- Location
- Middle Tennessee
The mother-in-laws stock 1998 XJ died at church Wednesday night. I checked a few things but couldn't get it going. The XJ wouldn't do anything when you turned the key. The dash lights and radio came on but the motor wouldn't crank or even turn over.
The battery had recently been checked and the battery terminals were nice and clean. I knew these weren't the problem. So, what could it be.....?
Of course we got home and I jumped on
and found several people that experienced the same problem. All indicated a bad starter and maybe the NSS.
I then PM'd UNCC 99XJ and asked for his number. Being late he said he would call the next evening. He called me just before I left work and we ran through the issues. He said the starter was more than likely the culprit and had this happen to his brothers Jeep before - the same exact symptoms.
My mother-in-law called and said they checked the starter with a voltmeter and sure enough, something wasn't right. It just so happens that High2by had a spare starter in my shop so while I was enroute to meet them at the church, they got the starter.
I met them at the church and we installed the new starter. After reconnecting the battery cables, we gave it a crank. Vrooom, she started right up. Drove it home.
Now if we didn't have
, we'd have paid a towing company a minimum of $65 to tow it to a shop where they would have charged us labor to repair it. Shop rates can run between $45 and $75/hour easy and I'm sure it would have cost us at least an hour. Then there are parts.
I guess what I'm saying is we saved a bunch of money and fixed it ourselves thanks to the info on
and by friends helping that were met on the same club forum.
That is money well spent in my book.
Thanks again Tim!
The battery had recently been checked and the battery terminals were nice and clean. I knew these weren't the problem. So, what could it be.....?
Of course we got home and I jumped on

I then PM'd UNCC 99XJ and asked for his number. Being late he said he would call the next evening. He called me just before I left work and we ran through the issues. He said the starter was more than likely the culprit and had this happen to his brothers Jeep before - the same exact symptoms.
My mother-in-law called and said they checked the starter with a voltmeter and sure enough, something wasn't right. It just so happens that High2by had a spare starter in my shop so while I was enroute to meet them at the church, they got the starter.
I met them at the church and we installed the new starter. After reconnecting the battery cables, we gave it a crank. Vrooom, she started right up. Drove it home.
Now if we didn't have

I guess what I'm saying is we saved a bunch of money and fixed it ourselves thanks to the info on

That is money well spent in my book.
Thanks again Tim!