Trooper engine problems

troopert24x4 · May 6, 2009

I washed my trooper at the car wash after some fun mudding and now it does not run right. It really doesn't seem like a miss, it's like it is loosing connection or something. Even at idle it runs fine for a minute and the it starts missing but eventually it will clear up. When I drive it, I could be on the gas driving straight and the motor cuts out for a second or two and then goea again. This was on Saturday 5/2/09. I put some fuel additive to get the water out of the fuel, cleaned the air filter, and put electrical connection grease on all of the connections to the fuse boxes and engine. I also put connection grease on the spark plugs and distributor. I'm stuck and I don't know what else to check. I know a couple of other people have had this problem so I hope someone can give me some good advice. Thanks

brostar · May 6, 2009

I was thinking straight off, water around the spark plugs. Going on what you have said, it is water somewhere. How about the fuses themselves. Have you taken them out, wiped them dry and sprayed WD40 or CRC? Also check the battery leads and wires coming immediately from the battery and the connectors there as well as any big fuses that you might find in this cluster. This has caused similar problems before and it was water.

Cheers and good luck with that, Mike.

troopert24x4 · May 6, 2009

I appreciate it. The spark plugs were the first thing I checked. I pulled all of the fuses out and greased them too. I didn't dry anything before I put grease on it but I did notice the fuse boxes were wet. At one point I was up to water to my waist and it blew the radiator fan fuse. All of my battery connections are tight so I might just have to let everything dry out for a week or so and then go over everything again.

Russ · May 6, 2009

I cant tell you where the connection problem is but I went through the same thing as you. I took every plug apart and put die electric grease in them and have not had a problem since. There are alot of plugs around the engine that are very hard to get to. We pulled the engine in one and greased everything. I think that the two that give the most problem may be the two O2 senser plugs that come off of the pipe. Take those apart and fill with dielectric grease and see if that helps, you may have to cut some ties to get to them. If those dont read right, nothing works right. If your going to be in the mud alot you may also want to drill a hole in the bottom of the fuse box behind the seat so water and mud can get out and we also sealed the top of the relay box on the passenger side because when you splash water or mud it will fall right on top of it from behind the dash. It needs a flap covering the back of the dash so water and mud will fall back down to the ground and not on the electronics.

Lenny · May 6, 2009

I had a simular problem but it may not be revelant as mine wasn't after washing or water exposure. Did pretty much the same thing, sometimes it would go and others not so good. Turned out to be my gas filter being plugged somewhat. Must have gotten debree in it when I did my gas tank mods. Cleaned it out and it runs ok. I didn't suspect a gas problem because sometimes it would run ok for bits and peices.

Lenny

BeeZee62 · May 6, 2009

I had a similar problem and it self-corrected. However, fuse panel in the passenger side foot-well was completely submerged. I'm going to relocate that fuse box to the other side of the firewall, up on top behind the frame bar. Of course I won't be doing this until I install my liftable hood. I'm planning on enclosing the area with high density foam as well as sealing off the air vents on the fuse box cover. To the best of my knowledge, fused don't generate heat.

troopert24x4 · May 7, 2009

Well, I messed with it for an hour today and I still have the same problem. I forgot one connection on the engine so I thought that might have been the problem. NOPE!!! The engine is not cutting out as bad as it was but if I give it full throttle or if I am on a bumpy road, it cuts out more then. We have the same idea about the location of the fuse box. I hope it will fix itself because I have done just about all I can do without taking it to the shop. How long did it take for your trooper to correct itself BeeZee62?

Kinarfi · May 7, 2009

check the wire harness for the O2 sensor where it is tied to the radiator at the top passenger side, it may be such a short duration short that it's not blowing the fuse, Paiute 3 and I both had problems with the way the harness is tyrapped to the radiator bolt.

troopert24x4 · May 8, 2009

LOL that is the connection I forgot about. Yes, I noticed it is extremely tight. I use extremely loosely. Should I just remove the ziptie? Was this causing yours to "cut out" too? I'm going for a big ride Memorial Day weekend so hopefully I can fix this problem before then. Thanks for all of your help.

Kinarfi · May 8, 2009

LOL that is the connection I forgot about. Yes, I noticed it is extremely tight. I use extremely loosely. Should I just remove the ziptie? Was this causing yours to "cut out" too? I'm going for a big ride Memorial Day weekend so hopefully I can fix this problem before then. Thanks for all of your help.

Definitely remove the tie rap, it holds the wire against the radiator and wears through the wire, what it did to me was kill the engine, then it came back so I continued on with my ride, then it blew the fuse and messed up a neat trip at the Paiute Trail area and I had to be towed in, and then blew it again later because it wore through and shorted out, you were probably lucky and shorted a signal wire out instead of the power wire and that messed with the computer. Hope that was the cure to your engine problem and if you have a plastic mount bracket on connector, drill a 1/4" in the radiator support and push the mount tip through the hole. Haven't had a problem with it since. If I can find my photos of the fix, I'll post them.

Kinarfi

Found 'em Be sure to check the back side of where you drill and if I remember correctly, I had to use a right angle drill because thing were tight there.