Jewphin434

There are a lot of details that go into describing what, how, when and where this has happened. I apologize in advance.

I purchased a 1998 XJ about a month ago. It had the check engine light on (I know shame on me) but I'm determined to fix her and build her up.

I test drove it, everything was fine. I drove it an hour and a half back home on the highway, everything was still fine. Drove it on some back roads and a brief offroading session to get to a fishing hole and still, all was well.

Well then I take it to Sears to get some quick work done since I had extra dollars and no time. They changed all the fluids except the transmission, plugged the rear diff, rotated the tires and took care of the rotars.

Two days after that, I'm driving it to work and it just cuts off on a left hand turn I took pretty quickly. No sputtering, noises or any kind of warning. Just turns off. So I go get my check engine light checked and its throwing 2 codes. P0705 and P1698.

So I do some research and there are a ton of reasons that can be happening apparently. So I leave it alone because I don't have but 2-3 hours to myself any given day. Just hope it was a one time thing. Well almost a week later I'm turning into a parking space and it dies again. Then after I back out, pull forward and turn again, it dies again. Then another 5-6 days goes by and I'm pulling up to a red light slowing down and it dies again. Well I start it up and things go WONKY.

Almost simultaneously when starting it up I hear a minor "thud" under the Jeep. Then the over head console DTE reading goes from 35 miles to 0 and the jeep dies. The fuel gauge also reads BELOW E. I literally just had a quarter tank. So I try to start it up again and it dies after about 30sec of idling. The DTE reader is climbing from 0 to where it was originally at 35. So I let it sit until after work. Thought maybe the fuel pump was wigging out or dinner ridiculous combination of something was happening. So I go after work and start it up, let it idle and it runs like it had been. And its about a week later now and it hasn't died since. Of course I'm just waiting on it to.

I know this is a TON of information but I need some help. I don't want to be going 65 on a turn and lose power steering and crash into a raging ****fire storm. I've heard the following could be causing it: dead or dying battery, bad alternator, combination of both, distributor, fuel pump, spark plug wires, PCM, TCM, power steering is putting too much load on something, bad fuel or gunk in the tank, and wiring harness issue.

I'm not the greatest with vehicles but I learn very quickly. So if anybody has suggestions on what to trouble shoot next I am ALL ears at the moment. I'll figure it out. This is keeping me from starting the project I wanted to do in the first place.