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Re: TJ stalls after morning startup

My 97 TJ, with 4 cyl auto, 60,000 miles, often conks out when I back

> it out of the garage in the morning... after restart and going forward > it falters and lightly backfires a few times. When I let up on the gas > and press the pedal again it runs okay. The rest of the day no > problems on startup and go. > > I live in North Central Florida. > > Any ideas on the cause?

You live in Florida.

(no, I'm actually serious)

Your describing water in your fuel tank. Water settles to the bottom overnight then your jeep tries to burn it in the morning (doesn't work well does it). After moving for a while the water gets mixed back up.

You could also have mold growing in the tank, but that's more common with diesel.

Go get some gas dryer that's safe for O2 sensors and dump it in.

Might take a couple of tries. The alternate method is pump the water out in the morning. Take the fuel line off the rail, put it into a bottle then turn the ignition on (not start) that cycles the fuel pump for a few seconds. Turn the ignition off, then turn it back on again till you get a good glass full. Now set the glass down for a while and see if there is water settling out in the bottom. Any brownish floaty bits indicate mold and that requires the fuel tank be steam cleaned.

Reply to
DougW
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Our Cherokee did the same when the TPS (throttle position sensor) electrical connection got dirty.

I would recommend cleaning any and all the sensor connections you can find while at it. One is dirty enough to be flaky, good bet the rest are too. The MAP and CPS come to mind.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Ralph DL wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

There are several service bulletins that may also help with this. Chrysler had trouble with some fuel pumps in '97, and the best way to test is to attach a fuel pressure gauge. Another issue is gas quality. Make sure to use a good brand name gasoline, perhaps better than just regular octane. Another service bulletin described volatility issues, and stated that good quality higher octane gas may help this. All of these were listed as responsible for driveway die-outs. My son's TJ acts the same way, and we have noticed some improvement with better quality/higher octane gas.

cal

Reply to
Cal

Whoops!

I stand corrected on that one. The service bulletin I remember reading was when looking at a grand cherokee problem, and I still got it bass ackwards. Apparently, if the engine is designed to run on 87 octane, use 87 octane. This bulletin also encouraged the occasional use of fuel injector cleaners (cheaper) rather that higher octane fuels to maintain system cleanliness. This bulletin can be viewed at:

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I still stand by my recommendati>

Reply to
Cal

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