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No spark after deer hit? Help!

G

gmars

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Polk County, Wisconsin (northwestern), USA
I only hunt the buggers with the Buggy! Deer jumped into pass. side front, only doing about 40 mph.
97 4.0 5-spd. Stock-o-rific.
Ran for about a block, and noticed the headlight was aimed straight down from impact. Light popped off, and engine quit short time later. No restart. Checked fuel press, OK.
No spark.
All fuses seem OK.
Any guess before I become the Jeep Electrical Parts Stimulus Program?
My guess is Ignition Control Module?
Computer?

Or could it be the soul of the Buck, living in my XJ, ala Christine?

Thanks in advance!
 
How did you verify "no fuel" and "no spark"? Gotta make sure that you're not chasing your tail on this.

Did you notice a check engine light during this event? If so, pull codes.

A couple of things to verify for starters if you indeed have a no spark condition are the crankshaft position sensor and the ignition coil. They can both be tested with a meter and a manual. SEARCH for more information on that.
 
do you have electricity at all? I would start by checking wiring on that side for a loose/broke/burned wire. Did the battery shift?
 
Just because you have fuel at the rail doesn't mean that fuel is getting to the injectors. As mentioned, a "noid" light can be helpful here.

Test your way to a solution. How handy are you with a multimeter? You need to start the "process of elimination" and testing is the only efficient way to get r done. Check all electrical connections while you're at it.
 
How long has it been since this happened?

As mentioned check for a loose/broke/burned wire, or also check for something being grounded.. If your battery was giving you [some] electricity after the event and over time it gets less and less.. good sign there is a short to ground.

The fact that it ran for a bit also could be alternator. If it ran OK for a short while then went down you could have damaged the alternator and are not getting any power (ran for a bit off of the stored battery charge). I had that problem and it had enough juice to run everything in the vehicle but not enough to turn it over/start the vehicle.
 
reach in and unplug the CPS (assuming it didn't come unplugged already) and re plug it in. You may have knocked the connection loose or it may have failed due to the accident, but often you can unplug/re plug it and reduce the resistance in the plug enough to get one or two more starts from it. It would stop you from having spark and the injectors won't fire fithout a signal from it either.
 
gmars said:
No spark at plugs.
"Check Engine" light always seems to be on, was on prior.
Deer revenge is possible! Maybe he works for NAPA?
Click to expand...

Turn on your ignition and wait a few (5ish) seconds. The check engine light will come on as usual with the ignition first turned on (this is its "self check"..you've probably noticed most of your lights on the dash do this). If the light goes away after 5 or so seconds with the ignition still on, there are no codes to be read. If the light remains lit, there are codes that have been thrown. If this is the case, pull the codes with a scanner as it will probably give you a very good indication on what might be wrong (i.e. sometimes the CPS will throw a code when it goes out!)
 
96 was the change to OBDII, correct? Does OBDII still have some way to flash out the codes like OBDI did? God thats a convenient feature. I love having my Jeep tell me my codes w/o making me buy a reader :D

Edit: Was the change to OBDII in 96 or 98? I cant remember anymore. If it's 98 (which would mean that your 97 is OBDI) then you don't need the code reader, just follow this: http://www.orlandojeepclub.com/wiki/index.php?title=XJ_Engine_Error_Codes (I hate linking away from NAXJA when I should give credit here, but I took the quick and easy way to find a link and searched google, heh)
 
Last edited:
themangeraaad said:
96 was the change to OBDII, correct? Does OBDII still have some way to flash out the codes like OBDI did? God thats a convenient feature. I love having my Jeep tell me my codes w/o making me buy a reader :D

Edit: Was the change to OBDII in 96 or 98? I cant remember anymore. If it's 98 (which would mean that your 97 is OBDI) then you don't need the code reader, just follow this: http://www.orlandojeepclub.com/wiki/index.php?title=XJ_Engine_Error_Codes (I hate linking away from NAXJA when I should give credit here, but I took the quick and easy way to find a link and searched google, heh)
Click to expand...


1996 was the change to OBDII. Rumor has it that you can still flash codes on a 96 and possibly early 97 models, but I don't think it's really been verified.
 
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