Uncle Dicky
New Member
Hi folks,
I just bought a 2004 V6 auto. I collected it on Sunday and drove it the 300 miles home on Sunday night.
I've got a few issues that I'd be grateful for some opinion on..
Firstly, the Jeep has been very well cared for by it's previous owners especially the guy I bought it from. Regularly serviced, underpinned every year in Hammerite (an UK paint like Rustoleum), most sensors replaced with OEMs, parts always sourced from Rock in the USA, no cheap chinese knock offs. It's no concourse car but has been used as a working truck and has the battle scars to prove it (previous chap used it for deer hunting - contrary to popular belief you can hunt in the UK) so it's been off road a lot etc.
last serviced in September 2018.
I bought it in November but could only collect it last weekend. Now the previous chap had upgraded to a big V8 and as a consequence it's hardly moved at all since October.
Therein lies the root of the problems.
The car was in Bristol, England. Those of you who know these islands will know that the maritime climate we have is very damp, especially in autumn/winter. Camp, cold and on top of this the twits who rule salt the roads excessively in the winter.
All of this isn't very good for cars and is especially not very good for a car's electrical systems.
OK the Jeep has an LPG system fitted, it's a Prinz VSI 1 model (I think) and has given years of trouble free performance and kept regularly serviced. It has had recent (last year) injector banks. The LPG system is set up to switch over automatically at 95 degrees C. So, like most LPG systems here, it starts on petrol, after 15 mins or so at this time of year, switches to gas. It has a 20lt petrol tank fitted (complete with the customary fuel burp) and a 65 lt gas tank underslung.
Driving home, the jeep switched over to gas on heating up but then, after three minutes, engine light comes on, LPG system beeps and flashes at me and it switches itself off. I call the vendor (the last owner), he's obviously embarrassed (we've all been there) but I'm keen to get a solution as I need the truck. We discuss it at length and conclude that this is likely to be electrical issues in the ignition system caused by an excessively damp autumn in his part of the world ( flooding etc and torrential rain for about 6 weeks non stop). Being a veteran of the lucas electric systems found on the British cars of the past, I pull into the next filling station and pick up a huge can of WD40. I then spray every last electrical connection I can find.
Start up the road again and the misfire seems to have cured itself.
Throughout the night I get several more faults like this. Eventually after 200 miles and 4 fill ups of the tiny burping tank I try the gas again and this time it works, hurrah!
Get home. put the Jeep to bed. Next morning get u to drive the kids the 15 miles to school. This time there's another fault (I've now got my bluetooth OBD2 plugged in) the code referring to a failed Transmission Pressure Sensor. I pop under the car to find somehow the TPS sensor wire has come unplugged. I suspect it may have not been securely pugged in in the first place. clean it, pug it back in. Jeep works fine.
But then ANOTHER engine management issue - light comes on but this time there are no codes. OBD2 shows nothing. I check all the graphs and readouts - all seems ok. But the bloody light is still on. I try to clear it using the OBD2 app - no joy.
Along with this fault the LPG system has now decided not to work at all. The car reaches operating temperature and switches over to gas, then immediately stalls.
Now before I pull the LPG system to bits chasing Gremlins, I am inclined to suspect that the fault is probably with the car's electrics. Systems like Prinz need the car to be in good condition, especially the ignition/sensors and injection. If any components are playing up the LPG simply stops running and puts the car back onto petrol.
I may be wrong but, I suspect that this is another incident caused by the soaking of the car over the last 3 months. Hence the car is letting the LPG system down, rather than the opposite.
My plan is to go through the engine bay and underside and clean with an old toothbrush and WD40, every electrical connector I can find, paying specific attention to those going to the sensors and also pull the injectors and coil packs and give them a bloody good clean, pull the plugs, check the gaps and clean them up as well.
However, I thought I would describe events here and ask if there is anything those of you who are far more experienced with this model would try? Any quick fixes, usual suspects etc?
Thanks in advance, I really need to get this fixed because the 3.7 v6 is not very cost effective to run with the green tax nazis we have in this country. LPG is half the price of petrol.
any suggestions, no matter how daft, welcome.:icon_razz:
I just bought a 2004 V6 auto. I collected it on Sunday and drove it the 300 miles home on Sunday night.
I've got a few issues that I'd be grateful for some opinion on..
Firstly, the Jeep has been very well cared for by it's previous owners especially the guy I bought it from. Regularly serviced, underpinned every year in Hammerite (an UK paint like Rustoleum), most sensors replaced with OEMs, parts always sourced from Rock in the USA, no cheap chinese knock offs. It's no concourse car but has been used as a working truck and has the battle scars to prove it (previous chap used it for deer hunting - contrary to popular belief you can hunt in the UK) so it's been off road a lot etc.
last serviced in September 2018.
I bought it in November but could only collect it last weekend. Now the previous chap had upgraded to a big V8 and as a consequence it's hardly moved at all since October.
Therein lies the root of the problems.
The car was in Bristol, England. Those of you who know these islands will know that the maritime climate we have is very damp, especially in autumn/winter. Camp, cold and on top of this the twits who rule salt the roads excessively in the winter.
All of this isn't very good for cars and is especially not very good for a car's electrical systems.
OK the Jeep has an LPG system fitted, it's a Prinz VSI 1 model (I think) and has given years of trouble free performance and kept regularly serviced. It has had recent (last year) injector banks. The LPG system is set up to switch over automatically at 95 degrees C. So, like most LPG systems here, it starts on petrol, after 15 mins or so at this time of year, switches to gas. It has a 20lt petrol tank fitted (complete with the customary fuel burp) and a 65 lt gas tank underslung.
Driving home, the jeep switched over to gas on heating up but then, after three minutes, engine light comes on, LPG system beeps and flashes at me and it switches itself off. I call the vendor (the last owner), he's obviously embarrassed (we've all been there) but I'm keen to get a solution as I need the truck. We discuss it at length and conclude that this is likely to be electrical issues in the ignition system caused by an excessively damp autumn in his part of the world ( flooding etc and torrential rain for about 6 weeks non stop). Being a veteran of the lucas electric systems found on the British cars of the past, I pull into the next filling station and pick up a huge can of WD40. I then spray every last electrical connection I can find.
Start up the road again and the misfire seems to have cured itself.
Throughout the night I get several more faults like this. Eventually after 200 miles and 4 fill ups of the tiny burping tank I try the gas again and this time it works, hurrah!
Get home. put the Jeep to bed. Next morning get u to drive the kids the 15 miles to school. This time there's another fault (I've now got my bluetooth OBD2 plugged in) the code referring to a failed Transmission Pressure Sensor. I pop under the car to find somehow the TPS sensor wire has come unplugged. I suspect it may have not been securely pugged in in the first place. clean it, pug it back in. Jeep works fine.
But then ANOTHER engine management issue - light comes on but this time there are no codes. OBD2 shows nothing. I check all the graphs and readouts - all seems ok. But the bloody light is still on. I try to clear it using the OBD2 app - no joy.
Along with this fault the LPG system has now decided not to work at all. The car reaches operating temperature and switches over to gas, then immediately stalls.
Now before I pull the LPG system to bits chasing Gremlins, I am inclined to suspect that the fault is probably with the car's electrics. Systems like Prinz need the car to be in good condition, especially the ignition/sensors and injection. If any components are playing up the LPG simply stops running and puts the car back onto petrol.
I may be wrong but, I suspect that this is another incident caused by the soaking of the car over the last 3 months. Hence the car is letting the LPG system down, rather than the opposite.
My plan is to go through the engine bay and underside and clean with an old toothbrush and WD40, every electrical connector I can find, paying specific attention to those going to the sensors and also pull the injectors and coil packs and give them a bloody good clean, pull the plugs, check the gaps and clean them up as well.
However, I thought I would describe events here and ask if there is anything those of you who are far more experienced with this model would try? Any quick fixes, usual suspects etc?
Thanks in advance, I really need to get this fixed because the 3.7 v6 is not very cost effective to run with the green tax nazis we have in this country. LPG is half the price of petrol.
any suggestions, no matter how daft, welcome.:icon_razz: