Car intermediately starts

Kaylasiemon

Kaylasiemon

Member
Okay. So for some reason, my Jeep keeps struggling to start every morning and I would have to jump it. I park inside. I replaced the battery two months ago and its been fine ever since. Then a few days ago, I started doing it again. I went ahead and decided to replace the alternator today and drove it around for 40 minutes to charge. Two hours later and it still wouldn’t start. I jump it and it starts up.

I took it to the auto parts store and had them test it. The battery read 100% charge. Two minutes later, it struggled to start with lights flashing but eventually did.

Any ideas what it could be?


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have them test starting amps, most auto part stores only test for charging but they need to do a crank test as well.

my battery did that awhile back, it charged fine, had good voltage but no starting power at times even on a full charge.

The CCA portion of the battery was faulty
 
Start from the battery and work your way through the system.
What is the voltage when you try to start it?
Check the battery cables.
Can you hear the starter engaging the flywheel/flexplate?
Have you checked the starter?

Sometimes new parts can go bad.
With my previous jk would have occasional issues starting because one of the connections to the starter was broken. I had replaced it 8 months prior because the original starter would not disengage from the flywheel after it started the engine. Because it was new I did not think it could be the issue.
 
You're not giving enough information. "Sometimes it starts sometimes it doesn't but will start when jumping" isnt quite good enough for an internet diagnosis, we're not there to play with it to listen to it etc, gotta be more descriptive. What is it doing specifically? does it crank slow? Does it sputter? Does it cough? Does it run for a second and die? are there codes? Any noises? If you turn the key does it do anything at all? do the interior lights dim when key turned to start but it doesnt crank? Does it crank and not sputter? Do you hear the fuel pump kick on and prime? Does it only happen when cold? Was the battery load tested or just voltage checked?
From what you've mentioned the only suggestions we can give you is its either a shit battery, you have a parasitic draw, you have bad connections at the battery or at the ground, bad connections at the starter, or a bad starter. If its temperature related I would look for loose or dirty connections first.
 
Kaylasiemon said:
Okay. So for some reason, my Jeep keeps struggling to start every morning and I would have to jump it. I park inside. I replaced the battery two months ago and its been fine ever since. Then a few days ago, I started doing it again. I went ahead and decided to replace the alternator today and drove it around for 40 minutes to charge. Two hours later and it still wouldn’t start. I jump it and it starts up.

I took it to the auto parts store and had them test it. The battery read 100% charge. Two minutes later, it struggled to start with lights flashing but eventually did.

Any ideas what it could be?


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Do you have a aftermarket headunit, subs, amps, lights or something that is plugged in drainig the battery? Have you checked all the ground points on the Jeep?
 
I’d check and recheck all your battery and alternator connections. If it reliably starts when you jump it, either the battery is bad, or the connection to the battery.

My brothers Jeep would intermittently crank once and completely go dead. No dash lights or anything. He chased the problem for weeks until we found out it was a bad negative post clamp. Cleaned it and tightened it up, haven’t had a problem since.


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Hello, I just had this. It was a bad ground. I cleaned and tightened battery posts, then the three ground wires, one near firewall, one on chassis on passenger side, one up closer to power steering pump. Did not test intermittently; one of those was the culprit.

These more exotic things with the starter or alternator are less likely; this ground / dirty wire issue is incredibly common.

If you scrub all these then look further.

Auto parts store extremely unlikely to test a battery without testing cranking amps.

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Sorry for the delay. Jeep is still having issues. I’ll try the grounds. The Jeep just now started throwing a P0562 code.

When I say it starts sometimes, what I mean is if I haven’t started it for the day, it will not start. All dash lights are on. The cabin light if a little dim but all dash lights are lit normally. When I go to start it, it will click and everything will turn off. I let go of the key and all lights turn on like they had before.

I used a jumper wire in the Starter Relay fuse and it does initiate (it doesn’t start) so I don’t think it’s the starter.

After I get it to start, drive for a while, it will start back up like normal even after an hour or so of being off.

Any idea what I need to do next?




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I also checked the voltage of the battery & alternator when off.

Battery - 10.80
Alt - 10.23


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To clarify, when you said you jumped the starter and it cranked, was this during a time that the key would NOT start it?

And your battery should measure over 12 volts and running should measure 14ish volts.


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It was at a time that it wouldn’t start. About the battery voltage, that’s what I assumed. I have taken it to the store I bought the battery from and they’ll test it and say everything is fine. The battery have a 5 year warranty but they won’t replace it if it reads good.

Im completely lost for what to try next. I did order an ignition switch to rule out more possibilities. Not sure I that could be the cause.


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To also clarify, using the jumper wire on the starter didn’t actually start the car. But I could hear the starter at least crank.


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i would go to the last thing that changed and it sounds like the battery...

I'd ask them to replace the batter just for shits and giggles.
 
You’ve officially fallen down the Jeep electrics hole on this one because it cranked when you jumped it but not when you turned the key. This doesn’t mean ignition switch so don’t start changing things without narrowing down first, you don’t want more variables, and an ignition switch is not what is causing the battery to have 10volts.

First off, battery. Jk’s do weird shit with low voltage to its computer. I’d start with a brand new battery. Go ahead and call out the company that keeps telling you it’s fine so we know what battery we’re talking about, if it’s a chain auto store go to a different location, talk it over (nicely) with store management. They can force a “failed” test if they need to, they just don’t bc that’s a no no.

Second, alternator. Get her started and measure voltage across battery while running and report back. If it’s under or over charging you’ll be able to see it clearly. If it’s not charging at all you may have an issue with the “excite” wire that tells the alternator to charge.

Third, connections. Tight, clean, follow the black wire and make sure that’s clean and tight as well, might need to scrape it a bit and reattach.

Fourth and god forbid, tipm.


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Deff check the ground wire on the battery as well as the grounds on the firewall and engine block. Just had a 2019 terrain at work the other day with low voltage codes and intermittent no start condition. The battery ground cable was loose and the engine block ground by the alternator was all corroded. Tightened and cleaned the connections and all is well now.
 
As others have said, check the battery terminals. The setup on the 3.8 is dumb... Best way is to take a socket one size larger than the battery post and tap the connector down so it will get tight. Do this after cleaning the posts and connectors of course.



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