It died!

It is my 35th wedding aniversary and we are headed out to eat. It is about 65 - 70 degrees outside and we are in heavy traffic. I am at a turn signal light and when it goes green, I take off. Part way into the intersection it dies!:gee:

It sounded and acted like fuel starvation. I looked at the gauge and it said there was about 1/8 of a tank and the light did not come on (98 4.0 auto).

Some others helped me push it to the curb. I am stumped and try several times to start it but it won't run without a lot of sputtering.:dunno:

OK so is it spark or fuel. I check the distributor, no problem. Swap the fuel pump relay. After looking at a number of other places, I pull a plug (3), reconnect and lay it between the A/C lines for ground. My wife turns it over and I have spark.:yelclap:

I am wondering how to check for fuel. Oh yeah there is this Schrader valve on the fuel rail!:idea: I push the pin and I get AIR! How can the gas gauge read 1/8th tank and not have gas?

Walk to a NAPA store, buy a gas can, walk to a gas station, get gas, walk back and dump the gas in the tank. Starts right up.party1:

Did I get vapor lock? Why?

Sounds simply like a no-fuel situation. Good news, in my book.

Maybe always consider an 1/8th tank as being "E" until you can get the gauge calibrated? I tend to use miles driven as a benchmark rather than the gas gauge, even though I think mine is fairly accurate. (for now..haha)

Happy anniversary, btw!

My wife and I are soon to celebrate our 8th.

Cheers,
Brian

Thanks,
I bought the 98 a few months ago and have put maybe 5K on it. It has not behaved this way before. The light has always come on. I am confused/concerned. I was wondering if maybe the low level allowed the fuel to warm up to cause the vapor lock.
With 130k miles, who knows what may have changed!

Congrats on your 8th!

Hi,
I would also say that you plain ran out of gas, if you run the tank that low the fuel pump can/will overheat as it needs to be covered in fuel to keep cool. If you can keep the tank about 3/4 full you should have no further problems.

Where's the needle when you fill the tank completely? Might be something to consider...?

Past full. It does that when they top it off. My other two are the same with respect for "full" readings. I don't understand what would change or why. I was on a level road.

see..? mine's the opposite... well... when completely full... it's just a bit under the 'F' mark - but I figure it gives me nice padding on the reserve... the only bummer is that I never know exactly how much I have left... whereas you do (maybe?). I figure I have half at tank left when I'm at or just under 3/8... although I think that's the case normally isn't it...? It would be great to have a flowmeter so you can actually measure then number of galllons used per the gas gauge. I always thought that there was significantly more fuel PAST the half way mark than before it... on all XJs... and most other cars in general...(?)

The '97 & some '98 XJs have a problem with the fuel tank level sending unit. The '97 had a really bad problem; so much so that the dealers were instructed to replace the sending unit and gauge under a TSB.
When I purchased my '98 I inquired about this TSB since my Jeep was built in August of '97. Only covered the '97 models.
My gas gauge will occasionally drop to E and then return to the proper level; other times it will read incorrectly and then start functioning again when it wants to...
This problem happens a few times a week and I have lived with it for 12 years since it requires removing the Class 3 receiver, gas tank skid and then lowering the tank to replace the sending unit/ pump.

My Cherokee isn't exactly a soapbox derby racer either !

Gas gauges are not linear, especially in the Cherokee. So as they get towards Empty, what it is reading and what you assume is the bottom mightn't be.

With the ignition off, make a mental note as to where the needle is resting.

Not sure if it's a sender problem or what but I have had the exact same thing occur as my Jeep got older. No light but it runs out of fuel.

I fill at a 1/4 tank now.

Having learned this lesson a couple of times, I fortunately was carrying a Pennzoil Spare Tank emergency fuel container the first time it happened.

It works well, it's non flammable and only works in a warm engine. As in having just run out of gas, nice hot combustion chambers.

It claims to be equivalent to 1/2 gallon of gas.. I am not to sure about that, because I never tested that aspect of it.

But the few times I had to use it , I at least got to a filling station in time saving me time and aggravation.

Or remember to fill at 1/4 tank indicated....

There was a Chrysler TSB and a possible recall back in the 90's for vehicles running out of fuel even though the gauge read up to 1/4 full.

Any chance you've dented your tank? That can give false readings. My tank was seriously dented, but I never knew because the rig had a skid plate when I bought it. The tank finally started to leak, and I found the dent. I replaced the tank and did the Go-Jeep mod, and I like it.

The last time I gassed up, it took 24.5 gallons (I figure I was pretty much on fumes, but I got right at 400 miles on that tank).

Steve

Good news is you just ran out of gas.

Bad news is every time you run out of gas the in-tank fuel pump takes a heavy hit--it is lubricated by the fuel that runs through it.

The following is from the FSM 97:

"The fuel gauge gives an indication of the level of fuel in the fuel tank. The instrument cluster circuitry controls the gauge pointer position. The instrument cluster circuitry calculates the proper gauge pointer position based upon a fuel level message received from the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) on the Chrysler Collision Detection (CCD) data bus. The PCM uses an input from the fuel gauge sending unit and internal programming to decide what fuel level message is required. The PCM then sends the proper message to the instrument cluster on the CCD data bus. If the vehicle is equipped with the high-line instrument cluster, when the PCM message indicates that the fuel level is below one-eighth of a full tank, the instrument cluster circuitry turns on the low fuel warning lamp and generates a single chime tone. The fuel gauge sending unit is mounted to the electric fuel pump module located inside the fuel tank. The sending unit has a float attached to the end of a swing-arm. The float moves up or down within the fuel tank as the fuel level changes. As the float moves, an electrical contact on the pivot end of the swing-arm wipes across a resistor coil, which changes the internal electrical resistance of the sending unit."

Gotta love OBDII!

Jeepcreep said:

Hi,
I would also say that you plain ran out of gas, if you run the tank that low the fuel pump can/will overheat as it needs to be covered in fuel to keep cool. If you can keep the tank about 3/4 full you should have no further problems.

Click to expand...

Only run it down to 3/4?! That would give us a range of, what? 80 miles to a tank?
I'd be buying gas every day!

Mental note for you to make: Fill up the tank when it gets to 1/4. Simple.

I had a similar issue when one of my fuel filters got clogged up at ~120k miles. The clogged filter prevents the sender from getting enough fuel when the tank is low. Replaced both fuel filters and the problem went away.