There can be wiring issues, but not in this case. The pump would never run and you'd have a crank / no-start problem.
I've had four of these pick-up screens plug up on three different vehicles. The first two had carbureted engines. No pump in the tank. Just the round sock on the pick-up tube. Part cost three bucks.
This happened twice on my old rusty trusty '88 Grand Caravan. First time it took me four hours to get through Minneapolis with all three bypasses under road repairs. Once through the city, it ran fine for the next three-hour drive home, and only stalled again when slowing down for my turn-off. That was the clue was the stalling occurred when the largest volume of fuel was being pumped, ... Which is during coasting. Had I known the cause at that time, I think I could have overcome it by removing and plugging the vacuum hose to the fuel pressure regulator. That would have raised pressure and made it harder for the pump to move fuel. With less volume, it would have been easier to keep the pressure up.
The second time this happened, I drove for over a year with a fuel pressure gauge clipped under a wiper arm so I could see what was happening. For fifteen years I dragged a tandem axle enclosed trailer to an old car how swap meet that was bigger and heavier than that van. It was only with that huge load that the fuel pressure problem would show up. That engine ran around 50 psi for fuel pressure. When pulling the trailer, it would slowly drop to 20 psi, and keep on running. The sputtering didn't start to occur until it hit 15 psi. At that point, if I lifted the accelerator for a fraction of a second, the pressure would jump back to 50 psi, then slowly drop again. Drove it successfully over 50 miles like that. New pick-up screen solved that again. This last one was about three years ago. At that time the screen cost 12 bucks. It snaps onto the fuel pump's housing.
Now that I shared all that wondrous story, I looked on the site I use for reference a lot and found it's called a "strainer", and the cost starts at $1.06 and goes all the way up to 7 bucks! The bad news is that part is not listed for a '95 model. It looks like it is molded as part of the fuel pump housing. That concerns me because I'm sitting in a '94 Grand Voyager right now, and I have a '95 Grand Caravan at home. I've never heard of anyone having this problem on the newer vehicles, so before I'd get too involved, I'd consider connecting a fuel pressure gauge so you can see if fuel pressure really is at the heart if this problem. Other than on diesel engines, you will never solve a running problem on a Chrysler product by replacing the fuel filter. There could always be a first time, but I think that strainer would be a better suspect.
To be fair to Steve W, there's two sensors that commonly cause stalling too. It is real common on all kinds of brands and models for them to fail by becoming heat-sensitive. A real common complaint is the engine runs fine until it is stopped for a short time, as when stopping for gas, then the no-start occurs. The heat from the engine migrates up to the sensor and causes it to fail. The common clue is it works again after cooling down for about an hour, and the engine runs fine again. Your description of the symptoms suggests to me the strainer is a good suspect. That's why I stuck my nose in here.
Monday, July 31st, 2017 AT 12:17 AM
