Battery woes

So I go to the store this morning, come back out, lights on the dash turn on, but the battery doesn't crank and just clicks once. My XJ is a 97.

I go home, get the battery out of my wife's Cherokee (99), go back and it cranks right over. I take my battery in to get tested, it tests full power, so I'm like wtf?

Get back home, throw my battery, the one that didn't start at the grocery store into my wife's Cherokee and it starts right up.

So...not sure what's up. Any suggestions? Could it be that my starter is crapping out on me?

Oddly enough...I just went and put my battery back in my Cherokee and it started up.

I'm really dumbfounded now.

best chance is:

poor connection between the cable and the battery. Changing the battery allowed for a better connection and putting the old one back in gave you another opportunity to get a good connection.

Take everything apart again and clean everything from the battery to the starter and from the battery to the ground with a wire brush. Once everything is spotless, put it back together and have the battery, alternator, and starter checked.

There was probably corrosion on the battery terminals or connectors.

I've "jump started" a few "dead" vehicles by losening up the terminals, wiggling them around and reseating them.

Actually ... I was having a starting/voltage issue on my XJ that was caused by corrosion http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/excessive-positive-battery-post-corrosion-1302188/

If it's a auto trans, it could be the NSS acting up.

rstarch345 said:

If it's a auto trans, it could be the NSS acting up.

Click to expand...

Clicking indicates that the starter solenoid was getting power, but not enough for it to 1) stay engaged and 2) spin the starter over.

Crummy wiring at the battery or your starter solenoid is on its way out.

looks like I'll be making some battery cables tomorrow...

Was headed home after doing security at the All American Rejects concert at my in-law's venue and my Jeep wouldn't start. Fiddled with the battery in some hail type rain (just drizzling) until my fingers went numb. Went and borrowed my in-law's truck to head home and relieve my sister of babysitting my baby girl.

Once my wife got home from the concert after cleaning up, I took her battery down hoping it would work. It was doing the same thing. I tried cleaning up the battery cable the best I could (didn't think to bring my cable brush) and still didn't work. Finally put my original battery in with one last hopes of it cranking over and it did. The bleotch was alive!

So...tomorrow I'll be going to pick up some cable/terminals etc etc to make all new cabling. I figure the crap that's in there is original from 97 so now is the time to upgrade/fix the POS cabling.

Ugh...

How did you have the battery tested? My local parts house has two methods. 1) They use a little hand held machine that gives an instant indication of the batteries health, and 2) a more indepth load tester that cycles the battery and checks that it also is accpeting a charge and who knows what else.

I've had about a 50% failure rate of their 1st method correctly identifying bad batteries. I've actually have had them test it with device 1 which show a good battery, then tell them to put it on their other machine because I'm certain the battery is bad and sure enough it failed the test.

I always get them tested on the 2nd machine now.

Just something to think about.

They used the second method, twice. The print out of the cranking amps and what not read fine.

I'm leaning more towards the grounding points now. When I tried cleaning the negative cable last night in the cold, dark, wet night, the cable ends were a little gunked up. Being factory cables, it's time for a replacement. Hopefully that's the only issue.