Engine Dying and Jerking

[mattd]

I have a 1994 Jeep Cherokee Sport and lately it will kind of jerk driving down the road and sometimes it will just die. It doesn't happen on a consistent basis or a pattern. It just happens. Sometimes it won't crank right back up...like its starving for gas. I'm about to change the fuel filter but would like any ideas or suggestions anyone might have

[Bounty__Hunter]

Remove the throttle body and sensors, give the TB a good bench cleaning.

[mattd]

Can you elaborate more...I'm not a mechanic at all.

[mixwing]

Hey guys, I have a 1995 Grand with the V-8 and it is doing basically the same thing. Sometimes when I try to accelerate, it hesitates and bucks, and occasionally when I let off the gas to start slowing down, the rpms drop off and often dies. Ain't good when one is trying to make a turn! And as with mattd's, it don't always do it. I fugure the TPS is going. Am I on the right track? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

	Throttle position sensor A throttle position sensor (TPS) is a sensor used to monitor the position of the throttle in an internal combustion engine. The sensor is usually located on the butterfly spindle so that it can directly monitor the position of the butterfly throttle valve. The sensor is usually a potentiometer and therefore provides a variable resistance dependent upon the position of the butterfly valve (and hence throttle position). The sensor signal is used by the Engine Control Unit (ECU) as an input to its control system. The ignition timing and fuel injection timing (and potentially other parameters) are altered depending upon the position of the throttle, and also depending on the rate of change of that position. For example, in fuel injected engines, in order to avoid stalling, extra fuel may be injected if the throttle is opened rapidly (mimicking the accelerator pump of carburetor systems).

[Sly8795]

When something of this nature happened to me it was a bad catalytic converter.

The 95 Grand sounds like a misfire but I might be off on that one.

[BaconYJ]

Matt, if it seems it is choking for gas maybe you need to change out the fuel filter. When the vehical is sitting or has been what ever debree it has filtered settles to the bottom of it and you get a fairly consistant flow of fuel but after time or bumps it will be pulled into the filter again and start deminishing fuel flow. New filters are cheap 10 buck or so and easy to change.

Just my 2 cents.

Bacon

[mattd]

Bacon,
I changed the fuel filter this weekend and within a day it died 4 times on me. Now since then it's only sputtered once or twice. I am at a lost. I think the catalytic converter might be a problem but that doesn't explain the engine jsut dying driving down the road...no jerking or anything jsut dead...

[Sly8795]

Originally Posted by mattd

Bacon,
I changed the fuel filter this weekend and within a day it died 4 times on me. Now since then it's only sputtered once or twice. I am at a lost. I think the catalytic converter might be a problem but that doesn't explain the engine jsut dying driving down the road...no jerking or anything jsut dead...

I could be wrong on this so someone correct me, but if the exhaust gases cant get out because the cat had gone bad it might cause your jeep to die.

[SteelHeadz]

Do you have any diagnostic trouble codes(Check Engine Light) on?

[Clarks Jeepn]

Can't afford another cat. What would be better, rod the cat or cut it out and replace it with an appropriate length of pipe?

[FREDMCGUIRE]

Have a Comanche that had the same problem and after much searching, the problem was the stud that the negative (ground) battery cable attaches to was loose in the cylinder head where it screws in.
To fix, remove the nut and lock washer holding the cable on, unscrew the stud, put some kind of thread locker on it and re-install to proper torque value or just tighten it up good and tight then put the battery cable back on it and tighten up the nut.
Good luck!

	Locking Differential Provides even more traction than a limited-slip differential by “locking” the axle shafts together when the driver wants to do it. Locking differentials do not allow for wheel-speed differences and must not be used on dry, paved roads.

[bobcat481]

Originally Posted by FREDMCGUIRE

Have a Comanche that had the same problem and after much searching, the problem was the stud that the negative (ground) battery cable attaches to was loose in the cylinder head where it screws in.
To fix, remove the nut and lock washer holding the cable on, unscrew the stud, put some kind of thread locker on it and re-install to proper torque value or just tighten it up good and tight then put the battery cable back on it and tighten up the nut.
Good luck!

I agree.....check grounding...intermittent problems are normally ground in my experiance.

	Locking Differential Provides even more traction than a limited-slip differential by “locking” the axle shafts together when the driver wants to do it. Locking differentials do not allow for wheel-speed differences and must not be used on dry, paved roads.

[Clarks Jeepn]

I replaced my coil and the problem I mentioned earlier in this thread went away 90%. I did notice that the housing that the coil sits in looks to be aluminum. The aluminum seems to be somewhat corroded so I am going to try to clean the mounting surface for better contact and see if that eliminates the problem.