Lag and engine lurch when maintaining speed on level road - 2001 T&CAWD 3.8 -

Hello,

When I'm coasting along at any speed (usually over 30) on a level
surface and give enough throttle just to keep my speed up the engine
lags and lurches as if its running out of gas or getting some kind of
vapor lock. The tac bounces up and down by 500 rpms. It's as if the
engine is going to die. If I give it more gas it accelerates
normally. If I just coast with no gas its fine. It's just when I
give it just enough gas to keep my speed constant. I haven't taken it
in yet and wondered if anyone on this forum might have an idea on what
it could be.

Thanks,
Luke

 

I had this with my 1993 Voyager. A good cleaning of the throttle body
took care of it. Also, a cheap quality AIS motor had been installed at
sometime too, so they replaced it.

KM

 

Thanks KM

 

While you're at it and cleaning the throttle body, you might want to
disconnect the throttle position sensor connector and put an ohm meter
across 2 of the contacts (you'll have to figure out which 2 contacts of the
3 to measure across-it will be obvious if you play around with it and watch
the meter readings) and work the throttle from idle to partial throttle to
see if the resistance changes smoothly or if it's erratic in certain spots.
When they get bad they can send wrong throttle position info to the PCM
(computer). A new TPS is very inexpensive - about $20 at Autozone. Just a
thought.