I have a 98 cherokee 5spd 4x4. I'm not mechanically inclined but I am trying to get an idea of what is wrong with my jeep and what kind of repair I'm looking at.

While driving normally I randomly lose power and if I try to gas it it will either stutter and shake or make a pop(backfire?). Thing is, while this is happening I can take it out of gear and rev it up normally usually but once I put it back in gear it won't go and does the stutter again. All I can do is wait it out. It generally doesn't last that long but lately it has been happening more frequently and this can be frightening when in the middle of an intersection and it decides to crap out. The engine never dies but I just can't accelerate for a bit. Also the check engine light has never come on.

Is this a sensor or vacuum issue? When I first noticed it a while back I threw in some fuel injection cleaner and it went away for the most part. I'm not sure if it's weather related and it was better in the cold and now that it's getting hot it wants to act up?

Any help of diagnosing this would be great. Thanks for reading.

 

I just had this exact same problem and by the advice of the experts on this site, I replaced my O2 Sensor before the Catalitic converter. It's in the exhaust piping next to the oil pan on the driver's side. It's not bad to get to. Mine was stuck in there pretty good. Usually you can use a 7/8 wrench or get a 7/8" O2 Sensor removal tool. Looks like a deep well impact socket that's got a split in it to slide the wire through and be able to fit over the sensor. Just be careful not to strip it. I ended up using a 22mm wrench with another wrench to add length to pry with. Worked like a charm.

Hope this helps you. It did for mine.

Good Luck

 

Oh, that doesn't sound too bad. Thanks!

 

Yeah, my 95 auto does the same thing usually on the fwy and only sporatically. It doesn't do it all the time. When I get home from work each day, I concentrate on one area to find the problem. Yesterday I took the distributor cap off and cleaned it and the distributor out and put it back together. It acted up today. When I got home I crawled underneath and unplugged the o2 sensor connection, blew it out and cleaned it good. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I only do one thing at a time so I can isolate the problem. Another area I'd like to check but have no way to test the components are the crank position sensor and the throttle position sensor as I feel they may be part of the problem. If I can isolate the problem, I will post it.

 

I'm just going to replace the o2 sensor for now. Hopefully done by the weekend cause this is driving me nuts. Will update when it's done.

 

The same thing has ben going on with me and i did the tpc and and cleaner in the tank but i'm thinking it is the O2 sencer so that will be next

 

o2 sensor seems to have fixed it so far.