I just bought a 97 Wrangler with 142,000 on it. It is the 4 Cyl 2.5. It has been running very rough lately, spitting and sputtering seeming like a fuel issue. However when the engine cuts and spits, the rpm gauge shoots up, but there isn't an increase in the rpms, or no audible racing of the engine. The gauge shooting up is very quick like within a second then it comes back to normal. I am wondering if this could be the oxygen sensors? I should say that there sounds as if there is an exhaust leak up high near the engine. Also the other day the muffler sound much louder than normal and the spitting and sputtering was terrible, so I climbed underneath to find the tail pipe had disconnected from the muffler, once hooked back up the spitting and sputtering was far less and got better, but is still there. Any ideas would be helpful! Thank you.
97 Wrangler - Spitting and Sputtering
- Thread starter eiffe4
- Start date
jfrabat
New member
There's no way to know for sure, and I am not an expert (not by a LONG shot), but if I were to guess, I'd say it sounds electrical... An exhaust leak could also be throwing off the O2 sensors, and the ECM is trying to compensate with more fuel (it is reading too much oxygenb in the mix), so it is possible that is also a problem.
Are you getting any codes from the computer? Take it to autozone / pepboys / local parts store and have them hook it up for free
Bounty__Hunter
Super Moderator
As for the exhaust leak near the engine, check the front and rear studs on the exhaust manifold, where it bolts to the head. The front and rear studs generally break, you may see a hole where a stud and nut should be.
My wife's 97 4 cyl. auto was doing this a couple of weeks ago, her's was a wiring harness for the torque converter position sensor heating up and shorting out against the exhaust. There was never a service engine light but I took it to advance and they scanned it and got the code for the torque converter position sensor so I traced it out and found the bad spot, respliced the harness and tied it up away from the exhaust. No more problems.
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