Loss of power/flashing engine light after hard acceleration

[skindata]

A couple weeks ago I made a trip into Michigan (about a 2 1/2 hour drive each way) to meet a fellow Jeep enthusiast who was selling a used 392 front steel bumper, steel rear bumper, tire carrier and a Warn Zeon 10-S winch with the plate mount for $1500. We made an agreement to just the front bumper, the winch and the mounting plate for $1000. I thought it was a pretty good deal, bumper had no scrapes or dents and the winch was back in the original box with all the needed hardware. We talked for a few minutes about our Jeeps and I headed home.

I was driving for maybe 10 minutes, turned left onto another road and left it in third gear and floored it to merge into other traffic. Once I was around 5k rpm, it suddenly bogged down and felt like it hit a limiter. The engine light flashed a few times and I shifted into fourth and ran it about half throttle and it went back to feeling normal with the engine light now gone. The last 2+ hours were fine, ran like normal.

A couple days ago I had the same situation, trying to merge getting onto the turnpike leaving work. Left it in third gear and floored it to get onto the highway and it did the same thing again, bogged down loss of power feeling with the engine light flashing. Engine light went away after flashing a few times, shifting into fourth and went back to normal.

Today on the way home, I was driving 60 mph with no traffic in front of me and I wanted to test the symptom again by repeating what happened the past two times. I slowed down to around 40 and put it into third and floored it. This time the engine light flashed, bogged down like the past two times, but now every time you would try to use the accelerator again, the truck would vibrate and sound bogged down. The engine light stayed on after flashing for around a minute with the loss of power and shaking of the truck never going away, until the engine light starting flashing again and it drove normal again. The light is solid now and has not went away.

I was only a couple of minutes from home before I tried to copy what happened before. Does anybody have any advice on what it might be? I changed my oil right before my trip, truck is at 33,000 miles now. I have an Injen cold air intake, but I installed that about a year and a half ago. I did buy a used exhaust from another gladiator for $40 (complete oem one piece exhaust) and took the Flowmaster one I had on off about a month ago. I checked to see if there was any leaks or if it came disconnected but everything is solid.

Any help would be appreciated. I don’t have the ability to swap vehicles with my wife, mine is a manual and hers is an automatic JLU and she cannot drive stick. I’m going to have to drive to work in the morning which is about a half hour drive, most of it highway. If the engine light is still on I’m going to take it to the nearest auto parts store on my lunch break and see if they can read the code for me.

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[Lunentucker]

It sounds almost exactly like the single cylinder misfire mine was throwing early in my ownership. Sometimes it would throw a code and often it wouldn't.
Took it in for warranty check and the tech swapped coil pack and plug with the adjacent cylinder, and it hasn't messed up since. Had to be a poorly connected coil pack or an improperly seated plug from the factory.
Shook like all Hell a couple of times when it did at high speed and high RPM.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

A couple weeks ago I made a trip into Michigan (about a 2 1/2 hour drive each way) to meet a fellow Jeep enthusiast who was selling a used 392 front steel bumper, steel rear bumper, tire carrier and a Warn Zeon 10-S winch with the plate mount for $1500. We made an agreement to just the front bumper, the winch and the mounting plate for $1000. I thought it was a pretty good deal, bumper had no scrapes or dents and the winch was back in the original box with all the needed hardware. We talked for a few minutes about our Jeeps and I headed home.

I was driving for maybe 10 minutes, turned left onto another road and left it in third gear and floored it to merge into other traffic. Once I was around 5k rpm, it suddenly bogged down and felt like it hit a limiter. The engine light flashed a few times and I shifted into fourth and ran it about half throttle and it went back to feeling normal with the engine light now gone. The last 2+ hours were fine, ran like normal.

A couple days ago I had the same situation, trying to merge getting onto the turnpike leaving work. Left it in third gear and floored it to get onto the highway and it did the same thing again, bogged down loss of power feeling with the engine light flashing. Engine light went away after flashing a few times, shifting into fourth and went back to normal.

Today on the way home, I was driving 60 mph with no traffic in front of me and I wanted to test the symptom again by repeating what happened the past two times. I slowed down to around 40 and put it into third and floored it. This time the engine light flashed, bogged down like the past two times, but now every time you would try to use the accelerator again, the truck would vibrate and sound bogged down. The engine light stayed on after flashing for around a minute with the loss of power and shaking of the truck never going away, until the engine light starting flashing again and it drove normal again. The light is solid now and has not went away.

I was only a couple of minutes from home before I tried to copy what happened before. Does anybody have any advice on what it might be? I changed my oil right before my trip, truck is at 33,000 miles now. I have an Injen cold air intake, but I installed that about a year and a half ago. I did buy a used exhaust from another gladiator for $40 (complete oem one piece exhaust) and took the Flowmaster one I had on off about a month ago. I checked to see if there was any leaks or if it came disconnected but everything is solid.

Any help would be appreciated. I don’t have the ability to swap vehicles with my wife, mine is a manual and hers is an automatic JLU and she cannot drive stick. I’m going to have to drive to work in the morning which is about a half hour drive, most of it highway. If the engine light is still on I’m going to take it to the nearest auto parts store on my lunch break and see if they can read the code for me.

The problem is that similar symptoms can be caused by multiple things.
A misfire, for example - but what's causing the misfire? Injector? Coil pack? Spark plug? Something else?
there's not going to be a simple "check this" or "it's this, fix it this way" answer.
You need to read the CODE. There should be stored codes even if the light isn't on, or a history of transient codes.
All any of us can do is guess.
Likely a misfire happening under heavy loads but that's just an educated guess.
Do you regularly flog it to 5,000 RPM??

 

[skindata]

It sounds almost exactly like the single cylinder misfire mine was throwing early in my ownership. Sometimes it would throw a code and often it wouldn't.
Took it in for warranty check and the tech swapped coil pack and plug with the adjacent cylinder, and it hasn't messed up since. Had to be a poorly connected coil pack or an improperly seated plug from the factory.
Shook like all Hell a couple of times when it did at high speed and high RPM.

Appreciate it, thanks!

 

[skindata]

The problem is that similar symptoms can be caused by multiple things.
A misfire, for example - but what's causing the misfire? Injector? Coil pack? Spark plug? Something else?
there's not going to be a simple "check this" or "it's this, fix it this way" answer.
You need to read the CODE. There should be stored codes even if the light isn't on, or a history of transient codes.
All any of us can do is guess.
Likely a misfire happening under heavy loads but that's just an educated guess.
Do you regularly flog it to 5,000 RPM??

I forgot about the tazer, so I checked it this morning and this was the only thing on there. The only time I use full throttle would be to merge onto a highway, this truck is definitely not a race car lol.

 

[ArchEtech]

Ya my first thought spark plugs and or coils packs. It would be something simple or something serous and getting the code history might point you in the right direction. Maybe it’s worth just pop on and off coil packs to make sure those are secure. To be honest I’ve only had my Jeep for 3 weeks so I don’t know that much about the engine or how each doing that really is. Yiu could also check to make sure the battery connections are good. I’ve had issues with almost every one of my past SRT vehicles simple because the battery wasn’t connected properly. What you describing for sure sounds like a misfire that’s sending you in to limp mode so it could be as simple as an injector or plug/pack or and complicated as cylinder, cam, valve stuff. I had a corvette that did this kind of thing once because a push rod was bent likely from bouncing it off the limiter too much, but I don’t think that’s going to be a the cause for you here! I don’t even know if the 3.6 is overhead cam, if it has lifters and push rods or any of that stuff yet. Starting from zero. I have read there are sometimes issues with the cam.

Look at common item one at the link:

https://www.nergersautoexpress.com/...-3-6l-pentastar-v6-engines-that-we-can-repair

 

[PuddleJumper]

I forgot about the tazer, so I checked it this morning and this was the only thing on there. The only time I use full throttle would be to merge onto a highway, this truck is definitely not a race car lol.

Thats a code I've seen a lot with manual transmission JTs and 4XE JLs. Its a error code for the body module. I don't see how its related to your power issue but you should reset your tazer and clear codes to see if that helps.

edit: this can also be caused by low voltage on one of your batteries. It could be misfiring cus its cutting off the alternator possibly at redline and then your battery voltage isn't high enough for spark? @ShadowsPapa thoughts?

 

[Artsifrtsi]

You say you are at 33k miles... pull your aftermarket stuff, and take it to the dealer... bumper to bumper is 3/36k, and powertrain is out to 48k...

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I forgot about the tazer, so I checked it this morning and this was the only thing on there. The only time I use full throttle would be to merge onto a highway, this truck is definitely not a race car lol.

Some suggest that's a SGW message - might remove Tazer as a test and see how things go.
Bad connections there can cause issues.

If it is better, then when you go to put it back, just for kicks, leave the truck for 30-40 minutes and do not have the fob with you when you put tazer back - just to keep sleeping systems sleeping.
I'm over-doing it there, but if it's related to SGW like some say............
The problem is, some codes are not as easy to nail down as others as some are standard across most if not all makes, some are specific to vehicles, like FCA vehicles.
Some automakers have codes they use only for their own issues and you can't assume the internet is right.

 

[Lost1wing]

My experience with a flashing check engine light after a hard acceleration with the check engine light going off has been a misfire. It is possible a code wouldn't be stored as with older cars I have dealt with as the computer thinks the issue resolved it's self. Since you can duplicate the issue, having a scanner connected at the time with logging capability you will know for sure.

I had a personal vehicle that did the same thing as your Jeep. The fix was premium gas. My code for multiple cylinder misfires. Plugs and coils had no effect, and the dealer said try premium fuel. 250k later it would still give me the flashing cel if I put 87-88 octane.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My experience with a flashing check engine light after a hard acceleration with the check engine light going off has been a misfire. It is possible a code wouldn't be stored as with older cars I have dealt with as the computer thinks the issue resolved it's self. Since you can duplicate the issue, having a scanner connected at the time with logging capability you will know for sure.

My misfires set the light - sometimes, but when it did it took a couple more big button start cycles before it went away. It took a couple of times with no misfires before it decided all was well.
So it looks like - "it depends".

Low octane won't cause misfires - a misfire is due to lack of proper ignition, or the mixture being too lean or too rich.
Octane only means it's not as prone to self-ignition (won't detonate, or light by itself)
the energy is the same, the effort to light it with a spark is the same.

 

[Lost1wing]

The low octane theory of causing a misfire had my doubts too. But I have to say, it definitely masked the problem. I still have that car. I replaced the engine at 257k and it runs without an issue on 87 octane. The original engine with the issue, I believe would detonate so bad on acceleration that a misfire would occur. My thought was the computer was trying to resolve the knock by adjusting the timing, enough that a misfire would be detected.
It was repeatable. My wife would forget to put 92 or better in the tank and it was obvious on a hard acceleration. I would get loss of power and the flashing cel.

I'm not saying that the OP needs to put in higher octane to resolve his issue, just that a momentary flashing cel could be a misfire. Without a code being stored, he would need to have a scanner hooked up at the time of the event, recording or logging data.

 

[starrskream]

Let me add to all the things above…

mass air flow sensor/ speed density sensor. It’s a simple sensor in the intake tube. Pops right out, easily cleaned with electronic parts cleaner spray. Be gentle, these things are basically a lightbulb filament.

I’ve had the exact symptoms you’ve described because my MAF in a ford ranger was filthy.

likely causes of this are age, or over oiled aftermarket washable oiled filters. The oil seeps through and catches on the sensor.

even if you don’t have either of those, it’s a 5 minute job to pop it out spray it gently with electrical parts cleaner(DO NOT USE BRAKE CLEAN OR WD40!). Pop it back in and see if it fixed your issue.

this may not work for everyone, but it’s an easy check.

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