One year back when I went to start my Cherokee 98 2.5 diesel all appeared ok as for instrument panel lights but the starter failed to work. The solenoid could be heard to click as the key turned but that was it. After speaking to dealer and finding the only way to the starter was to drop the gearbox out was not to impressed so checked out battery posts removed leads and cleaned all. It then started fine, and for next 8 months only for the problem to return in winter and cleaning leads or posts made no difference as did a new battery. The fault was intermittent often starting in the morning getting me to work but not home without a jump start. It was often hard to jump start. I fitted a second earth lead from the battery to the engine block and the problem once again stopped. Now 4 months later the problem has returned. It failed to start in the morning then with nothing being done it started first time on my return from work! It will start a number of times one after another but then leave it a few hours and it will not start. Any ideas or am I going to have to bite the bullet and pay £500 to have the gearbox out just to check the starter!

your jeep must be suffering from the automatic starter motor , this is located on the top of the starter engine , mine did that to me too and the electrician told me that he knew a hack but it will only work for a while , if the problem came back i was going to have to dismount the starter to fix it but it has been more than one year after that and i have had no problems with that , anymore , if you have any chance to clean the contacts on the starter it could be great , im going to ask my electrician tomorrow how he did it and reply you back!!!

I've now found that only the O/S engine mount has to come out in order to get at the starter motor. But have been able to get round the problem by locking the unlocking, so did begin to think immobiliser could be the problem until this didn't work the other day and only a jumpstart got it going.