Vehical: 1994 xj6 vin digits 698893 (U.S.)
Drive 5 miles into town today and the car ran great. Stopped at a store about 1/2 hour. Went back to the car, noticed the emergency flashes were on for some reason, turned them off and started the car. When I pulled out onto the road the car had no power. I could not get any speed and the engine did not want to take any gas and seemed to load up with fuel when I stepped on the pedal. The first mile was a struggle, having to pull off the road twice, but the power did seem to improve little by little the farther I went. I finally made in to my garage and shut her down.
All the gagues were normal and all fluid levels normal. About a half hour later I thought to check the vcm codes. Started the engine to bring it to temperature, shut it down. After following all the steps in the manual, I had a fuel fail 14. When I restarted the car to check the code the engine ran fine and reved up with no hesitation. Done this several times at 20 ×/_
minute intervals. Engine starts, revs up to 1800 for a couple seconds before settling down to
1100 rpm in park. I will note here that awhile back I had issues with stalling and hesitation problems. I cleaned all the road grime from the business end of the crankshaft sensor stopped most of the issues and discovered no problems with hesitation if I keep rpms up by keeping a
1 foot on the brake and 1 on the gas. So I set the idle speed by adjusting the low speed screw on the throttle bellcrank over the throttle body. I know that is not the proper way but it was the quickest and easiest way to see if it helped. I don’t think the current issue is connected to this.
The above is all I can think of to accurately describe my problem. Thanks again for any and all input. You are all greatly appreciated.
The temp sensor can GREATLY affect running as it is major component in the fuelling map. FF14 is a failing temp sensor.
Good news is they are easy to access, cheap like borscht and widely available. I’ve had experience with a defective one and it will play havoc with the car’s driveability.
Your idle speed in park should be way lower than 1100rpm but I suspect you already know that.
Change the temp sensor.
Thank you Larry for that info. I am going to investigate that today. This site and it’s members is totally awsome.
P.S. Larry: I assume the temp sensor you mention is different from to engine cooling sensor for the dash gauge and would be related to the air/fuel ratio?
There are two sensors on the thermo outlet. The one in question is the two wire one.
Slightly different behavior this morning.
After starting her up several times last night and letting her run with no issues, I went out this morning to check and she would start and die. Installed new rotor with no change. Disconnected neg. battery cable for 1/2 hour to reset any modules (tried that due to finding the hazard lights blinking yesterday immediately before this whole problem started) but that didn’t change anything. Put a charger on the battery a couple hours to make sure I was working with full 12 volts and tried to restart. As soon as I turned the key it would try to start, go put put then die. Did this about 30 times before she would keep running. Very rough at first and any action at the gas peddle would cause a stall. Finally after letting her go on her own she smoothed herself out to where I could rev her up without missing. BUT, when shut down and restarted she would start right up, idle at 1200, race up to about 1800 then slowly ease to 1000 and be comfortable there. By then she was warm enough to check codes but no codes were reported. I assume disconnecting the battery erased the prior fuel 14 and I need to take out on the road awhile to establish new codes. Sorry for all the dialog but I assume this is a case where more is better than less.
About the air temperature sensor I believe that refers to the sensor in the elbow at the throttle body. My parts manual lits it as DBC 5051 but no one on line lists such a thing. Would it be the same as the temp sensor for the cooling fans which appear to be identical except for color and available locally even though the manual lists them with different numbers?
Again thanks for any and all input.
Yes. this is the part and it’s fitted near the thermostat housing left front of engine.
This is an update on prior issue.
After trying the suggestions offered here and elsewhere including replacing the coolant temp sensor which caused no change so I just unplugged the connector from the cts and the idle speed smoothed out at 1100 (I raised it at the bellcrank low speed stop to keep from stalling when stopped). I still have to gently coax the throttle to get to reach highway speed.
Does any of this suggest something else that might be the underlying issues?
One mechanic said to try removing both cables from the battery and touch them together for 30 seconds to drain any residual charge in the control modules so they reset to factory specs.
Is that valid? Thanks for all replies.
Yes valid. I call that a Hard Reset.