Hey everyone, my 97 XJ (150,xxx miles) was running perfectly when yesterday I was backing out of a parking space and it died. Tried to restart, nothing. Kept trying throughout the day, cranked over perfectly but wouldn't even attempt to start. Did some research here and decided to replace the crank position sensor in the parking lot that evening. Started right up. Everything was running perfect before the no start. Now, the jeep starts fine as before, but has a perfect idle ~70% of the time and will occaisionally stumble to a higher rpm at idle, and will cut out/stutter under medium acceleration accompanied by a strange (not too loud) scratching noise coming from the engine bay when it stutters. No check engine light. The TPS was replaced about 4 months ago. Any ideas as to what is going on? Could the new crank position sensor be causing these symptoms? I appreciate any advice on what to trouble shoot.

 

Well I cleaned my IAC and throttle body, replaced my ignition coil, distributor cap, rotor, and plug wires today but nothing has changed. Still no CEL either. What is bothering me the most is the strange noise coming from what seems like right in front of me. It occurs when the engine is stuttering. It is almost like thin metal rattling, I'm sorry it is pretty hard to describe. I've turned now to trouble shooting fuel components. A bad fuel pressure regulator wouldn't make any sound would it? Have any of you ever had a similar faint scratching/rattling noise with engine stuttering? Hope someone can chime in.

 

I could really use some help guys, I'm stuck daily driving my stuttering jeep 25 miles each way to work, not fun.

I replaced my cam position sensor (pickup coil) today, and it has not solved the problem, though it seems to idle fine now. I unhooked my O2 sensor (before-cat) and no CEL came on, could my CEL not be working? Also, my friend believes that the sound during stuttering was engine ping, and I can't find anything else under the hood loose or out of place to disprove him.

I'm going to clean all my grounds tomorrow, any other suggestions on where to look or what to replace?

 

Well, turns out I was given a bad crank position sensor from the parts store. Good enough to start up fine, but threw the timing off while driving.

 

Stupid parts stores. Sorry about the no help, but glad you figured it out.