So my 2001 T&C (3.3 l) was running spectacularly until two months ago it would start after my sons soccer game. (Btw, I had just filled the gas tank less than 5 miles before). I had it towed home and posed some questions to the group under the thread “PCM Swap - VIN decoding”. I am just now getting around to troubleshooting the van.
The symptoms: I had a no crank, no spark situation. There was a single click at the starter relay. When I jumped pins 87 and 30, it spun just fine, but no spark. I read every forum post I could find and was pretty sure it had to be the TransmissionRange Sensor (TRS). I was finally going to perform the necessary surgery this weekend, but decided first to test all the relays and fuses on more time. Everything checked out except there was a very light ‘spark’ when I was plugging in the fuel pump fuse. I went in the cabin and the van fired right up. I drove it a few miles and everything was great. I turned it off and tried to start it again and same issue. I pulled the two circled fuses, wiggled around the female ends, plugged the fuses back in and voila, she started again. After nearly a dozen driving cycles, the symptoms are somewhat sporadic.
My thoughts: I wonder if it is the fuel pump. The gas gauge has been wholly unreliable for more than a year, so I am now thinking that is the root problem. Would a faulty fuel pump cause the no crank, no spark?
Either way, I need to burn off a metric crap-ton of fuel before dropping the tank!
