Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Dodge Spirit/Plymouth Acclaim problems

I posted earlier on this car... need more help...

My friend is having me fix it now, still having no spark, yet all the wiring to PCM is good, and the rest is good too.
Brand new Ignition coil, the wire from ignition coil to Distributor is good.

Im wondering if its the PCM... anyone here ever own an Acclaim/Spirit with this type of problem?

When i let it idle, i hear at certain times the RPM drop like the car is about to stall...

Pulled the codes though from the PCM (I think Chryslers called em PCM's anyway...) Got 1 actual code, a code 11 (No signal from Distributor during cranking) Fixed that... now its good..


It supposially had a tune up from Car Quest or something like that...

The car is a 1990 Plymouth Acclaim with a 3.0L V6 engine, I noticed at the junkyard, that the LaBaron, Dynasty, and a bunch of other dodge/plymouth/chrysler have this same engine.

Please: ANY Helpful comments are useful....

If it's the same as my old LeBaron, the problem may be in the wiring to the power module. My was placed next to the battery in the air stream to the intake. Battery acid works its way into the connectors and kills the fuel pump and the power for the computer. If the power loss or check engine lamp doesn't light that may be the problem. I had a few corroded wires running to the fuel pump that ruined it. A year later the computer would wink out and sometines the car would not start for a little while. Cleaning and packing the connectors with silicone grease fixed it.

I see the CEL come on for a few seconds, and I hear the fuel pump come on for a second, I even pulled the codes by doing a bunch of strange "Move though each gear with the transmission, turn car off, turn car to on, turn ac on, turn off and on 4 times, watch the CEL blink"

So the computer does some work...

Can you still get codes by turning the key on/off/on 3 times and leave it on the 4th? I helped a fellow some time back with his Chrysler and the problem was in the power module. IIRC, it houses the trigger unit for the distributor. Turns the power on/off to the coil.

Yep! I did that.... actually mitchell said to shift back and fourth in all the gears, turn off, turn on, turn AC on, off, then do on/off 3x

All the codes are:
12
11
55

12 = Number of key-on's since last fault or since faults were released / Direct battery input to SBEC was disconnected within last 50-100 Ignition key-ons
11 = IGN Refrence signal / No Distributor refrence signal pickup during cranking (Now went away)
55 = Completion of fault code display by CEL

I unplugged the battery for over 2 hours, plugged it back in, she started right up, I drove it around the block, it just stalled, im holding a constant 20 Mph, bam! tach drops to 0, Oil light goes on, etc...

Im seriously aiming its the computer... he wants me to be certain though before i start wasting his money

That engine (I used to have one) uses an optical pickup rather than a hall effect pickup inside the distributor. If you pull the cap and rotor, there is a plastic (I think) thing that comes off and you'll see a metal disk with two concentric rings of slots. First, check for dirt on the ring and inside the pickup. If you're still getting the intermittant 11, either the pickup or the wiring is bad.

Well, the CEL does not appear anymore when I try to start it..... My guess now = a Bad PCM/SBEC (Chrysler tends to call it a SBEC)

Guess we will replace that maybe Wednesday, and see how it fires up then...