I have a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 284,000 miles that has probably been the most dependable vehicle I’ve ever owned. I bought the truck with 160k on it ten years ago and it’s been my daily driver ever since. Minnesota winters are beginning to take their toll on the body, but it still looks OK. About a year ago, as I was driving along and as I came to a stop sign, the engine quit. I thought, “that’s strange”, hit the key and it started right up. It stalled three or four more times in the next couple of minutes and I had visions of riding in a tow truck back to my shop. It didn’t do it again and for several months ran perfectly. It started to do it again with a little more frequency, but always restarted. I knew I should do something about it, but since it always restarted, I blew it off. I was pretty sure it was probably some sort of input, most likely the crankshaft sensor, but there was not the telltale code that usually accompanies a failing crank sensor.

Since I’m really cheap, I decided to order a crank sensor for $21.95 with free shipping (a 1/3 of what the parts store wanted) on Ebay as well as some new sway bar links that I knew were failing (1/3 of what the parts stored charged as well). I’m happy to report no more stalling. Also no more clunking with the installation of the new links.

On my way to 300k!