So, my xj has been out of comission for about 2 weeks now. The last week of driving it I had a lot of problems with starting it. I would drive somewhere shut it off, pump gas, try to start it again and nothing. Usually a jump from someone would get it going. But then, jumping it got harder and harder each time and finally it wouldnt start by jumping. I thought for sure it must just be the battery so I put the battery on the charger overnight and tried it again still nothing. The battery that is in the car when I bought it is a marine battery so I thought that might be the pronblem and tried the battery out of my brothers Jeep. Still nothing. All it does is lights come on when you turn the key to on and then it clicks over once when you try to start it and completely shuts off...like no dash lights, nothing. Does anyone have any idea what else the problem could be? I am moving to Coloradoi in a few weeks and I need to get this thing running again.

 

Is the engine actually cranking when you turn they key or is the starter just making a clicking noise?

 

My wifes '98 did that,check your voltage at battery,fuse block(relay and primary wire) and starter. Her starter was taking WAY to many amps/volts to work which drained (and fried) the battery.Before I ended replacing the starter we were using 2 cars to jump start it just to move it.Dont know if you have the same problem but it sounds like it.

 

mine did the same thing but it ended up being my battery cables, my negative one was melted and the wire was making contact with something. i would check those for sure.

 

No the engine is not cranking the starter clicks. I went out and bought a new battery just now, hooked it up and nothing. The dash lights turned on but as soon as you turn the key to start it nothing happened and everything shut off.

 

Sounds like my starter might be the problem then...how do you check if your starter is bad?

 

Did you try to clean and tighten your main grounds, Battery to body, battery to motor, etc?

 

Check all related connections. Sounds like your battery isn't getting the juice to where it needs to go.

You can try giving your starter a whack with a hammer. That usually does the trick if that is indeed the issue.

 

Usually if you bring it to the auto part store they can test it for you. I would definitely check the connections at the starter.

 

You really need one simple test here.

Get a multimeter. Set it to voltage.

With the ignition key in the ON position, you should have approximately full battery voltage at the starter.

If you do, the starter is the problem.

If you don't, you need to start working your way back into the engine bay to find out why (bad cable, etc).

This is an easy one to troubleshoot, but you need a meter.

EVERYONE working on their XJ should have a meter and learn how to use it, at least fundamentally (measuring voltage and resistance).