My wife has a 2001 Intrepid and recently the car has a habit of just shutting off for no apparent reason. It won't start immediately but given 5 mins or so starts right up and she goes on her way. No codes. The first time it did it, I was driving. I depressed the shrader vavle on the fuel rail and there was pressure.

Heres the kicker that might complicate things. Its a 2.7L car with a 2000 3.5 out of a 300M but it is all running off the 2.7 computer and people have had great success with it.

Anybody have any ideas where I can look??

First thing I'd look at is/are the cam and crank sensors if I was to take a SWAG at it

Might want to uncouple, clean and dielectric grease your engine compartment harness connectors too, just to be certain you have good connections. And check grounds too.

Did the same thing this AM.

There are 2 cam sensors and a crank sensor right?? Hopefully they are easily accessable.

The weird thing is it happened 3 times in a row, 3 miles from home in the AM, resets after a few seconds and is fine till the next day.

I'll fool with it tonight. If it was wiring I'd suspect it to be not as predictable. I wonder if a sensor gets a dead spot when it gets heated....

Crank sensors are $20. Cam sensors are $38.

Maybe something to do with the transition from cold startup to normal operating temp operation? I'm totally unfamiliar with the system that runs the 2.7 or the 3.5 engines, but 3 miles from home would be about the place that the coolant temps get up to the bottom of the "normal" range. Why it would just die in that range, I can't imagine, especially if it's not throwing a code. Have you got some sort of scan gauge that you can use to check various sensors to see what's going on when it croaks?

Clair

I have a code scanner that I will try tonight and teach my wife how to use when the car actually wont start.

I hate to throw parts at a problem but I have seen a couple things on the net pointing to cam sensor failures. I might just R&R that for the $38 and cross my fingers.

Cam sensor (BTW there is only ONE) won`t kill it unless it is shorted internally to ground (not very common), actually they will start without the cam, but it will have a very extended cranking time before it figures it out.

Without actually seeing if it has crank pulse or not when it dies, it`s anybodys guess especially on a conversion...but if your gonna guess, try the crank sensor.

Rick

I already bought a cam sensor. Before I swapped it I checked codes. None.

Then I fired it up and unplugged the cam sensor. The engine immediately died like it was shut off. I turned ign off, plugged it back in and tested codes. None again.

So I put a new cam sensor in and will see what happens. The wife knows how to scan codes so if it does it again, hopefully it will throw a code in no-start condition.

We'll see.

So far so good. After 3 identical failures in a row on the morning commute, today had no issues.

Good to hear

Any other issues with this swap? Been thinking about trying it if the right car comes along...

The swap was suprisingly straight forward. The exhaust hookup was a tad bit challenging but still not a big deal.

It helped that I obtained a wrecked 300m so I had all the little items but I am pleased with it.

But the 2.7 is such a great engine guys