Okay, hope I got a lot of folks' attention, because my brother in law needs some help.

He's got a 1996 Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x2 (yeah, I know) with the 4.0 engine and auto trans. At random intervals while he's driving along it will just cut off. All the gauges go dead, it's just like he turned the key off. If the truck's at highway speeds, it will restart a few seconds later (who says you can't 'push start' an automatic?). If he's at a traffic light or slow enough it just stalls and a few seconds later he can restart it normally, just like nothing happened. There seems to be no rhime or reason.

He's taken this thing to a few different mechanics, and even his local Jeep dealer. They've replaced connectors, checked wiring, kept it for days on end, and haven't been able to fix it.

Any suggestions?

Intermittent problems are the worst! If it Aint broke you can't fix it. When you fiddle with one thing and it runs fine you think you have it, then it quits again. Most frustrating I know. Could be computer or ignition switch maybe, Looses power to gauges you say, Do any lights come on when it dies like check engine or the usual prestart lights on the dash or are they dead also? Seems to be a rash of bad computers this winter with intermittent problems. Perhaps he has one of those. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

I know a lot about Grands. but it could be so many things. Computer or battery ground are possiblities. It's a tough one.....

BTW I don't know much about Grands but one 4.0 is pretty much like another. I think. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Have you asked any of those shops what they have specifically done? Sounds like a CPS or O2 sensor to me but no way to be certain without hooking it up to scanner to see what trouble codes come up.

1996-newer are OBD-II so a scanner will need to be able to read OBD-II codes, obviously.

Chris

So far he knows that they replaced the CPS and checked a lot of connections. At one point the mechanic tapped on the ignition switch while the Jeep was running and it stalled. He replaced the ignition switch, but it still does it. As far as I know, no one found any codes.

Something like that I would bite the bullet and bring it to the dealer (I have a grand also). You could spend a lot of money chasing that problem around.