2002 Jeep Laredo Car Won't Start - Is It My Battery Or?

JCWARRIOR

MEMBER
2002 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE LAREDO
6 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
16,200 MILES

The battery in my Jeep is about 2-3 years old. I've been having strange, intermittent, starting issues for a few month's.

I first noticed it after having the heater core replaced. They had to removed the center console and when I got it back I had an episode where the car would not do anything. Inside lights were out and it was as if thw battery had been disconnected.

After getting in and out a couple of times checking things, shifting it from Park to Drive, etc. All of a sudden the lights came on and it started right up. I told my mechanich about it and they adjusted the shifter thinking the Park sensor was out of adjusment.

Everything was fine for a couple months and it happened again just the other day only it lasted about 10 seconds. Enough to where I had to reset my clock.

I planned to check the battery terminals for corrosion but before I could, I got startnded in a parking lot yesterday.

Everything was fine, drove for about 45 minutes, went into a store, came out and went to start it and same thing. This time the inside lights started coming back on only dimmly. They would start dim, quickly go bright, then dim. The dash indicator lights were also fluctuating. Car never started but it did end up with doing the fast clicking, low battery voltage sound.

The wife picked me up and we went to Autozone and they checked the battery. It read "Good - Low Charge". So I wnet back, put it in, jumped and drove home.

I then cleaned the terminals and put them back on and put a charger on it over night.

Went out this morning to go to work, un-hooked the chatger, got in and lights were dim, clicking sound again. Weak clicking.

So hear I am.

One thing, the possitive terminal connector iis not as tight as it should be. I was going to see about that today. I tightened it as much as it would but it was still loose. By turning it I was able to "Wedge" it tight.

Could this be the source of my problem even though it's wedged tight?

Why didn't battery charge over night?

2 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,752 POSTS

Are you familiar with using a voltmeter or test light? With them, you can follow the wires to the problem or at least narrow it down by taking readings in various places.

To start with, look at the smaller black negative wire where it bolts to the body, and follow the smaller red positive wire to where it bolts to the under-hood fuse box. Either of those will cause these symptoms if they're loose.

If they are clean and tight, holler back. I'l try to find some easy-to-access places to take voltage measurements, but you'll have to be ready to do that while the problem is occuring.

Caradiodoc