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1998 XJ died, no blown fuses that I can see...

XJ98Jeep

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Atlanta
I managed to overtighten the battery tie down bolts, and I snapped the tray. I took the battery and the tray out, ordered a new OEM tray, then went on vacation for a week. It's been two weeks since I took the battery out, and now my Jeep isn't working. I hooked the battery up (correctly too, I double checked.) I put the key in the ignition, and it dinged at me because the door was open like it always does, so I started it up, and the engine didn't even turn over. It made a sort of clicking noise, then all of the electronics shut down. Now nothing works, no matter what I do. I've been charging the battery for about 2 hours now, and still no change. I checked the entire fuse/relay box in the engine compartment, none are blown.

The only odd thing I noticed before I killed it was that the remote unlock wasn't working, but that's it. What's wrong with my Heep?
 
Sounds like a dead battery.
 
It's been charging since 2 o'clock at 2 amps, so I'm not too sure. I'll let it charge until 10 and then see what happens.
 
Yep, it's been charging for a good 24 hours in total now, and there isn't even any arcing when i put the negative terminal back on the battery like there used to be. I mean, there has to be SOME charge after a collective 24 hours of charging at 2 amps? How else could I find the problem? Would an OBD scan help?
 
Sounds good, I'll check that tomorrow. Actually, can I just do that with a volt-meter? Or do I need an industrial strength one? While I'm waiting for tomorrow/finding my voltmeter, is there anything else that could cause this?
Edit: I just remembered, while putting my battery back in I heard splashing inside of the battery. I used to have a battery checker, but it broke, so I have no idea if it's good or bad. Can I just eyeball it?
 
Well, it works! The downside is, the winch was the problem. What I can't figure out is, if the winch wires were short circuiting the winch, wouldn't that blow a fuse? It's grounded to the battery terminal post, so I would think if it short circuited there would be alot of amps thrown around. Everything works perfectly if I put the key in and turn it so the electronics and such turn on, but once I try to turn the engine on, everything dies until I disconnect the battery and reconnect it. I disconnected the negative terminal of the winch, and now it works perfectly. I need the winch, so "disconnect it" isn't an option.
 
Ugh, that won't be fun. I ran the wires while I had the front bumper and grill off, so they're a good ways in there. I'm not sure what you mean by taking the winch off line, but I'm assuming you mean when i disconnect it, the Jeep starts, which is correct. I have the negative terminal of the winch disconnected from the battery, and it's working perfectly.
 
if you have repaired the battery cables, make sure that they are tight in the new battery terminals. this happened to me in my 98 and thats all it was. best thing to do is to run some solder in there so it wont come loose again.
 
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