Hi George - We actually live in the Northeast (Cold in the winter and warm in the summer). I’m hoping the mechanic did the charging system/battery test you suggested before replacing the battery, but like you (and my son) said, no harm done replacing a 3 year old battery. I’ll be sure to keep this thread alive if the issue pops up again. Thanks for your input.
Without observing the problem, the first step is a battery test. Many batteries will fail the performance test, this is up to the test equipment, not the technician.
A weak battery does not fit the problem you experienced; you should have noticed a slow engine cranking speed.
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When you say 3rd turn of the key and 2nd turn of the key.
What happens on the first turn?
- absolutely nothing
- a few clicks
- cranks but doesn’t start
I had a fails to crank problem on my Corolla some years ago, the symptoms improved w/a new battery, but the problem returned w/in 6 months. Replacing the starter motor is what did the job.
If OP decides to replace the starter motor at some point, if the current one is the oem version that came w/the Jeep, suggest to try to find an auto-electric shop that will rebuild it for you. Likely to get better result that way than buying a cheapo new or rebuilt unit from an auto-parts store. If the only option is a store-bought unit, either buy it from the dealership (expensive, bring you wallet!), or from the auto parts store, an oem rebuilt branded version. For my Corolla , that meant I purchased a rebuilt Denso
Hi Nevada_545 - You, like me, was skeptical it was an issue with the battery. $200 later, I’m happy to report it was not the battery and $31 later it was not the Starter relay. This past weekend, the car wouldn’t start even after “resting” so it was towed to the Jeep dealer. It didn’t start for the jeep dealer either. He diagnosed the problem as the starter, so as you suggested, I found one of the last OEM re-manufactured starters in the country (according the Jeep parts guy) and gave them the OK to replace it - which they did ($233 for the part + $350 labor). I guess they got the car to start after the starter was replaced but they also got the car NOT to start. So in addition to replacing the starter, they removed and replaced the “ignition switch plug cylinder”($54.69 for the part + $150 labor). I’mmmmm verrrryyyy suspicious that it wasn’t the “ignition switch plug cylinder” to begin with and I was just taken for a ride by also replacing my starter. At the end of the day what matters is the car starts every time now and my son won’t get stuck somewhere in Brooklyn late at night. My wife continues to question my sanity for sinking money in to a 15 year old car (160K miles) but she doesn’t understand it works for Brooklyn…
Hopefully, this will be my last and final update on this issue. I’ll be opening up another discussion topic on my A/C that doesn’t blow cold air.
Thanks again to everyone for their advice.
Neither do I .
Glad to hear you now have a reliable start. It’s possible the faulty starter damaged the ignition switch. If the starter’s “pull-in” coil was partially shorted out, that would cause more current than the ignition switch is designed for. I had a similar problem on my Corolla some years ago, faulty starter motor resulted in a partially damaged ignition switch. Rather than replace the ignition switch I installed a new relay in that circuit. That way the ignition switch only has to power the relay coil, not the starter coil. In any event I’m guessing you are now good to go.
I tried replacing the starter relay too, as per your experience, not the problem … lol …
Thanks for making the connection between a faulty starter and a damaged ignition switch. I wish the service advisor explained it that way. In any event, I had another perfect day of starts. Until the next part wears out…
Happy holidays.
George has the only car with two starter relays.
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I have a 2005 Liberty renegade 3.7L 6cyl and had to take it to BigBrand during a holiday when my mechanic was closed. They thought it was my old sparkplugs, replaced all 6, but did the same no crank the next day. We brainstormed and it was also my neutral safety ignition switch.
Seems like a common problem after a few years with the 2002-2007 Libertys.
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Glad you only had to invest in a set of plugs before solving the problem. I think it cost me at least a starter. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I had a similar problem with a 2007 Jeep Liberty. I never put 2 and 2 together but another thing I noticed besides not starting after driving for a while was that I kept getting low on coolant and couldn’t figure out why since I couldn’t find a leak. Long story short, I replaced my water pump when it completely failed and both problems were solved. I was only losing coolant while driving and something was obviously getting too hot due to the fluid loss which led to the starting issues after the vehicle heated up.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.