chrisginco

Not sure what to make of this, so I'm throwin' it out there since I'm betting it's gonna be a problem...
1997 XJ,4.0,Auto, etc. Been running fine. Was out and about. Started the car after about a half hour. My radio shut off for a split second and my RPM's dropped like a battery cable was disconnected and reconnected. It repeated this behavior every 20-30 seconds or so. Hmmmm. Made another stop. Went to start it up and I had absolutely NO POWER to anything! No dash lights, nothing. Turned the key off and then back on and everything was fine. Drove away and had the same problem with the radio/idle thing. It seems to have straightened out now, but I'm bettin' something is going to go wrong here in the next couple of days. And, yes, I checked to battery terminals and everything is tight. I didn't see anything obvious under the hood, either. The only thing I've done in the last month or so is install a H4 headlight upgrade.
Anyone else ever have this problem? Any ideas of what would make it act like this?
Thanks

Adam in NYC USA

Old or new battery cables and/or terminals? Clean them chemically and visually inspect the cables. Internal Corrosion to the battery cables is hidden until you actually bare the wires and note the corrosion travel up the cables.

chrisginco

Adam,
Yeah, they all look good (at least a pretty good visual inspection...). The battery was put about a year ago. I was thinkin' maybe an internal short in the battery, but it just acted so weird. I was just wondering if this might be one of those "common" things that is particular to the Cherokee XJ.
Anyone else has had this problem?

Adam in NYC USA

not with a jeep but without another car, i had changed the alternator to a rebuilt one. that car had idiiot lights , not a voltmeter. it made more voltage and current than OEM which heated up the fusible link and opened it up. i did drive around until the battery died and then the car died. jumped the battery and could drive it until the battery got flat again.

returned to the alternator shop who soldered jumped the 100 amp fusible link with a wire but in hindsight i would have preferred having it replaced than jumped.

you gotta check for voltage drops with a voltmeter or warm hot to the touch wires or if you really lucky a IR camera and just look for the warmer wires having the voltage problems.

Adam in NYC USA

if you had an internal short to the battery, the voltage on the battery should not be 12 volt but one cell less 1.25 volts less. a internal short would not be intermittant but continous.

You have a dirty ground or a bad set of wires or a flakey set of battery terminals themselves. some are screwed in so make sure they are mechanically tight and sound. you be surprised at the terminal construction these days with top mount batteries.

Remember that NEW means Never ever Worked.

Adam

chrisginco

Okee Dokee, I'll take a closer look and also feel out the temps of the cables next I get her warmed up. For the record, I've been watching the voltmeter and it shows it's charging correctly. I'll keep an eye on things as the week goes by and see if the issue continues.
Thanx for the info.