Jeep Cherokee Hesitation

CENTRAL1NY

MEMBER
JEEP CHEROKEE

I have a 1997 4.0L Jeep Cherokee Sport that hesitates until the car warms up. When I first turn on the car, it runs fine for a few minutes and then it runs rough for a few minutes. After this the car runs fine until you turn it off and restart after maybe 10 minutes.

When it is running rough, If I am in gear and press on the gas pedal, it seems like the engine is hesitating and I hear a knock that sounds like it is coming from the driver side wheel. This is the only time I hear this knock.

One other thing to note is that it certainly seems to be heat related. In the winter, the hesitation will not occur until the car warms up for 5 minutes. In the summer, the hesitation happens within a minute after starting.

Any help would be appreciated. We had the codes pulled and nothing comes up. I just replaced the distributor cap and wires and this did not fix the problem.

2 Replies

SANCH78

MEMBER
4 POSTS

Woah bud! Sounds like you have a serious problem on your hands. When I first read it was hesitating I was going to tell you to shoot gas through the throttle and see if that helps. It fixed my hesitating problem. But I'll tell you this much, My buddys car a few years back had that same knocking sound and one day at a drive thru fast food restraunt his car out of nowhere started knocking (in park) overheated immediately and caught smoking. With our food we had to push it out of the drive thru. Haha, Take it to a mechanic immediatly or see if these mechanics on this site can help. I hope something gets figured out. Good luck!