Dear Scotty. I bought a used 2018 jeep Cherokee trail hawk with 24,000 miles from a dealer here in Colorado. It's a 3.2 penstar v6, automatic full-time four-wheel drive automatic. I got this for my wife because of the cold winters here and i thought it would be safe for her to drive. Unfortunately, whenever the temperature falls below freezing, which is often all winter, the car has a has a rough idle and tries to die whenever its first started up. The exhaust emits a foul odor like the air/fuel ratio isn't correct. Sometimes the check engine light flashes temporarily and sometimes it just stays on. I took it to the Chrystler dealer where they charged me for a diagnostic, a fuel injector flush, and a fuel injector kit (Which they kept). This didn't make sense since it runs fine when warmed up. So, the next morning I tried starting the car when it was 24 degrees out and, no surprise, nothing had changed. The car still wanting to die, the check engine light flashing, then runs and idles fine when warmed up. I feel like i've been scammed. Any suggestions? Craig from Colorado
You said you bought it at 24k miles, how many is on it now?
Unless it has 100k+ miles, I would be very disappointed that it is having idling issues at such low mileage.
Typically with a higher mileage vehicle, I would clean out several things like the Idle air control, throttle body, and maf sensor.
They supposedly cleaned the fuel injectors, I just can't believe they would be dirty much at all at that age, but who knows. Fuel pump issues maybe,
As a side note, used car sale price is still pretty high, I am sure you can get several good recommendations of a replacement that won't have those issues. My first inclination is get a 4Runner.
I suggest taking it to a good mechanic local mechanic, rather than a dealership. They can check it out better, rather than just replacing and cleaning stuff that doesn't need it.
