It all started 4-5 months ago. On start up my 97 needs me to pump the gas to start. Once runnning I have to hold the gas for roughly 30 seconds at idle to keep it running. Then for the next mile or so I have to baby it so it doesn't stall. After that its good to go until I let it sit for more than 2-3 hours. The longer I let it sit the longer it takes to start. Recently I have had to jump it in the sub zero mornings. Battery checks out, and alt is holding 14.5 volts when running. I have cleaned the throttle body as I thought it was the IAC, but the fact that it gets worse over time makes me think it is a drain in the system. Also I notices my running lights, odometer backlight and radio backlight come on when I depress my brake pedal, not sure if that is related. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Have you checked all of your grounds to make sure they're clean?

 

I am actually replacing the grounds this week. It just seems weird that it is only a problem on startup and idle. Which ground would cause something like this?

 

This is about a grand cherokee, but similar problem and they mention that those 2 share grounds. Idk which one though.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/n...lights-144137/

 

Also here, but not jeep related...

http://forum.ih8mud.com/70-series-te...e-braking.html

everyone is saying check the grounds and connections in the tail light housing.

 

That actually helps a lot. I will try to go though my tail light housing. Not sure why that would drain my battery down at night though... we will see!

 

Well it has been -15 the past couple of days wind chill of -50. I went to pull the jeep in the garage since i'm not doing any work outside and now can't get it started. I jumped the battery with a known good battery and that normally works fine. Not today. It cranks super slow and doesn't fire up. It's to far away to use a heater to heat everything up to see if that helps. Any ideas on what this could be or is it just the cold?...

 

Could be the starter. The colder it is the worse it is dragging if it is going bad. Also when the engine block shrinks it makes things a little tighter than when it is warm.

I am having a similar problem with my 85xj with 2.5l, it started fine on Saturday when it was 40F outside, Monday it turned over 3 times and that was all, and volt meter on the dash was reading 8v. That's what I get for buying the cheapest battery I could get, but it was a non-running project back in the spring so I didn't want to spend a fortune on it if it would never run.

Also at -1F this morning my 96F150 took four tries to start because of the cold, and has been like that since it was new so yea, cold makes it hard on them if not equipped with block and battery heaters.