2bsmart

2002 Cherokee has issues restarting engine. It must sit for 3 hours before it can be restarted. So cannot drive it to run errands. Dealership replaced TCM and PCM and still cannot find the source of the problem. They are baffled and now state harness has backflowing voltage (??) and want to replace harness for over $2k, claiming a short. To me it sounds some unit on the truck has to wait for the voltage to "bleed" its way to ground/zero voltage, a part is remaining charged after the vehicle is turned off, so the e-system "thinks" the engine is still running. (Like the days of jammed starter solenoids you could whack with tool to get it unstuck) After the charge is bled down, the e-system senses it is OK to start the engine. Anyone have exp something like this b4 and if so, have a clue how to remedy this before sinking more $$ into this? Thx

RRAM

the fact you have it down to 3 hrs is baffling. Pretty much makes it a useless vehicle. If you want to try something, which is pretty easy to do take off the battery term and really clean them well. Maybe you been there already or your saying I'm on crack but I had trouble with our 04 and took the advice of cleaning them good, I mean scrape them so the term are kinda shiny. It fixed ours. But again there was no 3hr thing going on. I honestly feel for you. if a bearing goes or ball joint wears out, its easy to find and fix. When you get some demon in your wires makes you want to push it off a cliff.

robertj

Miles?

Mattpar

are they gonna reimburse you the money they spend throwing a TCM and PCM cause they didn't diagnose the problem correctly in the first place?!?

what happens if you start then engine, turn it off, then take both of the battery cables off of the battery and touch them together. I hear this is suppose to discharge any charge. Or is it taking off the positive battery cable and touching it to the negative post,... i dont remember,...

TRIPDAGOAT

I am new to jeeps but have worked on many cars. I have had a very very similar problem with an older GM car. the fix is cheap for most vehicles and very very easy. please let me know if this works.

Take off the distributor cap taking care to label the ingnition wires (you'll need to put them back in the exact same order they came off)

once the cap is off you should be looking at the ingintion rotor cap. this peice is held on with a single screw in the top center. again pay attention to the position this button is in. once this is off, you should be looking at the distributor base with the shaft coming up through the center. on the base there should be a black chunk of plastic in a "c" shape with wires coming out of each end. this device is called you ignition module. they are solid state devices that tend to wear out in older vehicles. what happens is when they get old, and get hot from the engine running, the components inside no longer make a good connection. this should be held in with two screws. replace this piece with a new one from your parts store and try it out.

If this isn't the problem, its much cheaper than the alternative, and isn't a bad thing to replace anyway. let me know how it turns out. my email address is tripdagoat@gmail.com.


Glenn

2bsmart

Thanks everyone for your input but the intermittant issue was too unpredictable, it was time for it to RIP. Traded it in for a used sedan. For now, no longer have to worry about this Jeep. Have moved on and again, thank you all for your generous replies. Thx

TheGrinch

Bummer. Would have liked to have heard what finally worked.

Stewhatch

Is it possible that underhood temps may have caused an air bubble to form somewhere in the fule line, or is the fuel pump pressure enough to eliminate that as a possibility? I remember my old VW Beetle used to suffer badly from this in the summer heat, mind you that was an air-cooled motor w/ a 5 psi mechanical pump. Ah, those were the days when a car broke down and you just hit it with a different size hammer. Now we have laptops plugged in and diagnostics. The days of points and condensers was a challenge!