2004 V8 Grand cherokee stalls, starter delay.

A loose or dirty battery cable end can cause stuff like that. Sometimes you can try it and after it does that go 'carefully' feel all the battery cable ends, especially the ground ends. If you find a warm or hot one you have found a bad connection.

Mike

Man I want some of what you are smokin' today.. ;-)

Or Say What? Or Huh?

Mike

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

Nope, haven't owned many automatics. Makes sense now.

Party time eh!

Mike

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

Last thought. Wife drove that car that night. Maybe her light or heavy touch to PARK is atypical. It could be some slop in the gear shift mechanism switch. It's working fine now.

Is there a recall or service bulletin on the detent? On some ZJ series there was a recall to install a far heavier detent on the park, almost obnoxiously detented.

steve proclaimed:

You are still describing a bad connection on the main power. Running bad is like when you run the battery dead and the engine runs like crap before it up and dies.

The arcs that happen at the bad connection can weld a contact that will work for a little while sometimes. That is likely what happens when you shut it down and used the high amp starter again.

It might stay stable for a bit, but if it happens again I would clean the battery terminals. It could up and let you down anytime. Well, when the exact same thing happens to mine, I don't wait to get stuck someplace, I go after the connections anyway.

Mike

Well it just happened again. The battery terminals are very tight. I suppose I will clean them, they don't even look dirty, but we'll see. I told the wife to do what I did, turn on the key, move gearshift to neutral then park and try again. That has always worked so far. I bet it's a detent switch os similar. I need to search for recalls, and will clean terminals anyway. Steve

The battery cables have two ends, don't forget.

You 'should' be seeing or be able to feel heat at the bad connection. This is after trying it and finally making it work more so but worth checking. The arcing can make enough heat sometimes to burn hands if it is a high amp contact. I would try it and then feel all the ends of the battery cables. The ground is a sneaky one. If they are all cool, then I would be cleaning the body ground connection.

After that, then I would be thinking the key switch. Same deal with heat though. If it is a high amp contact it will make the switch hot to touch unless.

Mike

steve wrote:

If you have a FSM, check the starter relay to see if it is being energized. If not, you'll be looking backward thru the start contacts in the ignition switch which pass +12 to the relay and thru the transmission interlock switch for the ground.

You can take a relay apart and make an emergency start contact with it, but your wiring may not be the same as mine, so check a FSM.

If the dealer tells you the ignition switch "never goes bad" ignore him. It really isn't hard to change, but you'll pay a lot for labor if you don't have the Torx wrenches noted in the FSM and the mechanical skills.

I just took the covers off mine and bought a cheap voltmeter to check the switch and stuff when mine got a hair and refused to start.

I did have one red herring, gently smacking the starter solenoid did make it start...however the real culprit was burnt contacts in the ignition switch.

Mike Romain proclaimed:

The alternator requires a battery to be present to generate. No battery, no power.

steve wrote:

The shifter interlock might explain the no-crank symptom but it doesn't have anything to do with the rough running and stalling.

Dirty battery terminals can look normal from the outside but still have high resistance where it matters.

steve wrote:

His gauges pin out too. The 'really' implies a loss of body ground so the system is stealing the ground through the instruments. This will burn out things pretty fast too. It will/can smoke out a stereo if the ground feeds through there.

Mike

Well, I took it to the dealer since it's under warranty. They said it was a bad cell in the battery and replaced it under the warranty. ---We'll see. Stay tuned. Steve