2000 XJ stalling, shifting irregularly

Last night i took a 4 ft mud puddle, and my xj stalled out; assuming from loss of backpressure. restarted it, managed to make it out with relatively no problems, except it was idling funny (high idle; once it was put into neutral and given it a little gas, it would drop down to 100 RPMs or stall)

Thought i was off the hook once i got home..

Today:

Idling high
Not shifting into overdrive
Bucked out of first gear, and shifting... not-smooth.
Stalling
and missing/sputtering at 2800 rpm hold

Also, check engine light is on.

Could this be the PCM? i'm praying to god no water got into the transmission or engine, does it sound this way?

What should be my first test/attack? Is there a quick-shot fix to this one?

Thanks in advance.
-liam:bawl:


(little info on my truck..
2000 XJ 2-door
4.0L
90K miles
4.5" RC lift
33"x10.5" mud terrains
throttle body bored to 62mm and spaced
Vortex lined interrior
SYE kit
Brute-force U/J's
other pointless toys)

Did you check the condition of the air filter/air filter housing to see how much mud/gunk got in there?

Take the Jeep down to Autozone to have the code(s) pulled if you dont have a scanner of your own or know somebody who has one. Autozone will pull the codes for free, and it will give you a pretty good idea of where to look.

My guess is maybe some sensors got a little too wet/muddy and arent happy anymore. Some of them really don't like mud and water too much...

yea like 99 said pull the air filter. if your filter is soaking wet youve probably gotten water into the cylinders. rule #1 when your xj stalls in water. DO NOT TRY TO START IT. water doesnt compress as easily as air/gas in the cylinders. when the engine turns over and tries to compress a cylinder with water in it the water wont let the piston move up and the first thing to give is a connecting rod, usually bending or breaking right in half:



a bent rod could easily be causing your idling problems, but it could also be some sensors getting shorted out, like the TPS. are you sure it was 4 feet deep? thats pretty deep. like chest high on a 6ft tall person, over the hood of a stock xj. your xj is a 00 so it has coil packs instead of a distributor right? they dont like getting wet either.

good luck, go see what the code scanner says.

Checked the filter, no problems, not actually that much mud on the filter itself, if not just dust.

What about the IAC? i have a nice sized chunk missing from my service manual, and just my luck, it's on the idle air controll motor. What is the function, and also, could this be my problem?

EDIT:
just saw GrimmJeepers post..
no my K&N filter was dry. i seriously doubt any water may have gotten into the engine, but 4 ft may be a stretch. it covered the head lights at one point, which sit stomach level on me, and i'm 6'. so maybe 3ft is a little closer.
i remember i had a misfire on cylinder 3 for a while, but that sort of... dissapeared.

the other thing that points to something electrical: last night my voltage gauge dropped down to nothing, but the alternator wasn't fried.. once i turned off the truck and restarted it was fine, went right back up to 14 volts.

2nd EDIT:

coil pack. hmmmm..... ideas?

Gonna pick up a standard ignition coil pack within the next few days.. i can't believe i have to run the $&^%ing thing like this, missing all over the place for the next week.

anyway. fluids seem good, axles are sealed up so tight, it's practically an impossibility for water to have gotten in them. i read some other posts, but i've had some experience with boating in my XJ.
tommorrow night:
fresh oil
check the tranny
price out a standard coilpack
sweet talk my truck
"cmon baby... i know you got it in you"

any last words?

Did you run a code scanner and see what came up?

I would get it scanned and find out what the code(s) are before I did anything. If it were me, i'd rather not take the chance of screwing something up even more by driving it any more than absolutely necessary like that.

looks like a bad tps.
gonna try adjusting/cleaning it, then i'm on to clean out the IAC.
it's amazing what you can find out about renix 4.0's on this forum.

LiamN said:

looks like a bad tps.
gonna try adjusting/cleaning it, then i'm on to clean out the IAC.
it's amazing what you can find out about renix 4.0's on this forum.

Click to expand...

ummmm....unless you've swapped a 4.0 in from a late 80's model XJ (which I dont see why you would), you definitely don't have a renix 4.0. You've just got a regular ole OBDII 4.0. Which also means you can't adjust the TPS (could only do that on a renix 4.0). You can try cleaning it and see where that goes, if it doesn't work you're going to have to replace it.

gonna try cleaning it out today.
see what happens...

btw thanks for that pointer

Sounds like water in an electrical part somewhere most likely the TPS connector or TPS itself (would require replacement).