Question about stalling?

GMSea97 · October 31, 2006

Ok first let me say...please don't kill me over this.

My wife and I own a 2000 Dodge Dakota 2wd 3.9L

(you know what the wifey wants the wifey gets ) I am a GM guy.

Ok on to the question. Sometimes, not always, sometimes when she puts the truck into reverse it stalls the engine. It is an automatic tranny so I am kinda stumped. I was thinking it might be the torque converter locking up and pulling the motor down till it stalls, but it only does it in reverse. If it was this it would do it in any gear upon stopping, so that can't be it. Like I said I am stumped. It only stall out when it is in reverse. Otherwise the truck runs great. Always maintained and never abused. It never idiles rough or stalls at any other time.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

99xjsport06 · October 31, 2006

Had a similar issue with my mom's Jeep Liberty..

Every now and then back when I used to drive it alot it would stall out going into reverse, or sometimes even from reverse to drive. It would only do this MAYBE once or twice every couple of months....so it made it really hard to track down.

We had it in the dealer one day for a minor recall and I mentioned it to them to see if they could find anything. Turns out there was a TSB that was for a "shift related stumble/stall". The fix was the dealer needed to flash the PCM and update it. They did that and i'll be damned if it hasn't given us any more trouble since.

So you might try looking into that option. If it is a TSB, I believe it's treated the same as a recall, and they cannot charge you for any work they have to do to it.

Ranger · November 7, 2006

I have an 86 Ford Bronco with kind of the same problem, but it has something to do with the engine needing to warm up for a few minutes. Sometimes if I pulse the gas a few times it'll stumble a bit but not die.