Hello all,

I am purchasing a 1997 Jeep Cherokee Country today and the current owner informed me that it has an issue where it dies while driving and you must wait a few minutes before it will start back up and run. I have researched this and most fingers point to the Crank Position Sensor, however, the current owner informed me that she had this replaced in March. Before she had it replaced, the vehicle had a check engine light and after it was replaced, the light went off but the problem persisted. She was informed that the other thing that it could be is the ignition coil. I plan to address this issue immediately and am more than capable of working on the vehicle myself, I am just wondering if there's anything else that can cause symptoms such as these. I don't want to go purchase a coil and replace it if there is another obvious cause that I am not aware of. Thanks.

-Andy

 

Check the cable harness between the engine and firewall. I spent 2-years and $100s chasing a misfire on my 1997. Depending on which wire is shorted, could be your issue or not. Incredible cheap fix if that is the issue.

 

Try swapping the ASD (Auto Shut Down Relay) with the horn relay.

Make it do it - then QUICK pull a plug wire and hold it gapped above ground while someone cranks it.

ANYTHING other than a crispy blue spark indicates a bad coil. Red, yellow, white etc are a bad coil.

Sometimes you can heat the coil a little with the wife's hair dryer to make it quit running - bad coil.

And the shop may not have really replaced the crankshaft sensor - they may have replaced the cam sensor.

The most likely things:
When it dies - both no spark and no fuel - CPS.
No spark but fuel - coil.

 

Thanks for the responses.

I ended up buying the Jeep and it died on me the day that I bought it. I inspected the crank sensor and discovered that it had never been replaced, although there was a receipt in the glovebox saying that a repair shop charged her $117 for the sensor and $80 for labor! I replaced the sensor and have not had the problem since.

 

You should post name of the shop so everyone in the area knows who this POS mechanic is....