires-8-5-mm&cat=47

If it happens again after all the work is completed, look to the cam/crank sensors.

 

[AZTVR]

I can't imagine plugs and wires would be needed after just sitting unused for several years. The fuel filter is a great idea no matter what the cause and it is worth it for sure on these cars to have an experienced Viper tech do it. It can be a PITA to change

 

[CEJ]

You might want to check with the previous owner about the fuel filter...they might have already replaced it.

When you unscrewed the gas cap, did any air get sucked into the tank indicating a vacuum?

Maybe a fuel pump starting to fail?

 

[plumcrazy]

crank/cam sensor possibly ?

 

[Fast Viper Dan]

My Viper started acting up. Driving on the freeway it would shut off. Happend several times. I changed the battery and that solved the problem. I know sounds weird, but Vipers are fussy when it comes to battery's.

 

[AaronFL]

Thank you for the replies!

I do not recall if there was a vacuum when I removed the fuel cap. I didn't even think to check for that. I looked through the service records and it appears the previous owner replaced the fuel filter in 2003 with (loss of power) in the notes from the mechanic on the invoice. The battery was replaced last week, so hopefully that isn't the problem, haha. Would a failing cam/crank sensor cause a check engine light? I didn't have a CEL. I ordered one of those USB OBD2 cables and it should be here tomorrow. Hopefully I can figure it out and see if there are any codes. If I come up with nothing, I will make an appointment to see the local Viper tech. I don't want to overlook something and get stranded. I really appreciate the help.

-Aaron

 

[speedracervr4]

Sounds like everyone has already given good advise. Are you running an SCT tune with the Stryker heads?

 

[AaronFL]

I am not sure about a tune. The previous owner did not mention anything about tuning and I didn't see any invoices in the service records that mentioned a tune. Would a battery replacement delete a tune?

 

[speedracervr4]

I would not think it would, it might take some time for the PCM to learn the new adaptives after being cleared. It's probably not your issue, but I thought it was weird to have Stryker heads and no tune. They flow a lot better than stock.

 

[CEJ]

I'd think that any engine sensor would throw a CEL if it was out of spec.

 

[Jack B]

The one that is easy to diagnose is the stall when coming to a stop:

1. It could be a bad or dirty IAC.

or

2. If the car was tuned with SCT and the idle turned up without also increasing the De-accel rpm, that will cause a stall.

Do you have a scan tool, that might answer your question.

Hi,
I was on my way to a car show in Naples, FL yesterday morning. I was cruising down the highway in 6th gear and about 180 miles into my trip the engine started to sputter and the rpms dropped and she stalled. I coasted off the exit that happened to be there and pulled off the road and took a breather and tried to start her again. She sputtered and idled at about 100rpms and stalled again. I pressed the gas pedal to the floor and tried a half dozen more times and finally she slowly sputtered back to life. I immediately drove it to the nearest gas station and filled her up. I didn't have any other troubles for the remaining 350 miles of my trip. What do you think it could be?

I had a little under 1/2 tank of gas. I purchased the car 2 weeks ago and it had been sitting for a couple of years prior to that. I have not ran the tank down lower than 3/8 tank since I have owned it, but have put about 25 gallons of gas through her since I purchased. There was no check engine light. The car is a 2001 RT/10 20K miles, Striker heads, 708 cam, belanger headers, corsa exhaust. I had the oil and battery replaced last week. I have also had the car stall when I push in the clutch when coming to a stop. I am assuming this is a symptom of the pcm "relearn". I looked through the service records for the car and it looks like the spark plugs and wires were replaced in 2009 right before the car was put into storage. I measured the fuel economy at 19.6mpg for those 180 miles.

I am new to mechanical work (eagerly wanting to learn), but my guess would be there was some crud in the fuel tank that caused a blockage and the car sputtered out . I plan to have the fuel filter replaced ASAP (by the viper tech). I am going to clean the IAC and throttle bodies today too. I have the service manual.

It was kind of scary being stranded for a few minutes on the side of some dark back road at 5:00am. Thanks for the help everyone! I appreciate any thoughts on what this could have been.

Attached is a quick picture from the car show. No Vipers

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[PSiEK!]

You must be registered for see images attach

V6 COIL PACK! They explode.

I had same problem months ago. I replaced plugs, wires, and battery. Then I found this, it exploded from the inside on the bottom. This was on 1994 with less than 4000 miles (Second owner since 2010, bought with 2606 miles.

 

[AaronFL]

Thanks for the replies! I have a few things I can check today. The scanner I ordered came on Saturday. It was in the mailbox when I checked it last night. I tried to get it synced up to my computer, but for some reason the cable wasn't recognized by my computer. It was a cheap eBay OBD2 cable. I am going to look for a better one.

I have been reading the service manual and watching some online videos. I find it fascinating how all the sensors work and the PCM is able to interpret all the different incoming voltage changes and tailor its outputs on the fly. This junk is pretty cool .

 

[AaronFL]

I did a quick search to find more about the fuel filter and came across a post from member Joseph Dell from 2004. This exactly describes what happened to me. Is it possible that chugging for 180 miles at 1400 rpms caused the battery voltage to drop from not being charged enough by the alternator? I had my low/high beams (3am on highway) and radio on for most of the trip...maybe vapor lock as described above?

Once I had something like this happen. I was driving along and was probably only down 1/2 a tank. I'd been on the highway for about 1.5 hours and for no reason, out of nowhere, the car died. I pulled off exit I was very close to (still rolling) and made it to the end of the ramp. I tried to start the car and it bucked and sputtered and managed to move enough to get me to the gas station which I could see from the end of the ramp. Then I let the car sit for 30 minutes or so, put some gas in it, and it has been fine since. that was a few years ago. very weird though. I try not to let the car run that low in gas, but sometimes it just does. i suspect bad gas, but i've never really known. It _was_ a full mood that night, however...

JD

 

[Dom426h]

Aaron, Props to you for truckin a 600mile round trip with your Viper in only your second week of ownership.
Kinda risky though making a long haul in a new(to you) modified car with limited mechanical knowledge. If you purchased a used boat would you head out 100miles deep sea fishing right away, or get familiar with her in the bay first?

Read through this thread for some detailed info on our fuel filter:
http://forums.viperclub.org/threads...hat-OEM-is-discontinued?highlight=fuel+filter

I do not think that is your problem though.

I also do not think it is the battery, IAC, or anything in the ignition system(SparkPlugs/CoilPacks/Wires)

I think you should continue driving her(within a reasonable radius of your home) and see if you can get the problem to occur again then pay attention to everything that is happening and report back with more detail. If she does quit, let her cool for 5-10min before starting again. When my Viper had a similar problem to what you are describing the fix was after replacing the CAMpositionSensor and Front O2 sensors. If you have an OBD code scanner that is capable of displaying Live data then it is Easy to spot a failing O2 sensor by looking at the live sinWave graph on the display.

Have the number for a couple tow companies with flatbeds handy in-case you end up stranded. You might think i'm crazy for telling you to get out there and drive, But in my personal situation like this the issue was so intermittent that it would only happen once a week or every 100-200 miles or so. This made it annoying because every time i replaced a part(like fuel filter) i would drive it perfectly for a few days thinking that the problem was solved and then BOOM she would act up again.

Goodluck

 

[Dom426h]

I'd think that any engine sensor would throw a CEL if it was out of spec.

Right, That is what you would Think.... and Hope,

but in reality, our 1st gen obd2 ECU's are primitive and have pretty big tolerances before codes are thrown.
Some(or maybe all?) early Gen2 cars you can pull the cats and no CEL appears. Typically the ECU would recognize the lack of differential between the Front/Rear O2 sensors and throw a code but our Viper's ECU dosn't give a ****.

When my Viper was having an intermittent issues like the OP is describing i was Praying for a CEL to appear to help direct me to the problem. At one point it got so bad that she was seriously after firing and my Cats's got so hot that they could have burnt my viper to the ground if i hadn't shut her off and poured water down the side-sills. I was literally cursing the ECU like "Why wont you F'ing tell me anything!!!!" LOL


If only it was as easy as my Truck like one day i was riding along and she dropped into limp mode and a CEL came one. I read the Code. It was for the Crank position sensor. I replaced the sensor and that was that.

 

[kickinasp]

I would throw in a can or two of dry gas and run the tank down. If it sat for two years, its going to have bad gas and possibly water in there. Being that you filled up and drove 350 trouble free miles and have not had an issue... save your time and energy. If it happens again after the dry gas and a full tank of fresh gas, then it could be something else (doubtful).

 

[AaronFL]

Thanks again for the replies. I really appreciate the advice. I think you are right about being a bit brave to take that long of a trip. I am just so excited to have a viper and drive it .

Today I cleaned the IAC and throttle bodies. It no longer stalls out when I press in the clutch when coming to a stop...a small victory for the day.

I ordered another OBD2 scanner so I can see if there is anything going on. I will report back if it happens again. I looked through the service manual at the crank and camshaft position sensors. I may order the sensors to have on hand. The cam position sensor is supposed to be a bear to install. I am going to take your advice and just keep driving and see if it occurs again. It's been 500 miles now and so far so good. I need to become good friends with a mechanic who would trade dental work for lessons on working on a viper!

Thanks!

 

[Tom Sessions]

The car does not have a SCT tuner in it. Its been a long time since that upgrade to the strykers but it may have a tune from DC performance in it. I think I mentioned to you it would be a good idea to drive it a bit and run the tank low then get it to Mark and have him do the fuel filter on it. Before you do sensors call me and lets talk about it first. Hope your enjoying the new ride.

 

[AaronFL]

Thanks Tom! I will be in touch.

I have been enjoying the crap out of the Viper . It's been a ton of fun. I let a boy at the grocery store sit in it and his mom took a bunch of pictures of him. I don't know who was more happy, the kid or me. These cars sure have a way of making people smile.

 

[Tom Sessions]

Thanks Tom! I will be in touch.

I have been enjoying the crap out of the Viper . It's been a ton of fun. I let a boy at the grocery store sit in it and his mom took a bunch of pictures of him. I don't know who was more happy, the kid or me. These cars sure have a way of making people smile.

Welcome to the world of Viper ownership. A car show at every stop.
Not Sure what tires she put back on the car before you picked it up. But if its the directional pilot sports. They need to go soon. They are old and hard. And with the power that car has they can bite in a hurry.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Reminds me of the joke about the blonde that took her sputtering car to the mechanic. After 30 minutes he handed her the keys telling her it was ready to go.
She said, "What was wrong with it?
"Just sh*t in the fuel line." he replied.
To which she exclaimed, "How often do I gotta do that?!"

 

[AaronFL]

Haha, that's the first time I've heard that joke!

I made an appointment with my Viper tech for a new fuel filter. The Viper has not skipped a beat since this incident, but I will have him see if there are any fault codes stored. I will keep you all updated.