[Adrian Worman]

Mates, any advice on this please? This morning I took the van, an '04 Ram 5.9 V8, to work and noticed a misfire present at medium throttle about 5 mins after starting and its made a warning light appear on the dash. The light looks like an engine and is yellow, when the engine misfires the light flashes, then it will just stay on permanent.
Misfire appears to get much better, even disappear when its fully warmed up, it will accelerate smoothly and without hesitation, but the light stays on.
I don't have a manual to look at, I assume there is some sort of engine management issue, any ideas?

[jimbob 440]

thats the engine managment light on there ade, gona need a electronic diagnosis with someone that has the software to read the fault code, on the other hand could just be a plug breaking down when cold, that will send the light on. have a look round the motor for any damaged wires etc

[Eddie]

Does the Van have a digital odometer? Was the Van built for the U.S. Market then Imported overseas? The reason I ask this is that a digital odometer can produce SOME Fault codes that you can check out. Key ON/Engine OFF 3 cycles then leave the ignition ONLY on. Get back with me on this!!!!! A U.S. built Van in 2004 has a 16 pin connector under the steering wheel, it's oval shaped and has 16 male 'pins' that a OBD-II Universal connector hooks up to a Scan tool and will display the Fault codes for you. THE most common problems that I see around here are simple fuel delivery problems,(plugged filter), and burned up cracked worn out spark plug wires, followed by plugged or weak injectors. These will all cause a misfire to be recorded by the PCM. Misfire fault codes can only be erased by either 40 'cycles' of on/off driving to operating temp. and NO more fault codes to be recorded or erased by the scan tool. Of course if the problem persists the Code will be displayed all over again. A leaking or blown head gasket can also cause this. Start pulling plugs and looking for coolant contamination or oil from the plenum Gasket failing or perform a cylinder drop test to check suspect cylinders that arent contributing to the overall RPM's. (The 5.9 was notorious for the plenum gasket failing which allowed oil to contaminate the sparkplugs resulting in misfire) If this only happens at cold temps? it makes me believe it's not sensor related but 'mechanically' related but I could be wrong. The PCM cant diagnose everything or sometimes displays something 'wrong' that is from a common problem. Our Auto Part stores have small scan tools that can check the fault codes for you for free. Maybe you know someone who has a Generic OBD-II scan tool,(if your's is equiped with OBD-II).

[Adrian Worman]

Ta Jim and Eddie , its got a digital odo Eddie, and its a North American model. If i remember right you told me to do the ign key cycling thing on our '90 Ram van to pick up the fault codes, you then diagnosed it as coolant stream temp sensor, which was spot on. I'll check the harness tommorow and see who I know might have a scanner, think me nephew might have one