2009 Jeep GC Limited, quadratrack v8, backfire upon acceleration, cuts out and blows light gray/white smoke....lots of it

Asked by Nancybd Sep 09, 2015 at 07:33 PM about the Jeep Cherokee

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

this has happened 6-8x's in the last 5 months.  after driving on freeway about
75mph, i stop turn off car, it sits about 2 1/2 hrs.  starts up fine, proceed at
about 30mph on residential street with 4 or 5 stops.....upon making the first left
handed turn engine cuts out, backfires and blows massive amounts of gray to
whitish smoke out exhaust....sputters for a bit then seems fine for freeway trip
home.  it is always after a period of driving, stopping, starting up and making a
left hand turn.  the smoke is so copious that anyone behind me across three
lanes must stop till it clears.  have had into jeep dealership on several
occasions and they cannot reproduce nor does it show any codes.  it runs
pretty well otherwise....starts right up, doesn't die out on me even during these
episodes....just cuts out and there is no power when stepping on gas for a few
moments.

4 Answers

220,875

How does the exhaust smell when it does this? Sweet? Or like burning oil. Did the dealer ask you any of these questions? Did they check for an internal coolant leak? And are you going threw any oil. Things to pay attention to the next time it happens, Helps diagnostics.

1 people found this helpful.

The dealership did ask about the smell of the smoke. Since I'm always driving when this happens I can't be sure of the smell. They did check for coolant leak and found none, and I am not going through oil. They did some kind of pressure check for the gasket and said it was ok. My son who is a Ford Tech in Phoenix said it could be PCV valve since it is intermittent and seems to run fine for a few weeks after one of these big blowouts. Thank you for your answer. I will add anything else if I think it might be relevant. What's your take about the PCV?

220,875

The PCV helps the motor to breath, so it has vacuum on it from the intake manifold, I suppose if it were bad it could be sucking oil in threw the intake, it is a one way valve & normally when it goes bad it is plugged witch causes oil to be pushed out of the motor, eventually oil would be leaking, not burning. I'm not so sure to suspect a cracked head, or bad head gasket opening up with heat (expansion). At least you are having it looked at and now you have some things to aware of.

1 people found this helpful.

I also have a 2009 Jeep GC Limited, V-8 with the same symptoms. 135,000 miles now, but has done it occasionally for years. Good hint on the PCV, so I'll be looking into that. Otherwise great vehicle.

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