Running problem

I recently had the same symptoms on my GV, it was the air mass meter. The engine management light didn't always come on.

Cheers gary where is that situated & what was the solution

It will be located between the air box and intake manifold. It measures the air volume going to the engine so the electrics can work out how much fuel to add to the air, to give the correct mix. I'm afraid I have no experience with your engine type. My fault I had with the G/Vitara was intermittent and had the same jerking as you mentioned, Mine was a fairly harsh (bunny hop) almost dangerous if a car was to be tailgating, or pulling from a junction. It cost me £80 from a breakers (equicar 4x4) and probaly £500+ from a dealer. Good luck and keep us posted. Also welcome to this great site.

Im pretty sure the jimnoids havnt got an air mass meter, or not of any sofisticated type anyway

Im gonna put a 5ver on the crank sensor too. Although with anything like that, stuttering-hesitation etc it can be plenty of things like leads/coil etc but more common seems to be crank sensor on jimny's.

I think i will try the crank sensor first, see if i can get it on sale or return incase it`s not that, the other thing about the mass air unit also sounds interesting as i think the fuel consumption is quite high £30 =110 miles, which is somwhere around 22 to the gallon, spark plugs are a normal colour

A jimny has a MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor and an air temperature sensor in the airbox, rather than an airmass flow meter.

I'm fairly sure the engine light should come on with the ignition, and go out when it starts up, so likely the bulb has been taken out as you say.

If a crank sensor is really £30, change it. They often fail anyway, and you would pay £30 to get someone to look at it, plus the fuel and time going there.

High fuel comsumption with standard tyres could be hubs not releasing at the front, or a simple fuel leak: mine had a slight smell of petrol outside, took me weeks to find that the fuel return pipe was weeping where all the mud collects under the drivers seat.

Also if someone has fitted a 500BHP tuning chip from eBay (a pigyback resistor across the air temp sensor to run it on choke all the time) it will do less to the gallon, but I would expect to see darker plugs.