Battery died, now check engine light?

MattXJ7 · May 22, 2008

well being the genious that i am, i left my headlights on all today...came to my car after school, and the battery was dead.

i had a friend jump my car, and the check engine light is now on...

everything seems fine, but the only weird thing was when we were jumping it, it wouldnt idle. it would just shut off if i didnt keep my foot on the gas... i had to keep the engine revved up for a good 6 min before letting it idle

im not sure if thats normal, the last car i had to jump didnt have that problem

but anyway..anyone know what the check engine light might be?

thanks,

-Matt

SanDiegoXJ · May 22, 2008

What year is it? if it's obd I or obd II you can get codes to see what it is.

MattXJ7 · May 22, 2008

its a 1998

SanDiegoXJ · May 22, 2008

I think that's an obd II. You can go to autozone and borrow a code reader from them.

Or check this page out. It shows you the key trick for both models and the corresponding codes.

http://jeephorizons.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2719

Mudderoy · May 22, 2008

MattXJ7 said:
well being the genious that i am, i left my headlights on all today...came to my car after school, and the battery was dead.

i had a friend jump my car, and the check engine light is now on...

everything seems fine, but the only weird thing was when we were jumping it, it wouldnt idle. it would just shut off if i didnt keep my foot on the gas... i had to keep the engine revved up for a good 6 min before letting it idle

im not sure if thats normal, the last car i had to jump didnt have that problem

but anyway..anyone know what the check engine light might be?

thanks,

-Matt

Strange. If I leave my lights on they turn off after about 2 minutes. I have a 1998.

I've heard you are not supposed to jump start vehicles with computers because you can damage the computer. I've jump started mine before but I guess I've been lucky. I bet the auto light shut off is an option you could add to your 98.

4LowandGo · May 22, 2008

I would guess that your alternator is bad, but that's only a guess. Mine starts to run like crap if I use the winch too much and the battery drains faster than the alternator can recharge it. I'd run by autozone and pull the code, but also get them to check your alternator and your battery too. It's free and it takes less than ten minutes.

AaronJXJ · May 22, 2008

this happen to me last week
i needed a new battery
alot of people told me the same would happen if my alternator was shot
i havent figured out why my engine light is on yet either
do your four wheel/for wheel low indication lights work?
cause mine wont come on now either

birchlakeXJ · May 22, 2008

As it sounds like this happened IMMEDIATELY after a battery drain, I think there is a high likelihood that the check engine light and the driveability symptoms are both related to low available battery voltage due to being totally drained.

If I were you, I'd put the battery on a charger for a nice long recharge (or drive it a considerable distance), then disconnect your battery for a few minutes to clear the codes, reconnect, drive normally as your computer re-learns your driving habits and see if that doesn't take care of both of your problems.

The 4.0 doesn't like it when available battery voltage is low and that can create symptoms such as you describe.

IslanderOffRoad · May 22, 2008

To me it sounds like your alternator isn't giving much output at idle.

Yucca-Man · May 23, 2008

birchlakeXJ said:
As it sounds like this happened IMMEDIATELY after a battery drain, I think there is a high likelihood that the check engine light and the driveability symptoms are both related to low available battery voltage due to being totally drained.

If I were you, I'd put the battery on a charger for a nice long recharge (or drive it a considerable distance), then disconnect your battery for a few minutes to clear the codes, reconnect, drive normally as your computer re-learns your driving habits and see if that doesn't take care of both of your problems.

The 4.0 doesn't like it when available battery voltage is low and that can create symptoms such as you describe.

Ding-ding...best reply in this thread. If the battery is totally flat, it's not always going to idle very well after the initial charge that restarts it. Keeping it revved adds that additional bit o'juice to it.

The Cherokee has a feature in the light circuit that will leave the lights on after the engine is shut off, and will give you light for about 45-60 seconds before they shut off. I have never heard of a stock Cherokee with an auto-off headlight that shuts off as described by an earlier post.

Jim www.yuccaman.com

Battery died, now check engine light?

MattXJ7

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SanDiegoXJ

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MattXJ7

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SanDiegoXJ

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Mudderoy

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4LowandGo

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AaronJXJ

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birchlakeXJ

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IslanderOffRoad

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Yucca-Man

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