lavendje

I have a 1999 Jeep Cherokee 4.0 that will not start. I have tried to jump the car and it still will not crank. With the other car jumping it I get at least a little more movement. I took that battery out and charged it and put it back and I get just a little movement. I may have a short somewhere. I am going to have the battery tested as soon as I can get to the auto parts store. I just don't know what could have happened while the car sat over night.

The car did do something funny yesterday. I got out of the car and looked under the hood. I checked my coil connections. I unplugged and plugged them back in, went in the store and came out. The Jeep acted like there was no battery connected. No lights no nothing. I closed the door and everything was back to normal.

RAH

Try tapping on the starter while someone cranks it over

CodeXJ

Sounds to me like the starter might be weak.

lavendje

Well I checked the battery and it was still pushing 660 amps so it was good. The Starter is the next step I will take it out, clean it off and see if it runs good or bad at the auto parts store. I don't have someone to crank it while I tap it so I'm reduced to just taking it out and having it tested. If I can find someone, is there some kind of technique to taping it or not? i.e. location. I thank you for any help you can give.

RAH

No real technique just lightly tap on the body of the starter while someone holds the key in the crank position. the metal case you are tapping on has laminated magnets on the other side so you don't want to hit it hard.

lavendje

Ok. Thanks. I have to get to it tomorrow. I have the battery going through a charging cycle. I want it to be strong when I attempt.

lavendje

I got the starter reworked for $70 and it attempts to start the car. Now the starter turns the crank but I just get spitting and sputtering. If I hold the starter engaged the engine almost starts and at one point I had the gas pushed and was able to let off the ignition and it ran for about 30 seconds then died. It is right on the verge of starting but the Jeep shakes violently. I wish I could post a short vid to show what it is doing. I washed the engine so is there something other than the distributor cap that doesn't like to get wet? One time I took the car through the car wash and it acted the same way till it dried out.

ken72

Have you looked at replacing your battery cables? I had a very smilar issue due to bad battery connectors. One second there would be no connection or hard starting, and trying to start with the door open always caused it to die. I changed the battery connections and I have not had the issue since.

Several times before, if I would turn the ignition with the door open it would kill everything. Close the door and wait a minute or two and it would turn on like nothing happened. The bad battery connections were causing a short I guess. Your cables or connections could be fried.

lavendje

Ok replaced Battery Cables and still same problem. I just think something that doesn't like to get wet got wet. Anyone with any idea or same problem?

scott357

My 99 was acting very similar to yours. I replaced the starter and battery cable ends and the battery. So far so good.

ken72

You have probably already done this, but I recall someone on here washing their engine and knocking something loose like a vacuum hose or something. I am sure you have searched the engine high and low for anything loose or disconnected but its worth a thought. I might even pull all the plugs and check them as well. There is not much in the engine that you have to worry about water touching unless you just soak the thing down. If you have a vacuum leak and it sucked water in to the engine, it would have to be quite a bit I think, that might cause a problem as well.

lavendje

Well in the soaking it down, when I washed the car the first time it acted like this, when the under car jet came on and shot water under the car from both sides that is where I first saw this kind of problem. Sense then I have had problems just after rains and hitting puddles. It sounds like it is flooded but I know the gas is not the issue. It has to be electrical. The starter was fixed, the distributor was replaced, the battery cables were replaced and the Battery. The only thing left is the Ignition Coil. Thats only $33 so I will get one today and try that. I did just replace the cam sensor which the car worked just after replacing. While the starter was out I replaced the Crank Sensor but I cant tell if that is the problem. Usually when they are the problem you just get a free flying attempt at starting with no ignition. Which means it will just spin the engine up but will not have any fire. So I don't know if this is related. I am getting fire to the spark plugs but I just dont know if it is enough.

mcguyver_xj

unplug all your electrical connections and make sure there dry and buy a tube of di-electric grease and put it in all the connections...and all cherokees have a factory recall on the crank and cam position sensor so call and see if they were done....also you first two no-start diagnosis steps should be battery/ starter, spark, and fuel...

spikeypuck

The main grounding strap is a known weak link. I had a similar issue this week with the rig I just picked up. I replaced the main grounding cable with a 4 gauge cable. You can use a new battery cable and change a fitting to make it work.

Mine was doing something similar, I thought mu battery was dead, had it tested. I went thru and replaced the starter solenoid, starter, battery terminals. Still nothing until I changed out the ground strap. Give it a try

lavendje

The first thing I did was check the battery, then I checked and had the starter fixed, then I checked to see if there was a spark, and I am getting fuel to the injectors. Now I have to check the compression. But that does not explain the strange flooding that has been causing the same symptoms. Which leads me back to the Ignition coil, Distributor or something that can flood with water and cause this issue.