Well, if you read beyond the pissing contest, you would see more suggestions. Is it all the time or random? We can only try and give you a good direction to look, the rest of that is up to you.

 

I read a few posts and just wanted to add my 2 cents...

I had a very similar issue and I went through and replaced the IAC and TPS sensors as well as cleaned the throttle body and idle bypass, these seemed to be the most common culprits. Still the jeep was idling high and sputtering at random so I finally bit the bullet and took it to the local shop.

A costly inspection later and I found out it was a vacuum leak from the intake manifold gasket (could have found this out myself by spraying throttle body cleaner around the intake/exhaust gasket :\ ) I made it my weekend project and replaced the gasket in about 4 hours (kind of a pain to remove everything but nothing a desk jockey like myself couldn't handle haha)

Over the next week my jeep started losing power/sputtering again while accelerating, particularly worse during cold mornings. I thought about it and decided to take out the new Kragen/O'Reily's IAC and TPS sensors and put back the originals (the orig sensors have over 250k on them now). I had heard that aftermarket sensors, nomatter where they are "manufactured" are not near the quality of the OEM Chrysler ones and now I see why. 20 mins to install the old sensors back and now my jeep runs perfect in all conditions again!

So since Kragen has a "no return" policy on electrical parts I just took them both back to be replaced under warrantee, and have put them up for sale! Haha if anyone wants a set of BRAND NEW never installed TPS and IAC sensors from Kragen I'll let em go for $50 plus shipping or best offer!

The guys there stand behind the product saying they are manufactured by Bosch and don't commonly go bad. They were $45 for the TPS and around $60 for the IAC at the Kragen/O'Reily's in my town so I figured half cost for both is a good deal.

Keep in mind the jeep dealer in my area wants close to $100 for each sensor so if your on a budget and are willing to deal with the quality, for a quarter of the OEM cost, then shoot me an email!

Oh as far as the heated battle over whether the battery can cause these problems, I've worked on every single one of my cars and trucks and have replaced many alternators and battery's but not once have either caused a problem with how the engine runs. If the battery is bad your car won't start, and a bad alternator will just cause your car to die after it goes under 12volts.

You can actually load-test your battery to check if the alternator is operating at the proper 14+ volts while operating. Another way is to actually remove the ground cable from the battery, I believe in any 96+ obd2 vehicle (thus removing the battery from the equation) while running the engine with all accessories, if it dies then you may need a new alternator. Again I don't believe either of those are your problem.

In my 98 chevy 1500, my stereo went through 3 batteries and alternators. The last time, it actually caused my headlights and all accessories shut off on the freeway at night (pretty dam scary at 65mph crossing over a bridge) but the engine still ran, just very rough because it lost all sensor and ecu capabilities to control fuel/air mixture. Got it home and it wouldn't start again. New battery, alternator, and a nice 2 farad capacitor for my stereo and I never had another issue. Not exactly relevant, just a good story about one my electrical experiences.

 

Please stop arguing as far as I'm concerned if someone with a thousand plus posts says your wrong don't argue chances are there right even if there not with that many posts under there belt chances are there stubborn enough to argue with you about it until you give up now back to the topic I think a vacuum leak sounds likely I'm actually upset with myself that I didn't think of it if I get some time ill check and see if there is one thanks

 

A vacuum leak from the manifold big enough to affect MAP sensor calculation would be a big chunk of the gasket missing, you would actually hear a hissing noise. I haven't read from the OP that the engine is idleing high.

 

also check the cps wires for bare spots contacting the engine causing intremittent loss of power

 

So what's up with this thread? Has the problem been fixed? What was it?

 

I lack money. Its hard to fix something if you don't have the money to do so

 

Well you can continue investigating with no money..

 

Also the time. Today ill prolly do it but lately I've been helping out other cherokees. Trimming fenders and changed out a radiator and working more frequently lately.

 

I have eliminated the problem to the fuel pump. I'm pretty sure of this. My clip around my injector I gone so we took wire and wrapped it tight and wrapped it over the fuel rail to hold it tight. Then we checked all the hoses that are visible from the top for vaccuum leaks. Then we still have to tighten up the exhaust manifold. We were playing around and decided to try tightening those and they were loose. So we still have to get under it and tighten up the bottom ones. But once we do that, if its still doing it, then its down to a fuel pump or its out of timing. The tps is brand new and has brand new plugs and dist. cap. It had the full tune up by my stepdad when we first got it by my stepdad and I didn't know that he did it. So we are going to wait a little bit and check the fuel pump when we get the chance.

 

Hi guys, new to the forum and the Jeeps. I just got a '96 XJ and it started doing this same thing 3 days after I bought it. Has 159,000 miles. I don't want to waste bunch of money guessing, has a definite solution to this been found? I read and tried the loosening of the screws in the CPU that seemed to help a little, but still wants to cut off at low RPMs. I have a TPS but I was going to return if that's not problem. Don't need another $80 paper wieght.