Hey all,

New to the Jeep world and am in need of some help. A few months ago I bought 1996 Grand Cherokee Limited 5.2 with 180k on the odometer in the hopes of turning it into a long term winter vehicle since I have moved from the desert to the mountains.

Since I've owned it I've noticed that it has random power loss when I drive to work in the early mornings. It will start right up and I let it idle as I scrape all the ice off the windows. There's no problems until I get to work which is about 15 minutes away which is when I usually notice it randomly stutters when lightly coasting the parking lot. Also when rolling down the window so that I can get into the parking lot it will randomly stop as I'm rolling it down and wont let me do anything for about 10-20 seconds and then I have zero issues rolling it down the rest of the way and then back up (no slowness or stops).

Today was it's first day in my hands in an actual snow storm. I noticed on the morning commute as I got closer to work that when I hit the brakes my headlights started severely dimming randomly though there was no other problems until I got to work and noticed the locking motors sounds weaker than normal while locking it as I exited.

On the way home from work the engine stalled twice and the brake petal locked up but the radio and everything else remained on and it had no problems starting right back up. Though after the continued drive it was completely fine.

Just as a little more insight since I gained position, I was fully aware that it was a POS that I was buying. Which is okay since I'm taking the chance to learn how to fully work on a car. Everything needs work on the vehicle. I took it to a shop and had brand new struts, rotors, pads, calipers, and the E-brake adjusted to actually work. I personally replaced the transmission with a fully rebuilt unit (which did fix all my shifting problems) as the old one was having a lot of problems shifting and while I figured it was the solenoids I didn't want to risk more future problems by just flushing and replacing them on the original. The transfer case fluid was drained and replaced. The throttle position sensor and and crank position sensor have both been replaced. Lastly the after market radio wiring has been corrected as previously they had taped into the right front speaker for power which of course is blown which was causing lighting issues when using auto mode for headlights that was finally corrected.

Any ideas what it could be? I've researched for a little bit but don't have anything concrete as nobody else seems to have the same problems as myself. Seems possible that the ABS system, ECU, or PCM is acting up. I have the notorious bad coolant sensor warning on my PCM that would pop up without fail every time I started the Jeep. Though ever since I replaced the transmission it's very random on the coolant pop up usually popping up around 10 minutes after driving and going away or sometimes not appearing at all.

Thanks ahead for any help and reading my post! I look forward to getting into the Jeep community and learning with all of you!

 

Welcome to the forum!

Good luck with your ZJ!

Has the fuel pressure been measured during the problem? Frequently the fuel pump is the problem, but it could be the fuel pressure regulator.

 

I'm guessing your CPS is bad. I read that you replaced it but you could have bought a bad one, or one that failed prematurely. Was it OEM or an after-market cheapy? The CPS can cause symptoms similar in feel to poor shifting if it's intermittent and can't "manage" the crankshaft information needed for the computer to keep up with cylinder fuel and spark timing. Mine gave up completely after some months (literally) of momentary engine stalling to complete shutdowns to its final death throes on a busy street. Up to that point I was head-scratching what the problem could be. A quick visit here resolved that. I replaced it with a cheap RockAuto $45.00 sensor and that got me exactly 3 miles closer to home before the engine began bucking and running like it was trying to turn inside-out. I went and bought the factory sensor and haven't had problem-one since installing it a couple years ago.