wristwister

So my kid took her XJ to Saline Valley Hot Springs in Death Valley, she says it's about a 3 hour drive down dirt roads. On the way back her jeep just died and wouldn't start. Fortunately, "Road Runner Doug" and his wife Bambi came by and helped her out. Doug, who knows a thing or two about cars, used a chunk of wire to get the Jeep going again, and told my daughter that when she stopped she needed to disconnect the wire or her battery would drain. She made it home with no problems, and now I'm trying to diagnose what happened remotely. She sent me the following pictures of the wire Doug stck in there. It goes from the positive battery terminal to ... something.

Question, is that the coil it's going to? If so, what is the most likely failure that caused the coil to not get juice from that connector? If it's not the coil, what is it and what might the failure be?

Thanks all.

tech

Did you check all fuses and relays , to me it sounds like a fuse or a relay went bad .

BillyBoy

Have her take better P icts. Start and end points of the wires.

Pigeon

It looks as if it starts at the battery, and ends at the coil.

wristwister

So ... is that the coil it's ending at?

A new data point: tonight just for kicks she disconnected Roadrunner's wire, and the Jeep started and ran fine.

So if that is indeed the coil the wire goes to, could the coil be going bad, maybe overheating?

tech

I think it could be the auto shut down relay going bad it sends power to the coil and injectors .

wristwister

Thanks Tech, that sounds possible. Do relays sometimes go out intermittently like this?

tech

Yes relays have points inside and they get burned and will not make contact .