We had this happen a couple of times over the summer with the Jeep. It is certainly intermittent and inconsistent. It seems to only happen when the temperature is above 96 degrees, the vehicles has warmed up completely, and has had a hot soak (in a hot parking lot or hot garage). It's happened after letting the car sit for 10-60 minutes and then driving it again. The A/C has always been on when it happens, but that may coincidental since it's hot. It certainly is not fixed when the A/C is turned off.

After less then a mile, the engine loses almost all power, and won't go over 5-10 mph. I couldn't get up the hill by the house. When idling, it is rough whether the transmission is in drive or not. When it happened to me, I shut the engine off, and restarted it a minute later. It started right up, but was still rough and the same problem was still there. I shut it off and let it sit for 3-4 minutes. I restarted it and it has been fine since. It happened 2-3 times to my wife and once to me over the summer. It is certainly not every day that it's that temperature. It has never happened on a cooler day, even a cooler day with hard driving/warmer engine temps.

No CEL. I have not checked for pending codes, but I'm not sure my scanner can do that. It is stock, but I don't know what work has been done before we bought it.

After it happened to me, I purged the air out of the fuel head. There was some, but I would expect hard starting if that was causing it. It hasn't happened since then, but it hasn't been that hot since then. Other than these periods, it seems to run great. There isn't a gradual transition to this mode, it is very abrupt.

Any ideas?

Something similar happened to me but only once months ago. Since your events seem to be related to heat I wonder if you might have a crank position sensor that's on the way out which can be heat related and won't throw a CEL. PN 5066882AA or Bosch 0281002434 also apparently Standard Motor Products PC766 or Airtex 5S7000. I'd like to hear what other's say but FYI it's not too pricey or all that hard to change, see my engine pictures on the CRD tech site for location.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Wouldn't a bad crank sensor cause a no-start? Usually when I've seen bad ones, they just die completely, but maybe there's something different about these?

That sounds like classic CRD air in fuel syndrome.

Do you have the new fuel head, and are you leak free?

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2006 LTD Bright Silver loaded with all the needed mods, CCV intact.
Proudly supporting CRD vendors, and their development of quality parts and accessories.
Equipped with HDS thermostat, plenty of heat, faster warm-ups, increased fuel mileage.

Hopefully that's it, easy to fix.

I haven't seen any leaks, but I know that a leak would just suck in air normally. We did have the car for about nine months before this happened (bought it last fall). I purged the air out, wasn't too much, but some. It probably won't get hot enough to tell until next year.

Is the new fuel head a factory part, or the Rancor head that is usually recommended. It's definitely looks like the factory fuel head, but was there an updated Chrysler part?

Thanks!