Bad fuel pump?

I have to crank the engine over several times to get it to start. Also, it will stall occasionally when idling. It runs great otherwise. Almost like it isn't getting the fuel/fuel pressure it needs.

Any ideas? '98 cherokee, 4.0 with 152K on it.

Mine's been doing that, too. There's a check valve in the fuel line that is supposed to hold pressure; when the check valve fails, the pump has to basically "refill" the fuel line before every startup (and it's worse when the Jeep has sat all night long).

Before starting up, turn the key to ON for a few seconds; you should hear the fuel pump turn on and then off. Try starting the engine now. If it starts normally, then the check valve is probably bad.

I've read about an inline check valve, from a BMW, that can be added to fix this problem without replacing the fuel pump. I, for one, wouldn't do it, since I'm a little curious about that "lifetime in-tank fuel filter" the '97+ XJs have. After 100k, I'd rather spend a little more money and time to have peace of mind.

it could be a bad fuel pump regulator
that was my problem. would run fine but after getting hot it would stumble and then die. when it happened this last weekend i pulled the regulator and threw it the cooler.....popped it back in and it worked fine.
the regulator is still bad and will be replaced.

Check to see if your fuel filter is plugged. I've dealt with problems like this that have been cause by a plugged filter. A word of warning though if your filter is plugged you have a 50% chance that your pump could go out after changing your filter. Don't ask me why but I've seen it happen on more that one occassion.

Bryan

This sounds like my 97s prob.
Typical Cherokee BS prob: Huge costs, PITA, gotta have a stealership do it.
I WISH we could just replace a fuel filter, but its an entire 'module' that includes the pump, fuel press reg, filter, etc.
But of course you have to remove the entire fuel tank, which is bad enough, but if you have the fuel tank skid it gets to be an all day project alone.
I'm about to bite the bullet and do the same...of course that's after I fix my faulty defroster (likely a vacc actuator for $250-$450), fix my cooling system probs (hopefully JUST a bad radiator), POS shocks and saggy-ass, 50's engineering leaf springs, and numerous other little factory crap that Chrysler was too chintzy to do right from the start.
Sorry, my Jeep has turned me into a broke pessimist.

Forgot that you need to take your trailer hitch assembly first, before you remove anything else.
Hmmm, I can just see those Factory delear hours just rolling off into t he sunset.
I'll need to take out a loan to fix the damn fuel pump.

I worried about that problem for a while too. I gave up after a while. That was about 100k mi. ago. Turns out it was not the fuel pump. It was just a Jeep Cherokee.

Neil said:

Turns out it was not the fuel pump. It was just a Jeep Cherokee.

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One of the best ones I've heard yet! That's true for just about everything on these things...