Intermittent No Start / Intermittent Electrical cutout (while driving)

[dothatshht]

Good morning all,

I come in hopes that you all can assist me with my 04. I'm new to KJ world. I bought one over the winter for mainly a get around vehicle.


I am having TWO major intermittent issues that keep happening and are getting worse with everyday. And I do not have a single code present at the moment.


Issue #1: The last week or so I've had an intermittent no start. Has power, starter cranks, it just doesn't fire. I would just cycle the key once or twice and then it would start and run with no problem. However, this morning it took me a good 10 minutes to get it to start. Now I am more afraid of getting stuck somewhere since it took so long this morning.


Issue #2: An intermittent, what I want to call an electrical cutout, or "reset" while driving which is more concerning. The entire car shuts off, dash lights up, and then turns right back on (on its own) within a 2 seconds. But at the same time, it resets my radio back to default settings and 12:00 clock.

I am starting to notice that it happens more often in certain situations.
---A) Low speed, when hitting a bump evenly with the front two wheels. IE a road plate from construction, speed bump, etc.
---B) Low speed turning, such as down a side street.
---C) Lifting off of the accelerator abruptly such as taking an embankment off of a highway exit.

Does it always happen during these times, no. Are these the only times it happens, no. But I am at the point where I am paying more attention to the car as I am doing these above so I am noticing the habit.

My limited mechanical knowledge lead me to believe this could be a faulty ground somewhere in the engine bay. It being a 2004, I am going to start changing out the main power and ground wires as a starting point.

I was just hoping someone had something similar and can help point me in the right direction to get it rectified, before I start throwing money at misc things trying to trouble shoot.

 

[Billwill]

First check the main grounds.

The battery Terminals must be clean and tight.

The Negative Battery Lead going to chassis must be clean and tight.

The two Engine Grounding Straps at the rear of the heads must be clean and tight at the heads and at the Chassis where they are attached.

There are plenty other Grounds all over the place that you can tighten up as you locate them. Unfortunately the 2004 KJ Wiring Diagrams are pretty impossible to get hold off which would give you all the ground locations.....all other years of KJs we have the Manuals except 2004!

You may have a loose Fuse either under the Hood or inside the Cabin!

 

[dothatshht]

...

Thank you for the info Bill.

 

[LibertyTC]

This could also be a fuel pump or ignition switch related problem. Actuator pin assembly.
Try it with only the single key inserted (no additional wight on key ring) see if that helps.
Check related fuses, Swap relays around.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[Billwill]

Yeah could be a bad Ignition Switch or Actuator pin Assembly, Ignition Tumblers.

First swap over the ASD Relay with an identical one nearby...a bad ASD Relay will prevent starting and will kill the engine while going over bumps.

I had an issue on my 2002 Export CRD where the ASD Relay had a loose wire going to the ASD relay which stopped the Jeep from starting.

I was able to remove the Relay and firmly jumper pins 30 and 87 together inside the empty socket. I could then start and run the Jeep until I had time to trace the bad wiring.

This may work for you depending on where your problem lies. Worth a try.

This does not "hot wire" the Jeep as the Coded Key still needs to be in the Ignition Slot!

 

[dothatshht]

UPDATE:

I swapped the relays as posted above. It started on 1st attempt this morning. It's obviously too soon to tell if that's fixed or not, but one can hope.



I am also hoping to have solved the random shut off. This morning it died on the way to work. This time completely and did not come back on like it usually did. I thought this was it, call the junk yard. I opened the hood and remembered Bill's post about the two ground cables coming off of the heads them selves. The previous owner for WHATEVER reason did not have a nut on the firewall side, letting it just loosely sit there.

I had noticed it when I bought the car but obviously it never being an issue until recently I hadn't addressed it. Also being a Honda guy, we used to put these grounds from the chassis to the heads, just as an extra ground. Completely unaware this was a MAIN ground for the Liberty, until this morning.

Anyways, thinking of that post, I wiggled it and it started to spark on the stud. So I took one of the nuts off the coolant reservoir tank and put it there. Power restored. I even purposely tried to hit some bumps to see if it would randomly shut off again, but so far so good.

I still intend to re-do all the grounds anyway since they have 17+ years of New York/New Jersey corrosion on them.


Will keep posted if anything changes.

 

[Billwill]

Thanks for that jpg....neatly shows exactly how that grounding works!

I have never physically seen the engine bay of the 3.7 Gasser...just drawings in the Service Manuals.

My Grounds on my May 2002 Export CRD are still fine but here in my hot dry climate I do not get snow, sleet, salt etc. to corrode them!

Pretty sure your Jeep is fixed now but don't want to Jinx it!