Possible condensation in gas tank causes car to shut off?

Ok, check this out, one night in the bitter cold winter here in the northeast, my wife was driving her 99 jeep cherokee sport, to add, she was driving with the low fuel light on.

Anyways, as she was driving, the car shut off and her steering wheel locked up. The truck basically shut off on her. Anyways, she coasted over to the side of the road. Waited a few minutes, the jeep started right up and she made it home.

Now, my buddy tells me, that when cars are that old (150K miles on it) that condensation builds up in the gas tank and can screw up your engine, couple that with driving in the cold with a low tank and your engine will crap out. He told me to put in some dry gas to eliminate the water in the tank, and never have less than 1/4 tank of gas.

Anyone else have any ideas/theories/solutions on this? Thanks.

Ok, check this out, one night in the bitter cold winter here in the northeast, my wife was driving her 99 jeep cherokee sport, to add, she was driving with the low fuel light on.

Anyways, as she was driving, the car shut off and her steering wheel locked up. The truck basically shut off on her. Anyways, she coasted over to the side of the road. Waited a few minutes, the jeep started right up and she made it home.

Now, my buddy tells me, that when cars are that old (150K miles on it) that condensation builds up in the gas tank and can screw up your engine, couple that with driving in the cold with a low tank and your engine will crap out. He told me to put in some dry gas to eliminate the water in the tank, and never have less than 1/4 tank of gas.

Anyone else have any ideas/theories/solutions on this? Thanks.

Usually , if there is some water in the gas it will sputter and not shut down so suddenly, also it would not start up again right away. It wouldn't hurt to add something to the gas but it is most likey a crank sensor or something like that that just quits now and then, a faulty crank shaft sensor does not always create a code in the computer so the check engine light will not come on. Driving with the low fuel light on is not a good idea , the main reason being , there is an electric fuel pump on these jeeps located inside the fuel tank. They are posistioned at the bottom of the tank and the fuel itself is what keeps the fuel pump from running hot, shortening the life of the pump itself and resulting in costly repairs. How many times has it stalled out like this? I'm thinking something electrical is the cause of the cutting out as moisture in the fuel will have symptoms like hesitation , missing, stalling and very hard restarting, I'm sure somebody else here will have more to add.

Ok, check this out, one night in the bitter cold winter here in the northeast, my wife was driving her 99 jeep cherokee sport, to add, she was driving with the low fuel light on.

Anyways, as she was driving, the car shut off and her steering wheel locked up. The truck basically shut off on her. Anyways, she coasted over to the side of the road. Waited a few minutes, the jeep started right up and she made it home.

Now, my buddy tells me, that when cars are that old (150K miles on it) that condensation builds up in the gas tank and can screw up your engine, couple that with driving in the cold with a low tank and your engine will crap out. He told me to put in some dry gas to eliminate the water in the tank, and never have less than 1/4 tank of gas.

Anyone else have any ideas/theories/solutions on this? Thanks.

Usually , if there is some water in the gas it will sputter and not shut down so suddenly, also it would not start up again right away. It wouldn't hurt to add something to the gas but it is most likey a crank sensor or something like that that just quits now and then, a faulty crank shaft sensor does not always create a code in the computer so the check engine light will not come on. Driving with the low fuel light on is not a good idea , the main reason being , there is an electric fuel pump on these jeeps located inside the fuel tank. They are posistioned at the bottom of the tank and the fuel itself is what keeps the fuel pump from running hot, shortening the life of the pump itself and resulting in costly repairs. How many times has it stalled out like this? I'm thinking something electrical is the cause of the cutting out as moisture in the fuel will have symptoms like hesitation , missing, stalling and very hard restarting, I'm sure somebody else here will have more to add.

Ok, check this out, one night in the bitter cold winter here in the northeast, my wife was driving her 99 jeep cherokee sport, to add, she was driving with the low fuel light on.

Anyways, as she was driving, the car shut off and her steering wheel locked up. The truck basically shut off on her. Anyways, she coasted over to the side of the road. Waited a few minutes, the jeep started right up and she made it home.

Now, my buddy tells me, that when cars are that old (150K miles on it) that condensation builds up in the gas tank and can screw up your engine, couple that with driving in the cold with a low tank and your engine will crap out. He told me to put in some dry gas to eliminate the water in the tank, and never have less than 1/4 tank of gas.

Anyone else have any ideas/theories/solutions on this? Thanks.

Usually , if there is some water in the gas it will sputter and not shut down so suddenly, also it would not start up again right away. It wouldn't hurt to add something to the gas but it is most likey a crank sensor or something like that that just quits now and then, a faulty crank shaft sensor does not always create a code in the computer so the check engine light will not come on. Driving with the low fuel light on is not a good idea , the main reason being , there is an electric fuel pump on these jeeps located inside the fuel tank. They are posistioned at the bottom of the tank and the fuel itself is what keeps the fuel pump from running hot, shortening the life of the pump itself and resulting in costly repairs. How many times has it stalled out like this? I'm thinking something electrical is the cause of the cutting out as moisture in the fuel will have symptoms like hesitation , missing, stalling and very hard restarting, I'm sure somebody else here will have more to add.

Usually , if there is some water in the gas it will sputter and not shut down so suddenly, also it would not start up again right away. It wouldn't hurt to add something to the gas but it is most likey a crank sensor or something like that that just quits now and then, a faulty crank shaft sensor does not always create a code in the computer so the check engine light will not come on. Driving with the low fuel light on is not a good idea , the main reason being , there is an electric fuel pump on these jeeps located inside the fuel tank. They are posistioned at the bottom of the tank and the fuel itself is what keeps the fuel pump from running hot, shortening the life of the pump itself and resulting in costly repairs. How many times has it stalled out like this? I'm thinking something electrical is the cause of the cutting out as moisture in the fuel will have symptoms like hesitation , missing, stalling and very hard restarting, I'm sure somebody else here will have more to add.

this happened about 3 months ago, and hasn't happened since (but since then, i dont let the truck fall below 1/4 tank.)

And the thing runs great. I just added some injector cleaner tonight.

When the engine shuts off it takes out the power steering causing it to feel like the wheel locks up but actually doesn't just goes back to manual steering which most people don't remember how hard to turn the wheels were. The shutting off was very doubtfully caused by water in the fuel as the fuel system is a closed system until either the tank cap is removed or the pressure releived at the fuel rail. What probably happened is because the low fuel light was on the fuel in the tank shifted away from the pump cutting out the flow to then engine hence shutting off as nothing to ignite. The crankshaft position sensor doesn't perform any function once the engine is running as everything is controlled by the distributor which is connected to the crankshaft itself. The cps tells the computer when the engine is at top dead center for timing when starting mainly.

When the engine shuts off it takes out the power steering causing it to feel like the wheel locks up but actually doesn't just goes back to manual steering which most people don't remember how hard to turn the wheels were. The shutting off was very doubtfully caused by water in the fuel as the fuel system is a closed system until either the tank cap is removed or the pressure releived at the fuel rail. What probably happened is because the low fuel light was on the fuel in the tank shifted away from the pump cutting out the flow to then engine hence shutting off as nothing to ignite. The crankshaft position sensor doesn't perform any function once the engine is running as everything is controlled by the distributor which is connected to the crankshaft itself. The cps tells the computer when the engine is at top dead center for timing when starting mainly.

Basically, don't let the fuel get low, and i can avoid this problem?

thanks again.

You can also try a couple applications of DRIGAS, HEET, or any one of a number of other products available at the auto parts store, to remove the moisture from the tank.

If you got enough water in the system, it could make your engine cut off; I had the same problem a few years ago, bad gas from a station that had leaks in the tank, put in the drigas and was fine after that.