Moparts
Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ?
Posted By: mopar155
Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 02:24 PM
Hoping that you guys might be able to help out a fellow member. I have a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 with the 5.9 -- I am having a problem with the check engine light coming on. The 1st time it happened the wife was driving to work and the light came on. I had her drive it straight to a local Dodge dealer who said the check engine light showed a misfire on cylinder 5. They did a "short" tune up on it replacing the plugs and wires etc... The truck is not driven everyday but since that occurrence the light has come on and off again at least another 4-5 times. Most of the time the light resets itself. The truck seems to run fine. When I have been driving it and the light comes on it seems like it occurs as I am starting up a hill or putting a little more strain on the engine. I then hear a "pop bottle type rattle" from underneath the hood.(sorry - only way I know how to describe it) then the light comes on. I always try to run the better gas in it and have added a few bottles of techron at fill ups which seems to help. A buddy of mine thought it might be a distributor issue ? He pulled the codes again and sure enough it says misfire on cylinder 5 -- any suggestions would be helpful- Thanks, Ron
Posted By: FuryUs
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 02:31 PM
Pull the plug on #5 and take a look. Could be lots of things: bad injector, coolant leak into that cylinder, carbon buildup, misrouted plug wires...
Posted By: 79powerwagon
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 02:35 PM
I've seen just plain shot distributors on these trucks already. It was probably caused by bad caps, but the dizzies were all corroded and crudy. Not fun trying to get those out of there!
Posted By: Anonymous
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 03:05 PM
I had the same type of problem on my 1997 Ram 1500 with the 318 engine. Did a full tune up, cap, rotor, wires, plugs, checked the routing of the wires as there was a TSB on them, etc. Same situation like yours, the light would come on for a random cylinder misfire in cyl 2 if I remember correctly. I swapped out injectors, nothing. Changed plugs out, nothing. Finally gave up and it seemed to go away with more driving I did.
Posted By: Mapandjlp
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 04:08 PM
What kind of fuel are you running? Maybe try a different filling station or different fuel grade and see if that helps...
Posted By: POS Dakota
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 04:41 PM
Quote:
Pull the plug on #5 and take a look. Could be lots of things: bad injector, coolant leak into that cylinder, carbon buildup, misrouted plug wires...
Even a poofed injector o-ring can do it.
I chased my tail on one of those for a while by instead being fixated on plugs and other stuff.
Posted By: mopar155
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 05:17 PM
As far as the gas goes - I have tried several different stations- BP-Chevron-Shell-- I have been trying to run the higher octanes 91-93 and that does seem to help. But, occasionally I still get the engine "Pinging" sound and then "poof" on comes the check engine light with the same code. I appreciate all the responses so far and will print these out for my mechanic- Thanks again, Ron
Posted By: Anonymous
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 05:34 PM
Stupid question but have you been going through oil recently? I had the plenum pan gasket go on the bottom of the intake and if you unscrewed oil fill cap and tried to remove it, it would literally get suckted back into the valve cover. Maybe this is possibly causing your code?
Posted By: mopar155
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 06:51 PM
Brian- No excessive oil useage-everything seems really good with the truck with the exception of the pinging sound which obviously trips the engine code ? Thanks, Ron
Posted By: buildanother
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 10:09 PM
I would try swapping the injector for #5 to another cyl, and see if #5 still fails or not.
Posted By: Challenger 1
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/23/10 10:50 PM
Would the pinging be caused by a bad EGR valve?
Posted By: teflon
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/24/10 02:29 AM
'98 Ram didn't have a 5.7L. 5.2 or 5.9? Check the plug wire routing, you wont believe the difference that will make, ping will go away.
Posted By: 68KillerBee
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/24/10 08:38 AM
Like someone else said pull the plug out and check it. my 96 was a former mud truck and it was all corroded (sp?) in there. pulled the plug and it had tons of carbon. but the pinging makes me think its not that.
that truck had a lot of upkeep, but it was still my favorite to drive. rip truck
Posted By: Mr.Runum
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/24/10 12:05 PM
Posted By: mopar155
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/24/10 01:26 PM
Teflon- you're correct it is the 5.9 sorry- I changed it in the post--Thanks Guys !
Posted By: Blown69
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/24/10 08:00 PM
The magnum engines had issues with the intake gaskets (they would let oil into the intake port and cause detonation). There's a TSB out there for a flash, but it's just a timing retard flash. I would recommend changing the lower intake gaskets after exhausting all the other options (plug, injector, ignition)
Posted By: racealittle
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/25/10 03:10 PM
If you have access to a DBR scan tool, you can use it to place the distributor exactly where it has to be to eliminate the problem. If the distributor has moved a hair from it's factory setting, this can occur. You are looking for a setting of zero plus or minus one or better...
This is not a timing issue, rather how fuel, etc. is calibrated.
Posted By: mopar155
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/25/10 11:51 PM
Okay guys- mechanic said the plug in cylinder 5 looked a little darker than the others- he thinks it's running a little lean ? - Anyway, put new plugs in- new wires- cap- etc... rerouted some wires and so far so good- he doesn't think this might be the fix all- possibly still an injector issue due to the condition of the # 5 plug - gonna drive it and see what happens- what do you guys think ? Thanks for all the help so far !
Posted By: HPMike
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/26/10 12:03 AM
Has a compression test been done on this truck? Results??
If your guy covered all the usual things, I would take the valve cover off that side and carefully check the valvetrain components, especially the valvesprings. A broken valvespring could cause the same issue you are experiencing.
MB
Posted By: sam64
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/26/10 12:24 AM
my 1997 started doing this at about 90,000 miles,replaced everything ignition related including engine control module and complete wiring harness,injectors,fuel pump,put the mopar perfomance intake on it.[to cure the sucked in gasket problem].nothing changed it still randomly sets no.5 cyl miss fire code,it now has 297,500 miles it still has a lot of get up and go,only seems to set code or miss at idle which after i put all those parts on and no change i figured it was a valve not seating at times.i figured it would get worse and i would pull the heads,but 200,000 miles later it runs to good to tear into it.good luck in your fix.
Posted By: GTXKen
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/26/10 04:11 AM
Quote:
The magnum engines had issues with the intake gaskets (they would let oil into the intake port and cause detonation). There's a TSB out there for a flash, but it's just a timing retard flash. I would recommend changing the lower intake gaskets after exhausting all the other options (plug, injector, ignition)
Posted By: snuggles
Re: Need Help! Check Engine Light- Misfire on Cylinder 5 ? - 02/26/10 01:40 PM
I did plug wires on mine and about 4 months later had the same problem iirc #5 as well. Plug wire wnet bad and I had to buy a new set and just put the one on and solved my problem. My o2 sensor was bad as well.