For the past four months my Jeep Cherokee has been plagued by random stumbling/bucking issues. I’ve lost count as to how many times the fuel pressure has been checked at this point. I’d even added a can of Sea Foam to at least say I tried that. Every time though it reads normal. So the next step was to do a tune up, stumbling and bucking was still lingering. The next step was to change the throttle position sensor, which we did twice (one was a spare and the latter one is new). Still the stumbling lingered. We cleaned the throttle body, connection to the crankshaft position sensor and the stumbling/bucking lingered. It had even gotten to the point that at random times it would also just die on me. So Mike and I changed out the distributor, which showed some wear. We drove the Jeep over 100 miles in one day and it did perfectly fine. The next day the stumbling returned Sigh…
I ended up buying a crankshaft position sensor since my Jeep friends suggested that I replace it. My best friend drove it to work the following day and it ran smoothly—for the day. I go to take it home and halfway home the stumbling returns. This time though I caught the tachometer fluctuating.
After enjoying a trip to Atlanta to the 4 Wheel Drive Truck & Jeep Fest and to Summit Racing in McDonough, Georgia, I was in the mood to pop open the hood and inspect as many wires as I could and clean the idle air control valve and the ECM connection. It’s day three and so far the Jeep is doing well. In fact, she seems perkier now.