96 cherokee won't start PLEASE HELP!

I have a cherokee that has never given me any problems...at all, ever. The car started fine drove down the street and died like it had run out of gas. Immediately the voltage guage read about 10 volts. the car would not start or jump start. took the batterty out that night and at oreilly the battery was good, just slightly discharged. was towed to a shop. they had it 2 days and felt there was no power getting to the fuel pump. Had it towed today to the nearest jeep dealer they said my crank position sensor wasn't working, but the car wouldn't start. then they said my neutral safety switch was also bad. switched it out and it starts. all in all they want almost $500 to fix the car. i can't believe both those parts went bad at exactly the same time. Is this possible? Please explain how the neutral safety switch would affect this problem? could it still be a bad battery? please remember this car has never had any problems starting...in park. have never had to try neutral. i found this website, thankfully you guys really know your jeeps. please advise, julie

Julie,
You say the Jeep would not start. Is that ,would not turn over/wouldn't run. (crank over just would not start) As far as your crank sensor going, that would cause your vehicle to completely die, it sends an electrical signal to your ignition system. The neutral saftey is used ONLY during your starting up . Its job is to protect you from starting you vehicle while its in gear. I am assuming that you jeep is an automatic. It(saftey switch) also switches your reverse lights on when your engage "R".

the car has never had problems starting in park. now it turns over fine won't start or jump start. the car is a 96 jeep cherokee sport 4x4, automatic 6 cyclinder 4.0 engine. if the sensor went bad would the battery voltage immediately say i only had 10 volts? you can post here don't have to email me but you can if you want. thanks julie

JUlie,
Thanks for the info, Now let see, Your batery voltage may be a little low, depending on how much youtried to restart. Not your problem, just get your battery charged. If your engine will crank,just won't start, than your safety switch is working fine. I would have to go with your crank sensor, that little componant sends an electrical pulse to your ignition system to tell it when to fire your plugs, and send fuel to your injectors. To make sure your fuel pump is working, with your door open, turn the key to "ON" , for about 3 sec. you should hear faintly you fuel pump, actually to check to see if your fuel pump is still working, after you turn your key "ON", than turn it off after a few seconds, go under the hood, locate your injector tube, follow the tube towards the firewall, there should be a fittilng resembling a bike tube knipple. Take the cap off (unscrew) and press the valve down with you key, you should get fuel spraying out.

Julie,
Jump starting your Jeep only assists in turning the engine over and providing power to run the electronics enough till the alternator takes over. If its turning over than the problem is else were. Check your fuel, see if your fuel pump is working. An engine needs 3 things to run, FUEL,AIR, SPARK. Let me know how the fuel thing turns out, we'l go from there.

I was just googling around to find a similar answer! My 96 Cherokee died today on the hwy at 65mph, same problem. Felt like I was running out of gas... It hesitated a couple of times and died. I had it towed to a friends house where we tried everything. Checked all fuses, checked timing, compression, fuel (raw fuel smell coming from the tailpipe also we took all spark wires off and smelled a substantial amount of fuel in the engine area (not flooded though) also pressure in the injector tube, sparks are all sparking, distributor was not burnt, power to injectors, battery is good, we even got a response from the diagnostic computer, (although it reported 348 errors, we think due to that fact it won't start) We can't figiure it out, we concluded that there must be something electrical going on, we have all the elements... spark fuel air... and I am thinking about towing to a garage, although it would be nice to fix it myself... If you hear anything please let me know, I will do the same, it sounds like we are in the same boat... p.s. the engine turns and turns, but will not run, we did get a very small sputter out of it, but that is all...

I was just googling around to find a similar answer! My 96 Cherokee died today on the hwy at 65mph, same problem. Felt like I was running out of gas... It hesitated a couple of times and died. I had it towed to a friends house where we tried everything. Checked all fuses, checked timing, compression, fuel (raw fuel smell coming from the tailpipe also we took all spark wires off and smelled a substantial amount of fuel in the engine area (not flooded though) also pressure in the injector tube, sparks are all sparking, distributor was not burnt, power to injectors, battery is good, we even got a response from the diagnostic computer, (although it reported 348 errors, we think due to that fact it won't start) We can't figiure it out, we concluded that there must be something electrical going on, we have all the elements... spark fuel air... and I am thinking about towing to a garage, although it would be nice to fix it myself... If you hear anything please let me know, I will do the same, it sounds like we are in the same boat... p.s. the engine turns and turns, but will not run, we did get a very small sputter out of it, but that is all...
HI, WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GOT A CODE OF 348 ERRORS IF YOU HAVE A GAS SMELL AT TAIL PIPE YOU MAY HAVE A PLUGED CONVERTER LOOSEN AND DROP CONVERTER OFF SEE IF IT STARTS. DO YOU HAVE SPARK AT BOTH PLUGS AND OUT OF COIL TO DISTRIBUTOR? [email protected] DALE :smokin:

We hooked it up to the OBD scanner we have, and it had 348 errors to report... This was right after an attempt to start. We cleared the errors, and ran it again, and it was clear... We were thinking the errors were because the engine didn't start so it saw alot of failures... As far as the spark, we have spark after the coil, coming off the dist, and at the plug... Haven't tried the converter yet, i have been getting an error relating to "Slow response from the 02 sensor" so maybe I have toasted my converter, I hope not... I would think that if the converter was plugging up I would see a gradual death. This car stopped dead in it's tracks, after running just fine, the whole shutdown took about 20 sec...

Try checking the wire to the o2 sensor by the cat. It may be dragging on the drive shaft. If it is, it probably has worn through the wires casing and is grounding out on the drive shaft. If that is the case then you also will have a blown fuse. Replace the fuse and tape up the hole in the wire and see if that helps.

98 Sport 4x4 acted like it was out of gas, stalled and died. Will turn over in neutral, but won't start. No Codes Stored. Weird signals going to relay. Runs sometimes, and doesn't others. (I had an engine installed before these problems, could it be the installation? Maybe a pinched wire?)

Hey Jross14, Welcome to AF. You'll get a better response to your problem if you start a new thread...this one was 4 years old. Questions to answer in your new thread:

Did the problem start suddenly, right after the engine install, or gradually? How many miiles? Manual or auto transmission? Ever had any problems starting, or if auto, any weird shifting issues?

My first reaction, without those answers, is to think it's either the Neutral Safety Switch (NSS) or the Crankshaft Position Sensor (CPS), but both of those are mounted on the transmission.

Please start a new thread and we'll go from there.

Thanks.

I have a cherokee that has never given me any problems...at all, ever. The car started fine drove down the street and died like it had run out of gas. Immediately the voltage guage read about 10 volts. the car would not start or jump start. took the batterty out that night and at oreilly the battery was good, just slightly discharged. was towed to a shop. they had it 2 days and felt there was no power getting to the fuel pump. Had it towed today to the nearest jeep dealer they said my crank position sensor wasn't working, but the car wouldn't start. then they said my neutral safety switch was also bad. switched it out and it starts. all in all they want almost $500 to fix the car. i can't believe both those parts went bad at exactly the same time. Is this possible? Please explain how the neutral safety switch would affect this problem? could it still be a bad battery? please remember this car has never had any problems starting...in park. have never had to try neutral. i found this website, thankfully you guys really know your jeeps. please advise, julie


Julie,

I have a 1990 Jeep Cherokee, 4x4, 4.0L . I don't know how much difference there is in the engine and electricals on the older models, but mine is doing the exact same thing. I had the crank sensor replaced, no good, also deactivated the nuetral safety switch. My fuel pump wouldn't come on, had no spark, and sometimes even the engine wouldn't turn over. A buddy that works for a shop came out and replaced two relays on the truck, and it started right up. No clue if this will help, but I thought I'd throw that info out there...

Had the same problem with my 96 cherokee turned ot to be a faulty fuel pump relay. got the error codes and started with the fuel problem. was well worth the 36 bucks from advanced auto.

I have a cherokee that has never given me any problems...at all, ever. The car started fine drove down the street and died like it had run out of gas. Immediately the voltage guage read about 10 volts. the car would not start or jump start. took the batterty out that night and at oreilly the battery was good, just slightly discharged. was towed to a shop. they had it 2 days and felt there was no power getting to the fuel pump. Had it towed today to the nearest jeep dealer they said my crank position sensor wasn't working, but the car wouldn't start. then they said my neutral safety switch was also bad. switched it out and it starts. all in all they want almost $500 to fix the car. i can't believe both those parts went bad at exactly the same time. Is this possible? Please explain how the neutral safety switch would affect this problem? could it still be a bad battery? please remember this car has never had any problems starting...in park. have never had to try neutral. i found this website, thankfully you guys really know your jeeps. please advise, julie




hey did you ever figure out your problem mine just started doin the same?