Rotorhead84
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Nebraska
Please forgive me if this gets a little bit long, and I give you unnecessary information but I want to give you all as much information as possible.
97 XJ 4.0 w/ AW4. 190k
I was driving my XJ cross country (3000 mi round trip) that I make 2-3 times a year for the past 3 years. Up until the return leg of my last trip, I have had no trouble at all with my XJ.
Only made it 20 miles down the road before the first minor issue. Drive belt slipping. Smelled it burning and you could tell the alternator was slowing down and speeding up by watching the volt meter. Pulled over, checked tightness of the belt and looked for oil or debris on the pulleys. Nothing. Decided to keep driving it as I keep a box of spare parts in my jeep anyway, belt included). After stopping, the problem vanished. Belt must have heated up enough to have more grab. Decided I'd replace it when I got home.
Everything was fine for another 700ish miles. Bombing down the interstate at about 65-70. Pulled off for gas and some food. While sitting in the drive through I heard a "beeeeeep" and "check gauges" was lit up on the dash. Quickly discovered that my temp was in the early stages of red. Got out of line and pulled into a stall and got to work.
Aux fan seems to be shot. It does not turn on at all with the a/c on or off and does not spin freely when trying to turn it by hand.
Nothing in the coolant reservoir either. I am usually on top of my vehicles and I'm kind of surprised that I missed this before my trip. But I hadn't checked the coolant in quite sometime.
While waiting for the engine to cool I check the engine oil for evidence of milkshake. None found, engine oil clean, oil cap clean.
I thought the jeep had been sitting long enough to cool so I decided to open the radiator cap and investigate. Of course, old faithfull happened. No telling how much coolant came out, but my entire jeep was covered in the **** and it was all over the parking lot.
No biggie, I keep 2-3 gallons of coolant with me. Pulled the nose up on the curb to make the radiator cap the highest point and began to fill. I used all the coolant I had and it still wasn't full so I drove a few blocks to a gas station and got some more coolant and finished filling it. Once I couldn't fit anymore by massaging the top hose and burping, I started the jeep and continued to massage the hose and fill. Got a little bit more in. Forgot to turn heater to max.
As long as the A/C is off it holds temperature. It sits a bit warmer than what it did before, but the aux fan is inop so that's probably why. I drive another block or so till I find a car wash and wash the jeep off and I wash off under the hood as best I could. Bolded for possible relevance to transmission problem.
Drive another hour or two and find a rest area, blow up the air mattress, and hit the rack. Jeep runs at its normal temperature, even with A/C on as long as I have the added effect of air from going down the road. A new aux fan is on the list.
Next day the transmission starts acting up. I first noticed something strange was afoot when I could hear the engine revs doing funny things. Watching the tach confirmed. When the trans needed to downshift, it would do so, but only very briefly. The revs would rise, and then fall again. Maybe 4-500 rpms. Then I felt a few quick jerks as if somebody had left the engine revved but pushed the clutch in for a second and then dumped it while going down the road. Then the cruise control kicked itself off. I cannot get the xj to downshift by simiply pushing the gas pedal further into the floor anymore. You have to shift manually to get it to downshift. Simply pushing the gas pedal makes it seem to downshift briefly. Revs rise, but then fall again quickly and it feels like you're in the same gear or overdrive. Can't get cruise control to work at all now. Any more than 1/2 throttle makes the slipping and jerking return.
Pulled over, fluid still showing on dipstick, but just below the "add" mark. Now I'm mad at myself. Fluid was good when I left home, but I am second guessing if I checked it properly (in neutral) before I left. No problem, I carry Dex3. Added fluid until "full." Took a little more than a quart.
Transmission problems unchanged. Cruise control works again.
At this point I am 4-5 hours from home, so I decide to limp it in. Manually downshifting the transmission when I need to pass or climb a hill.
I make it home. Do a bit of reading about my troubles, and decide to unplug the Transmission control module under the dash. Seemed to be an instant fix. No slipping or banging at all, truck pulled hard and ran great. I was pretty happy it was electronic instead of mechanical until I plugged the TCM back in and it still ran fine. At this point I had only driven the jeep about 15 miles. So not a lot of time for it to get really warmed up.
I drove it a bit more down the highway with the TCM unplugged and the problems seemed to slowly return. Started out with the strange rev hunting and it got the point where when I had it in 3rd gear and pressed on the gas, the revs would blip up about 2-300 rpm and then fall back down and the truck would very slowly accelerate like it was in too high of a gear or it just wasn't making enough power.
Thoughts, ideas?
97 XJ 4.0 w/ AW4. 190k
I was driving my XJ cross country (3000 mi round trip) that I make 2-3 times a year for the past 3 years. Up until the return leg of my last trip, I have had no trouble at all with my XJ.
Only made it 20 miles down the road before the first minor issue. Drive belt slipping. Smelled it burning and you could tell the alternator was slowing down and speeding up by watching the volt meter. Pulled over, checked tightness of the belt and looked for oil or debris on the pulleys. Nothing. Decided to keep driving it as I keep a box of spare parts in my jeep anyway, belt included). After stopping, the problem vanished. Belt must have heated up enough to have more grab. Decided I'd replace it when I got home.
Everything was fine for another 700ish miles. Bombing down the interstate at about 65-70. Pulled off for gas and some food. While sitting in the drive through I heard a "beeeeeep" and "check gauges" was lit up on the dash. Quickly discovered that my temp was in the early stages of red. Got out of line and pulled into a stall and got to work.
Aux fan seems to be shot. It does not turn on at all with the a/c on or off and does not spin freely when trying to turn it by hand.
Nothing in the coolant reservoir either. I am usually on top of my vehicles and I'm kind of surprised that I missed this before my trip. But I hadn't checked the coolant in quite sometime.
While waiting for the engine to cool I check the engine oil for evidence of milkshake. None found, engine oil clean, oil cap clean.
I thought the jeep had been sitting long enough to cool so I decided to open the radiator cap and investigate. Of course, old faithfull happened. No telling how much coolant came out, but my entire jeep was covered in the **** and it was all over the parking lot.
No biggie, I keep 2-3 gallons of coolant with me. Pulled the nose up on the curb to make the radiator cap the highest point and began to fill. I used all the coolant I had and it still wasn't full so I drove a few blocks to a gas station and got some more coolant and finished filling it. Once I couldn't fit anymore by massaging the top hose and burping, I started the jeep and continued to massage the hose and fill. Got a little bit more in. Forgot to turn heater to max.
As long as the A/C is off it holds temperature. It sits a bit warmer than what it did before, but the aux fan is inop so that's probably why. I drive another block or so till I find a car wash and wash the jeep off and I wash off under the hood as best I could. Bolded for possible relevance to transmission problem.
Drive another hour or two and find a rest area, blow up the air mattress, and hit the rack. Jeep runs at its normal temperature, even with A/C on as long as I have the added effect of air from going down the road. A new aux fan is on the list.
Next day the transmission starts acting up. I first noticed something strange was afoot when I could hear the engine revs doing funny things. Watching the tach confirmed. When the trans needed to downshift, it would do so, but only very briefly. The revs would rise, and then fall again. Maybe 4-500 rpms. Then I felt a few quick jerks as if somebody had left the engine revved but pushed the clutch in for a second and then dumped it while going down the road. Then the cruise control kicked itself off. I cannot get the xj to downshift by simiply pushing the gas pedal further into the floor anymore. You have to shift manually to get it to downshift. Simply pushing the gas pedal makes it seem to downshift briefly. Revs rise, but then fall again quickly and it feels like you're in the same gear or overdrive. Can't get cruise control to work at all now. Any more than 1/2 throttle makes the slipping and jerking return.
Pulled over, fluid still showing on dipstick, but just below the "add" mark. Now I'm mad at myself. Fluid was good when I left home, but I am second guessing if I checked it properly (in neutral) before I left. No problem, I carry Dex3. Added fluid until "full." Took a little more than a quart.
Transmission problems unchanged. Cruise control works again.
At this point I am 4-5 hours from home, so I decide to limp it in. Manually downshifting the transmission when I need to pass or climb a hill.
I make it home. Do a bit of reading about my troubles, and decide to unplug the Transmission control module under the dash. Seemed to be an instant fix. No slipping or banging at all, truck pulled hard and ran great. I was pretty happy it was electronic instead of mechanical until I plugged the TCM back in and it still ran fine. At this point I had only driven the jeep about 15 miles. So not a lot of time for it to get really warmed up.
I drove it a bit more down the highway with the TCM unplugged and the problems seemed to slowly return. Started out with the strange rev hunting and it got the point where when I had it in 3rd gear and pressed on the gas, the revs would blip up about 2-300 rpm and then fall back down and the truck would very slowly accelerate like it was in too high of a gear or it just wasn't making enough power.
Thoughts, ideas?
