cumo000

I haven't done anything to my jeep in months, but change the oil in it.

2 weeks ago:
She won't start. the lights radio and dummy lights were dead/ extremely dim, the volt guauge was way in the red, and the buzzing noise was faint. jumped it and it ran fine for a week.

3 days ago:
Drove it to work. got off work and it was dead. jumped it and drove off

Today:
It was dead in the morning jumped it worked fine.
Got off of work went to start it. I heard the starter click. the volt gauge read fine, but didn't turn over. released the key, and did it again started right up.

So while i was driving home.....The volt guage is reading over 14v aprox. 14.4v. rolled the windows down volts drop to 13. huh rolled them up, and the clock, radio, and dash cluster blacked out for a second. turned on the head lights and everything went out for a second and it droped to 13.8v. I noticed with no lights on 14.4v with light on 13.8ish.

Got home...... tried the lights on/off an windows up down dropped to 9-10v while doing all of this. shut the jeep off. looked under the hood. cleaned the battery+ terminal really good. tried to start it 3 times and nothing dead......pulled the hood release to open the hood back up, and boom power, started right up.

battery is 2 yrs old and had it tested within the past 2 months it's good.

Where do i start looking? wiring, relay, battery, alternator? anyone ever have the same problem? I just want to say thank you now, becauseyou have all helped me so much in the past.

DaddyCat

Sounds to me like you have one or more bad ground wire connections, there are several. I suggest you clean all your ground wire contacts till shiney and use some dielectric grease on the terminals to keep the electrons from getting confused.

whocares8310

checking your grounds is definitely a good thing to do also if you have a volt meter:

test your battery without the jeep running to make sure it has a good charge

if you can get it started check the voltage across the battery again to check if your alternator is working

but it does definately sound like grounding issue. you might also need new battery terminals or to change out the cables going to the battery if they are corroded at all

freegdr

another thing might want to check ignition switch might be getting ready to go its the main feed for all electric in xj

cumo000

I have my own home brewed grounding kit on the jeep ontop of the original grounds but I will deff check the grounds again. I'll check the battery again also. How do you know if it's the igition switch?

cumo000

Also it isn't completely dead when it doesn't start. Everything just gets really dim and flickers. The door buzzer is very faint cutting in and out also.

freegdr

you have to pull it off and check for burnt connections and plug issues

cumo000

Well I hate to get to far ahead of myself. I cleaned the heck out of the battery connections the other day. So far I haven't had any issues and the volt meter has been reading fine. The battery terminals really didn't look bad at all but it seemed
To help. Thank you everyone for the suggestions.

tannerp89

first off, do you have a Digital Volt Ohm Meter?
if you do, start with the battery. Open Circuit voltage of the battery should be 12.6 volts. Range your meter. Now do a drop voltage test of the insulated circuit (positive lead to positive post of battery; negative lead to B terminal on starter, terminal from bottom of solenoid to starter motor) now crank for 10 sec, observe voltage drop on DVOM. If more than .5 volt drop is observed, you have bad connection/bad cable.
Now test alternator. Heavy load test. turn on all accessories, lights etc. (not rear defroster) with xj running. Bring up to 2000 RPM. use DVOM to check voltage of battery. If not .5 volts above OCV, a short in field windings or armature of alternator is suspected.