2020 Overland Issue?

[Rdizz]

I dont know how to describe this. All of a sudden when I am just cruising at light throttle pretty much any speed so long as I am at a constant speed i am getting a what feels like a loss of power intermitted like every 2 or 3 seconds. I am not losing any speed and the gear is not shifting. It almost feels like a quick gust of headwind hits the front or you let off the gas then back on it or a tap of the break. Anyone else ever had anything like this happen? And if so did you resolve the issue? I am hesitant to ever go to a dealer because normally things come out worse than before they arrived....

Ive seen a few post about similar things but they are years old and it was just people talking no one ever posted a resolution?

Obviously it is a 3.6 and I have 19k miles.

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[DylanM]

Sounds like a possible intermittent misfire that's under the threshold to throw a CEL.

 

[Rdizz]

Sounds like a possible intermittent misfire that's under the threshold to throw a CEL.

That is what it feels like, wonder if changing the plugs will help. It almost feels like bad gas....

weird thing is it only happens at constant speed, other than that during acceleration or idle its perfectly fine?....

 

[Rdizz]

Sounds like a possible intermittent misfire that's under the threshold to throw a CEL.

OK... This may sound stupid, but here we are anyway.

I just checked all vacuum lines, hoses etc etc all were good. I popped my fuse box and almost every single Larger fuse was "loose" Not loose to the point where they would have flopped out or anything, let's say about 1/2 in but all in all not entirely seated all the way. Now my understanding of fuses this really shouldn't matter much if at all really but of course i pushed them all in and took her out for a test drive.

I tried to duplicate the issue (which is just keeping a constant speed mostly at 45mph) and wtf the problem is gone? I should be happy but this scares me more... I used to be a mechanic, GM of Goodyear and DM of Merchants/NTB I can turn a wrench, but this was quite a while ago and cars went from bolt on issues to computer issues and in my experience cars "always run their best, right before they break down" lol....

My initial thought was a bad torque convertor, Gas, Plugs, Coil, Transmission but the symptoms were so weird. It was like it was going to shift but without any loss of speed, any loss or jump in RPM and no shifting. no odd noises or anything felt like well shit my transmission at 19k miles is already going out.

Is it at all possible it could have been the Fuses (which really makes no sense in my mind)

 

[DylanM]

I'd call it plausible that the fuses may have been the cause. Modern vehicles are heavily electronics reliant, using sensor signals and communications busses that rely on often narrow voltage parameters, where anything outside of those parameters can cause, shall we say, "interesting" issues. Fuses that aren't fully seated could potentially translate into a functional yet degraded connection, lessening the voltage passing through and being supplied to a circuit which then in turn means sensor signals etc are skewed.

If the issue was/is a misfire then it doesn't surprise me much that it only presents itself at a light throttle steady cruise. Typically these conditions will have the engine operating with the ignition timing advanced a fair bit due to the low load and partial chamber fill, it doesn't take much deviation in timing or mixture here to get a slow or incomplete burn that results in a hiccup.

It couldn't hurt to check for any pending codes and have a peek at the misfire counter with a scanner, maybe throw in some fresh gas from a different station.

 

[Eagle22]

I make it a practice of going into the fuse box and seating all the fuses after every off road trip. I always find a couple fuses that don’t seem to be seated properly.
I started doing this after random gremlins like loss of blind spot detection.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Had that in a Cherokee years ago, back around 2000 or so. Turned out to be an intermittently bad crank position sensor. I described it as driving along and then as if I hit a patch of ice, lost momentum, then it went along again - but never felt a single surge or feeling as if it had died or shifted.

You would have had to connect to it with an app like JSCAN or AlfaOBD and monitor certain PIDs, misfires, whatever, and gone from there.

I've had misfires that didn't trigger a light at all, but never once felt the loss of power or any unevenness about it.

 

[Boeing720]

There is a YouTube video about Wrangler fuses being loose from the factory. So, it's quite possible to have this as a problem. I checked mine right after I got home from the dealer and found a couple loose.
Here's the Video

 

[Rdizz]

Had that in a Cherokee years ago, back around 2000 or so. Turned out to be an intermittently bad crank position sensor. I described it as driving along and then as if I hit a patch of ice, lost momentum, then it went along again - but never felt a single surge or feeling as if it had died or shifted.

You would have had to connect to it with an app like JSCAN or AlfaOBD and monitor certain PIDs, misfires, whatever, and gone from there.

I've had misfires that didn't trigger a light at all, but never once felt the loss of power or any unevenness about it.

This is what gets me, The problem seemingly has gone away after seating all of the fuses and relays. If I hook it up to a Jscan as of right now it would probably show me nothing, right?

Half of me wonders if I should just replace the crank sensor as preventative maint.... Since its easy enough really.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This is what gets me, The problem seemingly has gone away after seating all of the fuses and relays. If I hook it up to a Jscan as of right now it would probably show me nothing, right?

Half of me wonders if I should just replace the crank sensor as preventative maint.... Since its easy enough really.

I still from time to time hook up and look things over for misfires or other anomalies as not everything "throws a code" or "sets a light".
But likely- you'd see nothing.

Heck, I still throw a scope or timing light on my older cars - even if they seem fine. I still pull some spark plugs from the cars now and then just to see how things are going, even if they are running fine.

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