| Author | Message | ||
     Hootowl |
Neighbor's jeep won't start. Starter does not engage. Battery is good. Fuse is good. Relay is good. The relay doesn't click when you turn the key. All I can think of is the park/neutral starter interlock is preventing the relay from getting triggered. I've jiggled the gear selector a bit. No change. Thoughts? | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Checked all the fuses? OK, if everything seems good, disconnect the battery, go and have a cuppa or a smoke or indulge in your personal vice of choice for a while. Then reconnect the battery, give it a few minutes to reboot then try. Another thing to check is the fuel pump cut off, it's not unknown for them to pop out and need resetting, usually found under one of the seats or in the trunk. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
Check the flux capacitor | ||
| Hootowl |
The flux capacitor is...fluxing...so it's probably OK .  | ||
| Redponcho |
Check to see if the keyless entry and alarm work. That computer also controls the starter lockout. Have seen that before | ||
| Hootowl |
She ended up taking it to a shop. They had it all day yesterday, and they don't know what's wrong with it. I spent about 30 minutes in her driveway with a meter and a flashlight, and was pretty irritated that I couldn't figure it out. Now I don't feel like such a dolt. | ||
| Sifo |
You should verify that the flux capacitor is within specs. FSM calls for 1.19 to 1.23 gigawatts measured on the positive terminal. | ||
| Ourdee |
Crank position sensor. | ||
| Crusty |
Hey, man; didja check the air in the tires? | ||
| Ponti1 |
Dumb question, but checked pos and neg battery wires at both ends for a tight fit? Had the same recently...Don't ask how much cussing was involved before I found a loose wire nut. | ||
| 86129squids |
"Hey, man; didja check the air in the tires?" Wasn't that a Richard and Tommy movie quote? | ||
| Crusty |
No. It was from Big Bambu by Cheech and Chong | ||
| Reepicheep |
When the crank position sensor in the Saab burned up, it would turn over fine, but never spark / fire. You could actually diagnose it from in the drivers seat by watching the tach... if it's a good CPS, the cranking will register on the tachometer. If it's a bad CPS, the tach stays stone cold zero while cranking. | ||
| Hootowl |
Battery is good. All the electrical stuff works, except the starter relay is not being energized. It's a tiny little relay that powers the solenoid, which is effectively a big ass relay. Big loads draw lots of current, which can drop significant voltage across a poor battery terminal connection. The little starter relay is not such a load. The relay box has power, since I can hear and feel other relays there working. I've swapped the relay with a known good. No change. I checked the tire pressure. All good. I wasn't able to measure the flux capacitor. My cheap little meter does not have a gigawatts range. However, I put my tongue on it, and I could hear Huey Lewis, so I'm pretty sure it's working. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Maybe the points need sharpening?  Stolen from a REALLY OLD cartoon in Popular Hot Rodding I saw when I was a kid- it showed this grizzled mechanic sweating under the hood of a car with a well-dressed lady standing behind him holding her purse and asking the above question. | ||
| Etennuly |
I have seen loose starters do this. They loose their ground contact through the bolts. The solenoid could be dead. I have one of them dead units on one of my vehicles right now even. Neutral/park safety switch, or possibly even a brake light switch. Is it a manual transmission? Clutch switch or gear select switch. Then there is the ever popular ignition switch itself. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Hoot is pretty funny for a guy that doesn't use enough spaces after his period. | ||
| Hootowl |
I think its the park/neutral switch too, but I have no idea where that is. Could be in the console, could be in the transmission. It's an auto. | ||
| Reepicheep |
In the Saab it was buried in the shift console. There was a nice set of instructions kicking around that showed exactly what to jumper at the fuse box to make it irrelevant. | ||
| Ourdee |
I only mentioned the cps because the 02 jeep would not let me turn the engine over when mine went bad. | ||
| Kwkride |
This happened on my wife's Jeep Liberty. I would bet that it is the ignition switch actuator pin that it broken. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5m31g0-3wI | ||
| Hootowl |
Good tip, thanks! | ||
| Kwkride |
No problem, I hope that does it for you. | ||
| 86129squids |
"No. It was from Big Bambu by Cheech and Chong." Yeah, Richard and Tommy...  We listened to all their tapes as kids, saw most of the movies.  | ||
| Reepicheep |
Interesting Ourdee. I wonder how it could even tell that the CPS wasn't working if it wasn't turning the crank over? | ||
| Thumper74 |
If the CPS wasn't working, it would crank, but not start/run. Got power to the starter? You should have 12v there first, then see if you have power to the solenoid with the key in the crank position? | ||
| Hootowl |
Power to starter, yes. Power to the solenoid, no. As I said, the starter relay is not energizing, so the solenoid will never get energized. Something is preventing the signal from the ignition switch from turning on the starter relay. Feels like a safety interlock gone bad, but it could also be a bad switch, as Jim noted. I no longer have access to the vehicle (dealer still has it...they still don't know what's wrong with it) so I can't check any thing else. | ||
| Sparky |
Had my 2005 Vette do a no-start situation twice in which every thing that was supposed to happen when I pressed the start button would happen except there was no click from the starter solenoid and no cranking. The first time it happened, it eventually started after about a half hour of waiting while checking fuses and pulling and reinserting relays responsible for "Crank". Don't really know what the cause was. The second time it happened, nothing I tried worked and had to tow the car home. This time besides pulling fuses, relays and battery cables, I unplugged one of the car's 5 computers and reinstalled it whereupon the car finally started. So, the problem had to be related to likely a high resistance wire connection at the computer's connectors. A malfunctioning computer controlling your car's starting sequence could be your problem. | ||
| Kwkride |
It's too bad that the dealer has it. I would bet money on the ignition switch actuator pin being the problem. It is somewhat common on the Libertys. When it goes bad everything checks fine except that the starter won't engage. It's an easy, inexpensive fix too. You do need "security" torx bits for part of the dis-assembly though. http://www.amazon.com/Dorman-924-704-Ignition-Actu ator-Chrysler/dp/B004BYX8W8 | ||
| Hootowl |
Yup. Where were you two days ago? |
