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The dodge ECU starts with default settings of Ignition-timing, Injection-pulsewidth, idle-control, xmission-shifting....etc.
As you drive, it "learns" how fast you tend to accellerate and other habits. The ECU changes shift-points and other things based on your habits and saves into memory a 'fudge-factor' so it remembers the settings. These 'fudge-factors' are saved based on ambient temparture. In this way, your driving habits are 'mapped' into the memorry of the ECU based on the outside temparture.
Over the course of weeks, your Dodge will 'learn' how you drive and program itself based on your driving-habits.
A Dodge which SHARES drivers with vastly different driving-habits is constanly trying to learn and may never seem to run right.
Disconnecting the battery erases all the saved 'fudge-factors' and it must relearn everythng.
I hope this answers your question.
1 Have you heard of this combination of issues before and if so do you have any idea what maybe causing it?
2.If I take it to a dealer, do they actually have some kind of tool that will diagnose the wiring and tell which wire is the issue.
I love my truck but I have never had any issues like this with any vehicle before.
Thanks for any help and advice.
BTW, if you have had the very same sensors replaced several times... I hope you realize that you do not have to pay for any more than the 1st one. All Dealer parts are waranteed and if they have to be replaced again, the original part must have been bad so it is 'covered'.
Personally, I cleaned the IAC . (Idle Air Controller) once a year when I had the 4.7L semi-hemi engine. This always improved idle smoothness.
Dont forget that your 4.7L has COP (Coil On Plug) ignition. The coils are swappable if you need to isolate a bad one.
Not aware of any free on-line manuals. The manuals, either those from the manufacturer or from a third party are copyrighted. Posting them would probably be a violation of copyright law. There are some on-line sites where you can subscribe to manuals for an annual fee, I think.
My daughters 1st car tended to 'rattle' when the engine got hot. This was because the hydrolic-lifters were so cruddy that they would not hold pressure.
I ran some "STP oil treatment" in it.... that INSTANTLY fixed the oil-pressure. (because it is a viscosity-improver.)
The next time I changed the oil, I expected the rattling to come back.... to my amazement, the "STP oil treatment" other feature (detergents) had cleaned out the lifters and that car never-again had that problem.
Also, you may wish to run a slightly-thicker oil... this is a MUCH less expensive way to resolve such a problem.
Also something I found out that I was unaware of. If you turn the ignition on and off three times, your trouble codes will show on your odometer. Cool. Just wonder why I have not seen it in any of the manuals.
Because they want you to bring the truck into the shop for a service visit and be able to bill you for it.
*)The FACTORY shop manual has step-by-step instructions how to troubleshoot/isolate most problems.
*)The FACTORY shop manual lists, diagrams and locates EVERY electricial connector in your Dakota.
*)The FACTORY shop manual has paragraphs describing EVERY component and its function. (Automatic-xmission chapter is 100s of pages)
I suspect you are not looking in a FACTORY shop manual. All the other ones (Chilton, Hanes...etc) have no connection to the factory and are very careful to NOT infringe on copywright of the FACTORY shop manual.... thus they necessarrly do not have the same content.
It is up to the MANUFACTURER to guarantee emmissions... the owner should NEVER have to pay for this kind of stuff. Read the Federal Emmissions Warantee that comes with every vehicle sold in USA.
Besides, what does a power-steering switch have to do with emmissions-control? All the switch does is increase idle a tad when there is pressure in the line... thus keeping engine from stalling when you are mauvering in parking lots.
Personally - I think you are being fed a line of cr@p.
Are you CERTAIN they are talking about powersteering switch?
And the length of your sentence is impressive.
That hose is supposed to only SUCK air into top of cylinder-head for the PCV system. The purpose of the PCV valve is to maintain a slight VACUUM in the crankcase so this hose constantly SUCKS air out of the air-filter-housing.
If there is backpressure into the air-filter-housing thru that hose... suspect your PCV-valve may need to be replaced... or your engine has excessive blowby.
i did notice when i removed the air filter it was actually stuck to the lid as well as having a large burn area at the position of the hose.
A bad injector, which puts too much fuel into the cylinder, could cause blowby by rinsing the oil film off the walls of the cylinder. The piston rings need a thin film of oil for them to seal properly. Or, you could just have a bad/broken ring.
I think a cylinder leak down test would be able to tell you if this is your problem or not.
I would suggest AGAINST trying synthetic oil to "wake up" a weak oil-pump. This is because synthetic oil is less-viscous (thinner) than dyno-oil and harder to build-up pressure.
Instead, change oil/filter using dyno-oil and add a can of STP Oil Treatment. This will add viscosity-improvers (thickeners) to your oil and some xtra detergent. You may find that the oil-pump is able to built-up pressure with the thickeners in the oil
It is a LOT cheaper to try STP Oil Treatment instead of tearing-apart engine to replace oil-filter.
In fact.... one time I used STP Oil Treatment to 'assist' a weak oil-pump and to my surprise, the problem never came back over the next 2 years. (without adding STP Oil Treatment again!!) I suspect that the xtra detergents cleaned the cr@p out of the oil-passagways.
Looks like you replaced the major components that would lead to a timing problem.
Don't have much else to suggest. Let us know what turns up.
Is that all you did - just disconnect the battery?
It is very easy to do with Torx driver, some Qtips and can of carb cleaner. While I was at it, I cleaned the entire throttlebody.
The only thing to remember.... AFTER removing/replacing the IAC, you need to "recalibrate" it. Do this by turning ignition key to run (dont start engine) and wait about 10 seconds for computer to recalibrate it. Then, when you start engine, the idle may "hunt" for a few moments before it settles out. (It has to relearn how to idle the enigne with CLEAN air passageways)
Remember, it is the COMPUTER that sets the idle-speed using the IAC to modulate airflow around the butterfly valve. NEVER EVER try to adjust the throttlebody to set the idle. (You wont change the idle and you WILL mess up the calibration.)
Wetwillie1