97 Jeep stalling

[Shorty]

You're right, EGR's were from 1984-1990. Here's a link that tells more about the Chrysler recall.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/97-zj-stalling-not-fixed-after-6-months-help-please-522719/

This recall was for Jeeps between the years 96 and 2001. They recalled 500,000 vehicles in that recall, extended the warranties for another 700,000 vehicles, then sent letters out to over 300,000 more to let them know about potential catalytic converter problems. Thats 1,500,000 defective vehicles they put out on the road.

I was wrong about the EGRs but if you have a defective cat on your car then your car isnt going to be able to breath. It's going to clog your car up with Carbon, mess up your O2 sensors, your MAP, MAT, TPS sensors and every other sensors that are also connected to your computer which it will also mess up.

It can also mess up your transmission as well. A blocked catalytic converter can cause symptoms of slipping, a bad PCS, a bad PCM, a bad TCC, and a whole host of others. You have to drive it a lot harder to get the same performance out of it and that will tear it up a lot faster than normal.

I think that all the problems people are having with their Jeeps have started out because their catalytic converters were not doing their job and that part made the rest of the parts fail. Chrysler pretty much sold millions of cars out there with a potato stuck in the tail pipe and didnt tell us about it because they didnt want to have to fix it.


Does that make any sense or is it just me? Wouldnt a clogged muffler cause all the problems that people are having with their cars to where they just stall out when you're driving them? Wouldnt it mess up all the sensors and the computers they were hooked to? Thats why they dont know what exactly is tore up on your car because it could of tore up anything. Thats why one car can be fixed one way and another car be fixed the other way. If they never had a defective catalytic converter on them in the first place then they would of never had the problems they are having now. Right? What else could explain all the Jeeps that no one can get to run with out dropping thousands of dollars into?

I think that if you havent had problems with your Cat yet that its just a matter of time before it does mess up or tears something else up in your car. I've had old cars before and never had to clean carbon out of them. If you still have one of the recalls then I would go ahead and get it out before it turns into a lot of money.

Like I said before, I dont know anything about being a mechanic, just what I've been reading the last few days. Tell me if I'm off base here because I dont know for sure. If I am right though then I think Chrysler needs to man up and extend that recall to a lot more people than that million and a half. They knew damn well what was going to happen and I dont think that we should have to pay money out of our pockets for their mistakes.

As mentioned, a clogged cat can be EASILY diagnosed with a vacuum gauge and the ability to read it.

Yes, clogged exhaust happens but it isn't the root cause of many driveability issues.

You can guess all you want but I would recommend that you follow Tim and Joe's strategy above. That is methodical troubleshooting.

Never noticed it but I did notice that if I was in town or sitting at red lights then it would start to over heat. It has a new radiator and everything else in it so it shouldnt have over heated. Wouldnt a clogged Cat do that?

it seems that you are fixated on a blocked/clogged converter. Take the time to check for decreasing engine vacuum and inspect the converter for signs of restriction (glowing orange) and post the results.

Although the converter media breaking apart can cause it to become plugged up, nothing in the recall you posted addresses it stopping up. It only mentions the converter becoming less effective as the substrate exits the converter.

 

[Shorty]

You have been told in earlier posts how to determine if the CAT is clogged, either test it or don't--your choice.

Good luck.

beat me to it....

 

[JHicks0071]

Do you guys work for Chrysler? Seems like it. I'll try to explain it a little better. A few years back Chrysler got in trouble for putting defective catalytic converters in their Jeeps. This wasnt just a few Jeeps either, it was hundreds of thousands of Jeeps from the year 1996 to 2001. Now what was wrong with those catalytic converters? Well the inside of them would break into pieces and not work like they were supposed to. Now those little pieces could either blow out of the muffler or they could become trapped inside of it and clog the catalytic converter up. Now the signs of a clogged converter is that the car will sometimes stall. Sometimes it wont even start, if it does start it has no horse power, it cant climb hills that good and it doesnt idle very well. We all know that Jeeps do that, they do all of that. Now when you get online and read the forums, you will notice that most of the people that are complaining about their Jeeps just so happen to fall into the those years that they were recalled.

One of the jobs of a catalytic converter is to remove carbon from the engine and to safely get rid of it. Now if it isnt working right then thats going to leave a lot of carbon in the engine and once again, Jeeps are famous for having carbon build up. You always have to seafoam them or spray carb cleaner in them and clean the throttle body out. Sound familiar?

One of the complaints that Jeep owners have is that the "check engine" light does not come on in their Jeep and because of that they cant hook it up to the computer to figure out what is wrong with it. Now the catalytic converter wasnt the only thing that was involved in that recall. Those vehicles were also equipped with a defective on-board diagnostic systems. (OBD) Do you know what that means? That means if your catalytic converter clogged up, then you OBD would not know it and the check engine light would not come on. Without the check engine light on, the mechanic would have to guess what was making the Jeep stall and act all crazy. They will usually start you out with a complete tune up and clean all that carbon out but the Jeep still wont run right. It might run for a week or so but the same problems would come back. They would replace the fuel pump, check the battery, and replace every sensor until all that was left was the ECM to replace. Fact is though that nothing really worked or stayed fixed unless they also replaced the catalytic converter in there as well. By this time they have already charged you up into the thousands of dollars for pretty much not doing anything.
Now I think that if someone owns a Jeep and if that Jeep is stalling on them then they don’t need to replace anything on it except the catalytic converter. I’m sure that its going to need a tune up and all the carbon cleaned out of it but I don’t think that the sensors or the ECM or the fuel pump need replaced. I think you guys just replace them to get that extra money.
Now of coarse this is just my opinion as I am not a mechanic. I just think that it’s a little odd that Chrysler had to do a massive recall for defective catalytic converters and now we have a bunch of Jeeps tearing up with what looks like defective converters. I think Chrysler tried to get one over on us. That isnt cool at all.

 

[JHicks0071]

Just Google 'stalled Jeeps' and read about all the problems people are having with their Jeeps and how they next to never get fixed. I'm not saying that all its going to take to fix it is to replace the catalytic converter, what I'm saying is that the reason your Jeep broke down in the first place was because Chrysler put a defective converter on it. Running the Jeep with that converter couldnt have been good for it and there is no telling what all is wrong with it now but I would start with replacing the exhaust first before you start replacing all the other things that they want you to.

 

[JHicks0071]

Even though they had to send out a recall, they also did their best to try and not fix them. All they had to do was say isnt wasnt broke and they didnt replace it. Then to add to that they could charge you extra for replacing the O2 sensor on there or any other work they wanted to. I found one place where they charged a couple hundred dollars to replace that. In other words you still had to pay out of your pocket for a part that you werent even sure that you needed.

Read this link, its from this forum talking about the recall. http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=97001

One of the guys talking on there actually works for Jeep fixing the cars that are recalled and he flat out says that he and the other techs dont like doing warranty work and they wont do it if they dont feel like it. He, I'll quote him for you. "Faking it is hard, mostly because I hate doing warranty work, as do most dealer techs. So that means if we see anything to make the cat failure not warranty, like an impact mark from a rock, it is in our best interest to point that out."

Yeah, Ill do a little more research when I get the time but Chrysler straight up done us Jeep owners dirty. They did it then and they are still doing it today.

 

[joe_peters]

This thread is going nowhere.

I wish you the best of luck with the UFOs, Big Foot, the JFK assassination, Pearl Harbor, the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, and any other conspiracies you subscribe to.

I am done with this thread.

 

[ChiXJeff]

Dude, you're really starting to seriously troll here. It's been said before, you've been given some pretty sound advice, and without a diagnostic charge. Some folks here might also find the accusation of working for Chryco slightly offensive.

In general, you won't find a more knowledgeable crowed of people when it comes to XJs.

 

[Pelican]

To paraphrase a line from an ancient old song: "When will we ever learn...."

 

[5-90]

1) Follow the advice you've been given - it's sound, it's good, and it will help you find the problem.

2) Put down the tinfoil and back away. Not everything is conspiratorial - many mechanical failures are simple mechanical failures, not even caused by a defective component (which are now, generally speaking, "one in a million." Granted, my wierdness magnet seems to run well enough to get most of them - but that's why I inspect new parts before I pay/sign for them.)

3) Follow the advice you've been given. Meanwhile, I'm going to lock this thread so you'll stop ranting here and (hopefully!) get some troubleshooting time in so you can find out where your problem really is (read: which component in the system is failed/failing and causing you trouble.)