First off, I know this is a common lead, but hear me out. I have an 01 Sport, my wife nailed a deer last week. We drove it from the site about 15 miles down the road trying to limp it home. It finally quit on me, about 10 min later it started up again. I called in a tow to take us the rest of the way home. Finally the insurance company came to pick it up and it will no longer start. Yesterday they totaled it out because it will not start. They claim that the strike moved the engine and as a result it will no longer start, even tho I drove it about 15 miles after the collision. I bought the jeep, minor damage and a good running/looking jeep, with plans to fix it and keep driving it. Damage I know engine wise, radiator stack destroyed, 1 electric fan, and the pulley off the power steering pump, airbags didn't deploy. I've read that the CPS could be bad, but curious on any ideas and thoughts on where to start. From what I can see the engine is in the correct alignment and not moved. Other that what I mentioned earlier, I don't see any damage to the engine, harnesses, or connections.

Thanks!

 

If it won't start, first thing to do is see what's missing- fuel or spark, and go from there.
It didn't overheat severely while being driven that 15 miles, did it? If so I might re-think buying it back (if that's what you are thinking) unless you are OK with doing some engine work too. I wouldn't trust that head after a severe overheat. At some point repairs will cost more than just buying another.

FWIW, hitting a deer head-on shouldn't damage an XJ beyond repair. I had the misfortune of a drunk driver swerving into my lane at highway speed, I hit him at roughly 55 MPH with the front driver's corner, spun several times until I slammed into the ditch, busting the rear axle loose. His Saturn was destroyed. I turned the XJ back into the leasing company a bit early, lol. They repaired and sold it, for all I could see good as new. They're built like tanks.

 

pics of the damage?

 

I did drive it for a little bit, but didnt overheat it to badly. As soon as i saw it hit 210, it jumped to max temp and I shut it down 15 seconds later. About 20 min later while waiting for the tow, I cranked it over and she fired right up once more. My thoughts are some random sensor took this as an opportunity to take a dirt nap.

 

That doesn't look all that bad in the pics. Are you planning on buying it back @ salvage value?

 

If you ran that engine for any length of time without driving the water pump, stick a fork in it, it's done.

 

That damage is not bad at all.....whoever told you that the engine moved obviously has no idea what they are talking about. I would not worry too much about the cylinder head, as that would probably have nothing to do with it not starting.
Radi had a good point...see whats missing spark or fuel. If you have access to a scanner, see if there is an RPM reference while cranking, because the CPS is a common problem on these engines. Or possibly if a wire got damaged and caused a fuse to blow maybe.

 

So update. Changed the CPS, power steering, and radiator, filled fluids. Still cranks all day long, will not fire. Checked all fuses, relays, and grounds all seem good and connected. I have fuel, so my thought turns right to a spark issue. Need to figure out how to test for good spark. Just at a loss at this point on where to trace down the spark issue.

Thanks guys.

 

Be sure to verify that with a fuel pressure gauge that you have approximately 49 psi, what is needed to start your engine.

Below is how to check for spark on your vintage.

And as you know, ANY overheating is a good recipe for cracking your 0331 cylinder head. Not the cause of your no-start, but something to keep in mind as you work on it.

Good luck!
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The coil design for the 00-01 is significantly different than that of the single coil and distributor setup on the earlier 4.0. You basically have three coils firing 6 plugs in the correct sequence, every crankshaft rotation (wasted spark design). This is an engineering departure from the older, single spark every other crankshaft rotation.

You can test the coil pack like you would the old single coil design, but its more technically involved than physically accessing the spark plug end. Because of the design of the coil rail, don’t test the coil rail one spark plug port at a time. Testing one port at a time causes the remaining coil ports to be free floating (ie, not properly grounded through the spark plug). Free floating an encapsulated coil secondary causes significant increases in the voltage induced in the secondary. This increased voltage can easily exceed the dielectric breakdown of the coil secondary and could cause the coil windings to arc internally and break down the insulation. If this happens, it has the effect of reducing coil energy delivery potential in the best cases and in the worst cases, causes the coil to fail. You need to install all 6 spark plugs to ensure you won’t damage the coil rail.

Because it is difficult to guarantee that you can correctly ground all 6 plugs at once, you should make up 6 separate jumper wires about 2 feet long. Pull the rail and flip it upside down. Insert 6 sparkplugs into the rail. Attach one end of a jumper wire to the threaded part of the sparkplug with a large mouth alligator clip and attach the other end of the jumper wire to engine ground. Once all 6 are hooked up this way, you can then perform your engine cranking test while observing spark on all 6 plugs.

 

Ok will try the spark testing. Last night I bought a cam sensor to me with the way it is trying to start sounds like it is out of time and I would say its a timing issue. I've got fuel can smell it very well when we try and start it smells very rich, making me to thing of a sensor, and haven thrown a gauge of the fuel rail yet, but I have good pressure at the schrader valve. I've never been this stumped getting some thing to start. I did remember that after the deer strike I drove it about 10 miles. The last mile power seemed to go down, I assumed was the computer cutting power.

 

It starts!!! Now it takes about 15 to 30 seconds to start. And not regularly. It will be Monday before I can get it to a shop to get a diagnostic ran. Any thoughts?

 

what fixed this issue? I am having similar issues

 

I would run a compression test.

 

XJ's can take a lot of punishment. Back in '03 I got t-boned in the left front wheel by some kid in a ricer running a stop sign at 20 - 30 mph. Looked like the XJ was totaled to me--front end looked like it got nailed by a land mine or IED from over in Afghanistan, or something (jeep ***** all over the place!) but the body shop fixed it up damned good. 200K DD miles later it's still bone stock and going strong. BTW, the ricer was a total loss...

 

Okay mine is fixed pumped out bad gas full tuneup plugs wires fuelfilter cap and rotor and new asd relay and new fuel pump relay. And that fixed mine and I had fuel and fire before just combination of things