Zeus Mutation

Hi,
I'm new to Jeep. I bought a used 1999 GC Limited 4.7L V8 from my buddy who ran it hard & put it away wet. I've had it for 7 months.

The vehicle background - Original owner bought it in Colorado. My buddy bought it in CA and moved it to Hawaii, then back to CA where I bought it. I just moved it to FL.

Lots of issues…

So, had check engine light on. My mechanic back home checked it before moving to FL and stated the ECU wants 4 o2 sensors but the car is federal and has only two. So, ECU throwing o2 sensor codes. No issue driving it though, just the idiot light.

Current actual issue - Car wouldn't start after driving it to a Jeep repair shop here in Orlando. It was strange and never happened before. They looked at it, found no issues. (although they sure acted put out to have to take a look, I was there for a different fix). It started fine, driving home… it stalled out, died on a toll road. Gauges all went to 0. I tried starting it, no problem, got right back on the road and made it home. - After forum scavenging I bought a Mopar CPS sensor. I've not put it in yet… It rains here a TON! Had to fix the leaking sunroof first…

Also, no cold A/C - This is a different issue for a later time. A must here in FL though.

Ok, so I'm ready to put in the CPS sensor… I started thinking…

Should I replace the ECU first?
As in the ECU for a two o2 sensor setup versus the CA required 4

The Jeep drives fine… it was actually the strongest part of this beater jeep. It has a K&N cold air intake and the CA carb immersions sticker, which took forever to get I was told. If I buy a new programmed ECU would this be the best course of action to get the Jeep back running properly?

It has other issues too… wondering if having the correct ECU will help in fixing these other little bugs. So the codes I get are real versus potentially skewed, IDK?

Sorry for the book… Thanks in advance for any & all your help!

czettlera

Hi as for the pcm issue, if it really doesn't fit to your car it would be good to change it to a properly programmed one. As far as I know there is no hardware difference between fed and CA emission ones, just the programming, so maybe at a dealer it can be re-programmed, but i'm not 100% sure. But if o2 sensor is missing for the computer, than the controlling of the engine will not be optimal.
The stalling with dead gauges sound more like an electrical contact failure to me, than a cps issue.
The AC maybe just needs to be refilled with gas, it can be normal for an older car. When vacuumed it can be detected if it leeks.

Zeus Mutation

I appreciate the feedback… after a 100 views I finally had a response. lol

The stalling is odd to me… not sure what it could be. More reading up on it is the plan. I was about to pull the trigger on a $199 ECU but the reviews from folks were terrible!! Now I'm not sure where to get one from.

The A/C has leaks. I just pulled the entire interior to fix a sunroof leak. Had puddles under the carpet… plus just to clean out all the crap it accumulated over the years. I bought the blend door fix. Since everything but the dash is out, I'm going to replace the ac components. Doing it the dash removal way so a new evaporator & heating core while I'm in there.

Thanks again!

czettlera

I had also changed the evaporator in mine, it's real good fun to get to it. Do you have the special tool to disconnect the AC lines? I didn't had, but it can be made from a beer box.
About the pcm, I also have to change mine (transmission control output is dead) and I heard that a1cardone can be a good choice, but unfortunately they don't ship outside the US, so I ordered an other one (also 199$), when it arrives, I let you know how it works.