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Electrical problem

1K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  bige0012 
#1 ·
I have an 03 GC Laredo, almost 80k miles. Recently, it's been acting quite screwy. Over the course of the last few months, while driving, there would be a clicking sound, the radio would turn off, the gauges would spike and the ABS and brake light would come on. It was very sporatic, but it happened a few times. Oh yeah, it did this quite a bit last year and I got a new battery, which fixed the problem. Anyway, July 7th the Jeep was totally dead. I could jump it, but it didn't want to stay running. I got it to idle and was able to limp it along to get fixed. All my best judgement led me to believe the alternator was going out. So, I went to the autoparts store and got a new one. The guy at the store was some sort of moron, becuase he couldn't bench check my alternator. I took the new one, left the old one and went on my way. We switched out the alternator and things seemed be fine until the following Monday. The gauges started spiking and going all over the place again. I took my Jeep to the same place that I got the alternator, so they could check it. Everything checked fine, the battery was rock solid and the alternator was pumping out 13.5 volts.

Just to curb my curiousity, I asked if they still had my old alternator. They did and the guy that helped me bench checked it, he was clearly smarter than the first guy. Anyway, it checked out perfectly, it was pumping out 15 volts using their machine. He actually told me it doesn't get any better than that. He gave me back the old alternator and I put it back into my Jeep. Why spend $200 if you don't have to.

Last Thursday, my Jeep was dead again. The dome lights were on, very dimly and when I go in to try to start it, the gauges were spiking before I put the key in the ignition. I assume the lights being on caused this. I was out of town this weekend, so didn't try to do anything with it until yesterday. So, on Monday, the interior lights still work, but very dimly, the gauges were going crazy when the lights were on.

I put a battery charger on the battery, after charging for a few hours, it started right up and ran normally. It ran fine this morning also. It seems like if the Jeep sits for more than about 18 hours, it doesn't have enough juice left to start.

I cleaned the battery cables and terminals, there was a bit of moisture on the positive cable and terminal. The Jeep hadn't been driven for 5 days and it was plenty warm, so I don't think it was water.

Sorry about the long post, but does anybody have any ideas? The battery (bought 6/2006) has been tested by 2 separate places and they say it is good. The alternator has been both benched checked and after it was reinstalled and it checks out good.

Thanks!
 
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#3 ·
bige0012 said:
I cleaned the battery cables and terminals, there was a bit of moisture on the positive cable and terminal. The Jeep hadn't been driven for 5 days and it was plenty warm, so I don't think it was water.
I've had similar issues and the only thing that cured it was a proper connection between the battery and the cables. For mine, anything other than VERY tight would result in the problems recurring some short time later. I went as far as replacing the bolts in the battery cables to larger diameter so I could really crank the connection down.
 
#5 ·
No repair work was done prior to the problem originating. It did it again yesterday. So, instead of going back to the office I went to my local repair shop. He ran the codes and he's very confindent that there is a short in the instrument cluster. Apparently, when that happens, all sorts of goofy stuff can happen. He is ordering me a new cluster and will put it in next week.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Thanks for your help.
 
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