1995 Dodge Dakota 318

Reader Question: Last spring, my 1995 Dodge Dakota 318 V-8 would not start 3 days after I pressure washed the salt off the engine.

I never had a problem before that. There were no service lights on, codes, or anything. It was just normal cranking with no start.

I towed it to a repair shop who said I had a bad distributor cap and rotor so he replaced them and got it running.

Until I got home, when then it randomly would not start or just die while driving regardless of the speed I was driving.

Then in summer, it died for good so I went the routes suggested by Internet stories. Crankshaft sensor, computer, plugs, wires, and I even found that corroded power splice near the battery, which I thought would fix it. I cleaned it, but still nothing.

When I tried to have the computer repaired, they said it was fine. I finally towed it to another repair place and after 3 hours of searching, he said that all the sensors were ok but he did find that the computer was not getting a full 12-volt. He said he just ran a new 12-volt source wire to the computer and it has been working without an incident since.

I hope this might help another Dodge owner who is feeling the anxiety that I was.

Rick

Hey Rick,

Thanks for sharing your experience and the interesting narration.

I have posted your e-mail to this site so it will help the next person, who might be in the similar situation.

Blessings,
Austin Davis