Problem Starting After Sitting For a Few Days

Jay MacLeay

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 30, 2017
Messages
208
Location
Los Angeles, CA, United States
The weirdest thing just started to plague my Jeep. After the Jeep sits for a day or more without running it has problems when I go to start it. I usually leave the key in the acc position and let the pump prime. After I have finished hearing it I go to start the Jeep, but I get nothing but clicking, one time after sitting for over 3 days I went to start and I got nothing, like a dead battery. Now here is where things get weird... When this happens I will take the key out and put it back in and try to start it and it will fire right up. Anyone have any idea what the problem could be?
 
First thing to always remember is KISS, keep it simple stupid. I almost want to say it’s the battery along with dirty terminals, I would load test the battery after a few days to see if it’s weak but don’t run it before testing, doesn’t matter how old it is it could be bad. I would clean the terminals, clean the other end of the ground cable, and make sure the positive cable is tight on the starter after removing the ground cable off of the battery.
 
If it starts right up if you just remove and reinsert the key it is probably in the switch. Do you have a big heavy key ring? Seem to recall something similar on Dodge cars a bunch of years ago. The heavy key ring was the problem.🙄 obviously not a design issue.🤔
 
Thnx for all the suggestions and info. I didn't even consider that it could be the ignition switch. Something I will look into when I finally dig in to figuring it out and fixing it. While I do have a few other things on my Keychain other than just the Jeep key, I don't think I would consider it to be heavy, but maybe it is heavy enough to cause the switch to begin to fail.
 
If it starts right up if you just remove and reinsert the key it is probably in the switch. Do you have a big heavy key ring? Seem to recall something similar on Dodge cars a bunch of years ago. The heavy key ring was the problem.🙄 obviously not a design issue.🤔

I have actually heard this before myself - the weight of a bunch of keys having a detrimental effect on the switch. Once I heard this say 30 years ago, I started carrying a single ignition/door key and the rest are on a separate ring.

Your issue, to me, sounds like something switch related.....