So, today I was driving in normal city traffic and suddenly several lights on my dash came up at the same time:

Lights were: break, traction control, that lightning thing and another I cannot remember. Engine started acting as if I was accelerating and rpm went all the way up. Then everything came back to normal. This crazy thing lasted probably three to five seconds.

I also noticed that my Bully Dog lost the average fuel economy and segment fuel economy values and recalculated both after the event ended.

Any clue of what this could be?

My Jeep just came back from the shop where they changed an engine front gasket because of coolant leak and the harmonic balancer, which was showing signs of wear.

 

The first thing I would do is check all the grounds and have the battery tested. Both of these can cause this issue. My lights did the same before my battery went

 

My wife just called and said all the lights on the dash came on and the jeep wouldn't move(manual trans) then it bucked and started to go. She stopped at a store came out and started the jeep and no problem, about a mile down the road lights came on again and the the jeep stopped forward progression and then just went back to normal. Very strange. Any ideas?

 

That's what I was thinking but didn't want to believe it. Was hoping for an easy and inexpensive fix.

 

Thanks!

I think I found the culprit. Today driving to work it happened twice and both times when I hit a bump. I remembered what you wrote and stopped to look for some loose wires.

Found that the shop changed the winch + cable path when putting everything together and somehow pinched it. I rerouted the cable to the original position. The pinched area was against a metal part so probably shorting. It stopped the problem but I'll look more carefully tonight since the insulation must be compromised there. I did not see any burns or melted plastic that comes with a big short circuit. The shorts were probably causing the madness and the bumps were probably making the insulation press against the metal part somehow.

I'll post again after driving home and checking the cable carefully.

Thanks much!