Yesterday I bought a 95 YJ with a 2.7 L 4-cylinder engine that has 86k miles on it.
I test drove it the previous day, previous owner seemed like a good dude. It was a little quirky in that it needed to get to higher rpm’s before shifting to maintain speed, especially from 3rd to 4th if I wanted to get higher speeds in 4th, but once I got that figured out I had it going 70 in 4th and 80 in 5th. Felt good. I figured I’d reset the ECU to suit me but didn’t make it that far.
Previous owner told me the only thing he knew of was that the fuel pump would need replaced pretty soon, per a mechanics recommendation. It would stall once in a while on him but start right back up, he said. Otherwise it is in good mechanical shape, looks great with a bunch of fun upgrades. He said he ran it around yesterday for a while to say goodbye to it before I picked it up in the evening.
I live an hour away, and filled the gas tank before heading towards home. Made it about 4 miles up the state highway and it cut out, like a kill switch had been thrown. Had to come to a full stop before starting it again, wouldn’t start trying to turn the key while rolling after it died, but coming to a stop, sitting for a few seconds, and pumping the throttle a bit, it starts right back up. Continued, made it only like a half mile, does it again. Same, come to a stop, sit a few seconds, starts up. Repeat, make it less distance, dies. Repeat, even less distance, then less, then less. Got to a straight, flat dirt road where I could mess with it more. It would die at high rpm’s, low rpm’s; at first it had died in 4th gear, but later died in 3rd, 2nd, 1st. Finally it was only making it like 50 feet before dying. So it got worse. It wasn’t sputtering or hesitating, it would just cut out suddenly.
I was thinking fuel issues because of the mentioned fuel pump problem, but checked the shrader valve (I think that’s what you call the little nipple on the fuel rail) and fuel squirts meaning it has pressure.
Thinking whether it was getting spark - checked the main spark cable from the battery with a screwdriver and there was spark. I visually looked around for wires that looked strange or corroded, but with my limited knowledge and experience I didn’t see anything that raised a red flag. At first I’m thinking of replacing the distributor cap and rotor, spark plugs and cables, ignition coil too maybe though I found a video to test that with a multimeter before I pay for a new coil. Found videos to test the O2 sensors too. There is a Napa in the little mountain town near where it died that can loan me some tester tools, maybe check fuel pressure, see if there Is anything there in the pressure regulator or if fuel is going back in to the tank meaning fuel pump valve problem. I don’t even know if it’s fuel injected. I hope it’s not ECM.
I’m heading back down there to where I had to park it by the side of the road (took out starter relay so hopefully nobody jacked it). I found this forum and found some threads with things to look for but I’m new to having a Jeep again - had one 20 years ago and now that I’m in need of a new daily I decided to get this instead of another Subaru for driving around the mountains.
Any help would be much appreciated. This is such a bummer. I was so stoked to start driving this home yesterday. Made it 6 damn miles.
I test drove it the previous day, previous owner seemed like a good dude. It was a little quirky in that it needed to get to higher rpm’s before shifting to maintain speed, especially from 3rd to 4th if I wanted to get higher speeds in 4th, but once I got that figured out I had it going 70 in 4th and 80 in 5th. Felt good. I figured I’d reset the ECU to suit me but didn’t make it that far.
Previous owner told me the only thing he knew of was that the fuel pump would need replaced pretty soon, per a mechanics recommendation. It would stall once in a while on him but start right back up, he said. Otherwise it is in good mechanical shape, looks great with a bunch of fun upgrades. He said he ran it around yesterday for a while to say goodbye to it before I picked it up in the evening.
I live an hour away, and filled the gas tank before heading towards home. Made it about 4 miles up the state highway and it cut out, like a kill switch had been thrown. Had to come to a full stop before starting it again, wouldn’t start trying to turn the key while rolling after it died, but coming to a stop, sitting for a few seconds, and pumping the throttle a bit, it starts right back up. Continued, made it only like a half mile, does it again. Same, come to a stop, sit a few seconds, starts up. Repeat, make it less distance, dies. Repeat, even less distance, then less, then less. Got to a straight, flat dirt road where I could mess with it more. It would die at high rpm’s, low rpm’s; at first it had died in 4th gear, but later died in 3rd, 2nd, 1st. Finally it was only making it like 50 feet before dying. So it got worse. It wasn’t sputtering or hesitating, it would just cut out suddenly.
I was thinking fuel issues because of the mentioned fuel pump problem, but checked the shrader valve (I think that’s what you call the little nipple on the fuel rail) and fuel squirts meaning it has pressure.
Thinking whether it was getting spark - checked the main spark cable from the battery with a screwdriver and there was spark. I visually looked around for wires that looked strange or corroded, but with my limited knowledge and experience I didn’t see anything that raised a red flag. At first I’m thinking of replacing the distributor cap and rotor, spark plugs and cables, ignition coil too maybe though I found a video to test that with a multimeter before I pay for a new coil. Found videos to test the O2 sensors too. There is a Napa in the little mountain town near where it died that can loan me some tester tools, maybe check fuel pressure, see if there Is anything there in the pressure regulator or if fuel is going back in to the tank meaning fuel pump valve problem. I don’t even know if it’s fuel injected. I hope it’s not ECM.
I’m heading back down there to where I had to park it by the side of the road (took out starter relay so hopefully nobody jacked it). I found this forum and found some threads with things to look for but I’m new to having a Jeep again - had one 20 years ago and now that I’m in need of a new daily I decided to get this instead of another Subaru for driving around the mountains.
Any help would be much appreciated. This is such a bummer. I was so stoked to start driving this home yesterday. Made it 6 damn miles.
