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XJ Stalling / Not Starting

ngrubich

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Charlotte, NC
I just got my 2000 XJ (4.0L) back from the shop and lo and behold there is another issue with it. It was in the shop for a coolant flush, inspection, engine knock diagnosis, squealing aftermarket brake pad ... you know, the usual.

It was finished last week and I picked it up on Saturday. The engine knock (which I was told was piston slap by two other shops; they said it was a lifter sticking) was noticeable quieter -- turns out they said the engine was low on oil [even though I just changed it less than a month before / check it every other week] so they changed the oil and put Engine Restore in as well. While I know many people have had good results with it on JF, I'm still calling it snake oil and was pretty pissed it was added without my knowledge.
I drive the jeep over 2 hours on the highway back for work. Runs fine on Monday. Yesterday evening is when I noticed it was struggling to turn over (low whee whee sound for a couple seconds); but when it did, it ran just fine. No low battery reading. The gauge read just past the line before the 14V mark. This morning, I get the machine gun effect.
I hooked up battery cables to a friend's V6 mustang and waited about 2 minutes. It turned over without hesitation. I let it run for 5-10 minutes and grabbed my multimeter. It read 13.90V. Take off the cables and wait another 5-10 minutes and read the battery again: 13.83V. It sounded fine [aside from the quieter engine knock] so I cut it off and waited a minute. Tried restarting the XJ and barely got it to turn over -- same whewue wheuw sound as last night. It sounded very bad. Super low idling (2-300 RPM) and rough lug lug lug lug sound. Battery gauge was reading the same as before. Gave it some gas, sounded a little better. Let off the gas and it almost stalled. I gave it some more gas (~1500 RPM) then let off the gas and it stalled on me.

Any ideas? My first thought this morning was a dead battery. Then I thought it was an alternator issue, but who knows with this thing. Honestly, it's been so ridiculous with repairs in the past x number of years that I'm one major repair away from pushing this thing off a cliff.

Thanks in advance.
 
I cleaned the terminals, even though they weren't bad.

I checked the voltage of the battery and it's now reading ~9.2V. I cant remember what the voltage is supposed to be hovering around though.
 
12.65V is a fully charged battery-- 13.8V-14.4V from a working alternator

Ah, that's right. I knew the average operating voltage, but couldn't remember if the idle battery charge was 10 or 12V.

I knew I was going to be needing a new battery soon anyways, but I'm just hoping that this will get rid of my issue and it isn't related to any power drain issue.

Just some further confirmation the battery is dead (or that I have a power drain somewhere): just checked the voltage and it is reading 8.9V.
 
Update:

I took the battery out while trying to reach for something else and figured I might as well test it. I charged it and let it sit overnight. Next morning the battery was reading 8.80V. I replaced the battery and the XJ fired up without hesitation.

However, I'm all-to-aware of the "if the battery dies like that, then your alternator may soon follow" saying. I was out running errands just now and figured I would at least see if the alternator may be acting up. The battery gauge was reading just above the mark right before the 14V midpoint on the gauge. I was at a red light and turned my A/C up to 3 (was on 2) and turned on my headlights. I sat there and just watched the gauge slowly go down and didn't go back up after a bit. I gave it some gas and the gauge went back to the previous mark very, very slowly.

Am I working with a dying-out alternator as well at this point? The belt is tight. It was tightened just a couple weeks ago during my state inspection. Terminal ends are clean.
 
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