2000 Dodge sport mini van stating to run a little poor.
 

It has the v-6, (3.3?)and just turned 200,000 miles. It still goes down the road fine but it stymbles & surges slightly on idle, and power and mileage is down. Now I realize it is an older van and geting a lil long on the odometer. I was just wondering what I might do to give it back it's injected smooth idle and a little get-up would be nice. I have thought about new injecters, but they seem to be behind the intake under the dash. (?) I don't wanna just dump crap in the tank and expect a great improvement. I don't beleive in chemical cures for mechanical problems.
Any ideas on where to start. I was thinking, have auto zone scan it, but worry they are just trying to sell parts. Maybe an 02 sensore, or a catalytec converter?
Any help will be greatly appreciated, especially by my wife.:) Thanx.

I would carefully clean the throttle body first, When was the last tune up ?
Is the check engine light on?

Never touched a throttle body befor, are they complicated? They look like it. :)Engine lite has been on for a long time. Never tuned it up. Same plugs and wires since we bought it close to 100,000 miles ago and five years. I know (:doh::slap::naughty:) I did have to change the coil about three winters ago. Tune up is in the plan but wanted to get it all done at once. Guess I should have mentioned that. I know I did some where but must've been a different site and no response there. I had this in the engine and fuel section here with no response either. This thing is daily driven and I am actually very impressed as to the way it runs concidering the neglect. The only thing it ever needed was the coil, front brake pads, and tires. Changed the oil every 3000 miles, and it still comes out clean. As in honey colored.

I think you need to remove the motor mount and tilt the motor forward to change the back plugs

Thanx, I will look into it. By the way just ran a 262 mile trip yesturday and runs good on the road, well over 80, I miss the cruise contorl more than I thought I would. Mileage was about 20 mpg. I do beleive it got much better when we got it, but the wife says it's about the same. (?)
The stuble at idle still bugs me. I suppose it is time to get my hands stuck in it a couple times. Time to learn new technology, need to replace the ring in the column too (air bag and cruise) I guess. Any info on cleaning that throttle body? I just hate to start spending money on it, that's when the 89 threw a rod.

Are you able to get to them from underneath like on some cars?

i remember when i did plugs on a v6 Stratus i had to pull off the throttle body for 2 plugs on the back side, then did one from under neath. What a pain...

I have read that the cowl comes out and this is supposed to be the way, but also read they can indeed be reached from underneath. Also some one said the intake comes off and the injectors are then servicable. There is supposed to be a fitting in the fuel rail that allows for a solvent or some thing to be flushed through the lines and injectors. Going to look into this as well. I will let you know what I find in the next few days or so.

Might wanna get a REAL scan on the car! AZone has a very basic scanner. It could say O2 sensor fault, but you might have FOUR of them in the mini-van! I live in a small town, so its easy to get the guy at the shop to scan the whole car for $20. I did that and he said "bank 1, upstream O2 sensor failure". Finally talked the wife into letting me buy my own scanner. Innova 3160. Plugged it in, and read the same fault. Replaced sensor and my mileage on my Cirrus went from 21mpg to 27 mpg the next day!!

Hey monk, put some fuel injector cleaner in it, change the fuel filter, put some synthetic oil into it, change out the air filter and then use a tank of hi-test gas or try some of these especially the injector cleaner. Use Lucas mucus.