Yesterday drove my 96 xj . When I pulled up somewhere . After being parked for a second and tried to crank it . Nothing . Absolutely no response . Called a buddy he jumped me . Took forever . Finally started 10 minutes later same thing . So I was just going to drive the b*tch home . He jumped it I get moving . Halfway down this road . Dead on the spot . Power steering goes out all light . So I get it pushed in neutral into a parking spot . Finally after almost jumping it I decide to have the battery tested . While I'm moving the cable . Headlight come on. Turns out my positive cable wasn't ground on there correctly . So future reference ALWAYS check your cables .

 

Tht happened to me one hour after purchasing my XJ. I was REALLY pissed until I figured out what it was

 

I know I felt completely incompetent . But this is a future reference for anyone . Hopefully it's helpful !

 

Sometimes, even the basic maintenance or routine diagnostics are overlooked when something happens. Glad it was an easy fix. Are the battery terminals clean?

I would have used this as an excuse to upgrade my battery cables and ends but my wife wouldn't have agreed with me.

 

I recently discovered when it was redone it has a rubber end to the cable . Broke that over tightening . New cable !

 

Dont feel bad I had a positive cable that you could see the wire all the way down the cable and was told it would be ok not to worry about it by a mechanic and a few months later I started having a battery drain issue and then the battery wouldnt even charge. So thanks to that a$$ hole I ended up butying a new battery and cables when I could just replaced the cables and been fine for at least another year on the old battery.