Hi folks,
First, this is my first thread here... me and my dogie Buddy acquired a 1997 Cherokee Sport back in February. It's a great find and something we both have needed. About a week after we bought it, we had 30" of powder fall and it was flawless... it worked and got us around without fail. And by the way, it's Buddy's (my dogies) jeep... he takes pride in his new buggy, loves the room and the front seat!
It has 155k miles, one owner, maintained very well and we were very happy with the find. It's our pack mule and gets us out an about regardless of the weather...
Until... about a month ago after a fill up and a few miles, it started stalling, stumbling, erratic idle on deceleration at the first stop. Okay! Bad fuel witch is a very common thing is these parts... So from previous experience with nasty fuel, a can of Sea Foam. No big deal! After the additive, it improved slightly but it continued to have the same problem. No CEL displayed so we figured it would just take a while for the "cleaner" to work witch it usually does. Then, it started stalling/stumbling on acceleration once the symptom started and popping as an intake backfire and finally the CEL came on. I checked the on-board diagnostic feature and it gave a reading of 12, 21, 55... battery disconnected, O2 sensor malfunction, end. Okay, the O2 is bad but that didn't make sense from what I know about it... it's a sniffer and from what I understand if it's bad it will cause poor performance which it has now but it shouldn't cause a "backfire" so to speak. Then the light CEL goes out and it run horribly... it has new cap and rotor, new wires, new spark plugs which I replaced when we got it along with oil change and coolant flush just to have a ground zero to work with. So I don't think any of that is an issue. It's actually cheap insurance so I figured, why not. I had to remove the batter to clean the tray and when I did, it reset the CEL and the codes disappeared. For 26 miles... then it started all over again. Stall, stumble, pop, snap, lousy performance, horrible gas mileage and then the CEL came back on... checked the codes again and they were the same... 12, 21, 55. I've checked everything I know how to check via Haynes manual... connections, loose this or that, but have no clue to what is causing the problem. Everything checks out!
What am I missing? I've read endless posts from many different sites and found nothing that seems to help. The local garages just want to start replacing parts, the folks at the auto parts place have no suggestions other than what I have already done and Buddy is really getting annoyed that we can't take our trip into the hills for a much needed respite... It will run wonderfully for a few miles, then the pop, pop, stumble, light goes on and it's performance falls flat. I can feel when it's about to happen because it will start to slow, the light comes on and then the pop, then the stumble. If I try to accelerate, the pop in the intake will increase, if I let it idle, it stumbles and stalls but won't completely stop running but it is a complete dog...
Help... does anyone have any suggestion. Buddy will be a very grateful Jeep owner.
Hope this makes sense!
Chet and Buddy
First, this is my first thread here... me and my dogie Buddy acquired a 1997 Cherokee Sport back in February. It's a great find and something we both have needed. About a week after we bought it, we had 30" of powder fall and it was flawless... it worked and got us around without fail. And by the way, it's Buddy's (my dogies) jeep... he takes pride in his new buggy, loves the room and the front seat!
It has 155k miles, one owner, maintained very well and we were very happy with the find. It's our pack mule and gets us out an about regardless of the weather...
Until... about a month ago after a fill up and a few miles, it started stalling, stumbling, erratic idle on deceleration at the first stop. Okay! Bad fuel witch is a very common thing is these parts... So from previous experience with nasty fuel, a can of Sea Foam. No big deal! After the additive, it improved slightly but it continued to have the same problem. No CEL displayed so we figured it would just take a while for the "cleaner" to work witch it usually does. Then, it started stalling/stumbling on acceleration once the symptom started and popping as an intake backfire and finally the CEL came on. I checked the on-board diagnostic feature and it gave a reading of 12, 21, 55... battery disconnected, O2 sensor malfunction, end. Okay, the O2 is bad but that didn't make sense from what I know about it... it's a sniffer and from what I understand if it's bad it will cause poor performance which it has now but it shouldn't cause a "backfire" so to speak. Then the light CEL goes out and it run horribly... it has new cap and rotor, new wires, new spark plugs which I replaced when we got it along with oil change and coolant flush just to have a ground zero to work with. So I don't think any of that is an issue. It's actually cheap insurance so I figured, why not. I had to remove the batter to clean the tray and when I did, it reset the CEL and the codes disappeared. For 26 miles... then it started all over again. Stall, stumble, pop, snap, lousy performance, horrible gas mileage and then the CEL came back on... checked the codes again and they were the same... 12, 21, 55. I've checked everything I know how to check via Haynes manual... connections, loose this or that, but have no clue to what is causing the problem. Everything checks out!
What am I missing? I've read endless posts from many different sites and found nothing that seems to help. The local garages just want to start replacing parts, the folks at the auto parts place have no suggestions other than what I have already done and Buddy is really getting annoyed that we can't take our trip into the hills for a much needed respite... It will run wonderfully for a few miles, then the pop, pop, stumble, light goes on and it's performance falls flat. I can feel when it's about to happen because it will start to slow, the light comes on and then the pop, then the stumble. If I try to accelerate, the pop in the intake will increase, if I let it idle, it stumbles and stalls but won't completely stop running but it is a complete dog...
Help... does anyone have any suggestion. Buddy will be a very grateful Jeep owner.
Hope this makes sense!
Chet and Buddy
