When buying a car, it’s essential to check and prioritize the car’s trims to ensure you get the desired features proportionate to the cost of the vehicle. 2001 jeep grand Cherokee won industry accolades due to its more comfortable and smoother engine, giving a decent around town to its loyal customers, .
2001 jeep grand Cherokee has two trims which include:
- Laredo
- Limited
Each of these trim offers two engine styles: rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, where each jeep grand Cherokee style has its specification.
Both trims offer a wide range of features, including antilock brakes, air conditioning, cruise control, power doors, mirrors and windows. Laredo has leather seats, a fog lamp, and 17-inch alloy wheels. At the same time, a luggage rack, limited adds automatic climate control and a 180-watt FM/AM/CD and cassette stereo system. The Jeep 4.0-liter inline-6 is the standard equipment, which is more powerful producing 195 horsepower.
PCM, or the powertrain control module, is a vehicle’s control unit that acts as the computerized brain for cars. This unit controls your jeep grand Cherokee’s essential functions, such as changing gears, air to gas ratio, ignition timing, etc. These functions are managed to depend on the information received from numerous vehicle sensors to improve jeep performance. The sensors could give the exhaust and cooling system information, air intake, and other components.
The information received by PCM is used to make various decisions within seconds. Error monitoring could be the most crucial function of PCM, find ways to rectify them, and if it can’t, notify the driver by lighting up the check engine light. If the check light is steady, the engine problem is miner, but if it occurs at irregular intervals and flushing fast, the engine has a severe issue.
2001 Jeep Cherokee PCM failure
PCM can fail due to various factors such as:
Voltage overload
When a short occurs in the solenoid or actuator circuit may lead to voltage overload and cause damage to the PCM.
Environmental factors
PCM is highly sensitive to weather elements. Extreme heat and vibrations are the main environmental factors that lead to PCM damage. Water does the most damage, even as little as one or two drops. Vibrations may lead to cracking to micro-cracks in the system.
Faulty 2001 Jeep Cherokee PCM equipment
When PCM is in the production stage, a faulty one could be produced and distributed without the producer’s knowledge. Only for it to be discovered after replacement.
2001 jeep grand Cherokee has various issues associated with PCM failure. The issues may include:
Showing random error codes
PCM registers an error code when a problem occurs, and it can’t be able to fix it. It may report an error wherein there is none in the real sense when it is faulty. When you connect the vehicle’s computer to OBD 2 scanner, you can know whether this is a false error code or not.
Jeep Cherokee has difficulty starting
Since the engine computer is the vehicle’s main Control Unit, its malfunctioning may lead to engine ignition failure. With a faulty PCM, turning the key may cause the engine to rotate but doesn’t start, for a defective power train control module cannot send a signal and a command to the engine.
Engine stalls or misfires
An engine misfire occurs when one or more cylinders are not producing power due to a clogged fuel injector (by dirt or carbon) or faulty spark plug. Each cylinder has an ignition coil pack that sends electricity to the spark plug to ignite the air-fuel mixture. If there’s no electricity, there will be no spark. Misfiring signs may include slower acceleration or shaking during acceleration; the engine might hesitate or lose power.
Engine has performance issues
Acceleration, power, and fuel efficiency may decrease due to faulty PCM that controls the air to fuel ratio and transmission.
Transmission issues
These issues are primarily on automatic transmission vehicles because PCM has no control over manual transmission vehicles. Faulty PCM would make Jeep movement unusual or irregular.
Sensor issues become more noticeable
Sensors feed the engine control modules with information or data for it to adjust the engine settings accordingly for a smooth drive. When the sensors have issues, the PCM tends to make unnecessary adjustments that affect the jeep’s performance unless the sensor issues are sorted through replacement to resolve the problems.
Check Engine light is on
Sometimes PCM makes wrong decisions that may lead to other jeep problems. Among the top list issue is the check engine light turning on randomly. Turning of check engine light reasons could be emission problems, sensor 02 cases, and PCM issues. You may end up replacing your jeep PCM thinking it is faulty, but still, the check engine light comes back, but the vehicle has problems that need to be diagnosed and repaired.
Damage to the circuit board
Electric system problems like fault and lost connections, shorts, and corrosion may contribute to PCM problems. These connections failure must be fixed by soldering repair, which requires professional knowledge, as jeep grand Cherokees have poor soldering on power connections.
Resetting 2001 jeep grand Cherokee PCM
Resetting is clearing PCM memory of the information stored in it specific to the 2001 jeep grand Cherokee. Removing stored information involves interfering with the power source to wipe out the memory and reset it to factory setting, disconnecting and reconnecting battery cables. Once reset, PCM will start to record new data.
PCM replacement
Replacement should be the last resort after nothing else is working to solve the problems. When looking for a PCM replacement, keep in mind that they are programmed for a specific make and model of a vehicle. Thus you need a replacement for that exact jeep grand Cherokee. Knowing why your jeep PCM failed is good to avoid the same damage to the replacement, to avoid future costly repairs and misdiagnosis of your jeep issues by other mechanics.
Cost of replacement
Like any other car parts replacing the PCM can be very expensive. The parts cost between $100 of dollars up to $900, while labor estimates range from $38 to $48. Purchasing an engine control module from FS1INC comes pre-programmed to your VIN and depending on the model some comes plug and play.
2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee PCM FAQ’s
The engine fails to start when you ignite
Check engine light is displayed
Jeep shifting erratically
Yes, you can go in two ways. First, you can connect the scan tool’s data cable to the data link connector (DCL) port, run the PCM self-test, and clear the code.
Second, if you have no scan tool, disconnect the negative battery terminal and leave it disconnected for some time. Battery disconnection makes the computer clear and forgets any stored code.
Faultiness in PCM could be caused by several factors, including environmental factors such as extreme heat and excessive vibrations. These factors create micro-cracks in the circuit boards.
PCM testing may involve mechanical and electrical testing. You may start with a visual examination of loose connections or rust, checking battery connections and whether the battery is fully charged. Low voltage may cause some sensors to fail, making PCM input incorrect adjustments.
Battery charge and connections may be reasonable but still have issues with PCM. The next step would be to use an OBD scanner to detect the error code produced and narrow it down to systems that cause the failure. Inspecting wiring and sensors could be another way to test the PCM. Examining the sensors connected to jeep PCM and wires that connect them can be done through visual inspection or by using a multimeter.
