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The dreaded 04/05 Hemi Stall. Help please.

10K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  cam7779 
#1 ·
First of all hi, long time listener first time caller.

So I've had my 2004 Ram SLT Hemi 5.7L since 2004. For the first 50,000 miles there were about 4-5 times I can recall experiencing the "slow stall", where the engine basically shuts down as though a light switch was flipped to turn it off. All of the sudden though it's happened 4 times in the last 4 months. You can look here to see some other examples of the issue.

Here are the symptoms (which I think are pretty well known to members of this forum by now)

1. No check engine light.
2. No codes.
3. Typically starts right back up.
4. When it happens it (to the best of my recollection anyway) happens right after I fill up the tank from empty. (I think this is a key symptom).
5. It doesn't always happen when I fill up the tank (as evidenced by the infrequent occurrence).
6. When it happens it is when I hit the brakes hard at a slow speed to taking a sharp turn at a slow speed.

It is very unsafe because I lose all brakes and steering. The worst instance was a few days ago as I was merging onto the interstate during morning rush hour. This was also the first time that the truck didn't immediately start back up, which concerns me even more. I would normally just throw it into N and start it up but ended up having to go into park and turning it over 4-5 times before it finally started.

I've gone to the dealer and had them flash the PCM and brought the TSP to their attention. That was a couple months ago and today is the first time it stalled again.

Has this issue ever been definitively resolved? I think the fact that it happens right after filling up the gas tank has to be a huge clue but I can't figure out what it's telling me.

I've got to figure this out because it's very unsafe and I'm losing faith in this truck now. Ideas? Soultions?
Thanks!
 
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#4 ·
Nope. Everything is on and running when it dies. In fact sometimes I'll have the radio up too loud and won't even know it died at all until I try to turn the wheel or break. Pretty scary.

It's the 5.7L Hemi BTW.

I've heard a handful of different fixes for this such as:

1) Bad EGR valve
2) Dirty throttle body (done)
3) Bad fuel pump
4) Issue with the PCM and needing to execute a TSP on it (done)
5) Dirty injectors.
6) Torque converter issue

I'm willing to spend the money to make the fix but I can't just throw a bunch of guess money at the big items such as the torque converter or the fuel pump unless I am confident that will fix the problem.

This is a somewhat common issue with these engines from what I've read.

Thanks for the replies. Keep em coming!
 
#5 ·
check the transmission fluid level, drive it till its up to operating temp, dont turn truck off and check on level ground with engine running. if its low top off with atf +4. if the level is good, it could be a crank sensor starting to go bad. but its probably the trans level, Low automatic transmission fluid causes a delayed release of the torque converter clutch and cause it to stall
 
#8 ·
my 03 with the 5.7 just did this today for the first time. i was going around a left corner and boom no steering pulled over it started right away but died on idle did this 4 times on my way home took it out for another driver and it didnt do it but i got a cel but when i check my codes there is no codes so it could be a trans code
 
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