Please help diagnose my Durango

[dave kanofsky]

Please help me diagnose what is wrong with my Durango.

It is a 1999 Durango, 2 wheel drive, 5.2L with 110K miles.

On Saturday night it drove just fine, on Sunday morning it wouldn’t start. It turns over just fine, but no sign of life. As soon as my wife heard it crank over too long, she said, “It’s not gonna start, this is exactly like it sounded (one day a month ago when it wouldn’t start in the morning, but when I tried it after work it stumbled to life and has been fine ever since).

My “clip-around the plug wire” type timing gun says there is spark going to all cylinders except cylinder 2. Even after changing the list of ignition related items below. I verified a decent looking spark by taking the #1 plug wire off, sticking in a new plug and resting it on the exhaust manifold.

There is fuel pressure in the fuel rail when I push in the valve, and the injectors are firing. I can hear them tick while cranking and I can smell the fuel.

While cranking it over I sprayed starting fluid down the wide open throttle body and still no sign of life. No backfire, no kick/burp/shutter/anything. This should pretty much take the fuel system out of the equation.

It has no active or pending diagnostic codes. Even after cranking it for 15 seconds with the code reader attached.

I have changed the coil, cap and rotor, and crank sensor, yet the symptoms have not changed. Still no sign of life, and still no spark in Cylinder 2.

WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE / EDUCATED GUESS / JUST PLAIN GUESS TO WHAT IS WRONG ? ? ?

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

[Super43]

Dave, my experience with modern mopar problems come from simple yet hard to find issues... our Pacifica would cut out in the rain... took it to Bill Kay many times spent lots of money... nothing... one night while raining I drove it to my shop.. on the way it acted up.. put it on the lift and only looked at wet things... it was a computer frame ground, while taking the car in for an oil change they offered a recall fix of a motor mount... my guess is the tech missed disconnecting this ground, tore it apart with the motor jack, but when it settled back down, it looked pretty good and made good enough contact.. until wet.. Then the ground signal became erratic.. and the car ran very poorly.....
My little PT Convertible, ran great until it would fall into limp mode... again Bill Kay serviced it... time and time again, replace all the sensors.. and finally gave it back and said... sorry we can’t fix it... it took a lot of detective work; helped greatly by searching the internet for others with similar problems... it came down to a defective electrical connection.. The little pin was poorly crimped to the wire
I'm pretty sure you have already search the net.. But I guarantee someone else has had your problem... good luck

[dave kanofsky]

Thanks Bruce, I greatly appreciate your insight.

I may have found it.

I disconnected the 10 year old aftermarket remote starter and the Durango started. It has a long way to go to win my confidence back, but at least it started.

That would explain why it wouldn't throw a code.

[Super43]

Ok Dave... you did not mention an after market remote starter... my first guess would have been that.. honestly

I'm glad you got it running (I remember when you got it new)