RN M OVR

First, a few months ago my horn died.

Then, a month or so ago my cruise control decided to stop working.

Windshield wipers and my lights do still work.

Just now, after my Jeep had driven fine all day, after leaving it in the driveway for a couple hours it decides to not start. No crank. No dash lights. It was completely dead.

I gave the Jeep a few minutes and the same thing happened. It was dead. Gave it another few minutes and it turned on as if nothing was ever wrong with it. But now, even though my key is out of the ignition and the Jeep is off, the "ding ding ding" does not stop until I close the door.

Now, the battery is a year or so old; granted, the Arizona sun is brutal and my Jeep unfortunately remains outside. Is a new battery my solution to keeping my Jeep starting without an issue? Or, given what's already died on my steering wheel (horn and cruise) am I looking at something with my ignition switch now?

Also, my '08 auto JK has about 86k miles on it. Is it nearing that time for new spark plugs and spark plug wiring?

Thanks!

RN M OVR

I just got home, having to walk home with my pup from the dog park. On our way there, the Jeep started up fine and everything worked; the only exception was my clock had to be reset and my radio stations had to be reset. No big deal. An hour at the dog park, go to get in the Jeep, and when I turn the key to the "on" position, the Jeep totally dies. Now it's just sitting there.

I'm going to pick up a fresh battery, hoping that's the solution. But if anyone wishes to chime in with even a theory of what may be happening, please do.

RockinRubiAnn

Take your battery into Autozone or Advanced Auto. They can check to see if the battery is still good or needs to be replaced. If the battery is bad then there you go. If it is good then it sounds like you may have a short somewhere in your electrical harness. I had a similar problem a year ago with my 4runner and it turned out a mouse had gotten into the engine, made a nest, and was chewing on the wires. Fortunately, it did not start an electrical fire, but it did make the radio stop working and drained the battery every couple days. I doubt it is your alternator but that is another possibility. Typically with the alternator though the battery goes dead while you are driving it down the road- causing you to lose lights, etc. if you have made any electrical modifications like a cb radio, light bars, spod, etc then I would look there as well (check out the wires and in-line fuses).

And yes the 4runner was sitting in the driveway for a couple months without being driven. It's owner found something a lot more fun to drive around!

Mountain Man Tim

the fact that you have things quit working that stay not working, and intermittent starting issues, screams short due to wires being chewed/worn through, as the other guy said, rodents are horrible for this, they love to use wireing as nest material, little bastards.

RN M OVR

Thanks for the replies. I'll update in a few hours if the battery is the culprit. I sure hope it's not a rodent problem. We do have packrats all over the Valley; everyone hates them and I would hate to have to call a tow.

RN M OVR

It was the battery, which was a relief. I had bought my old battery back in July '13. It was a Duralast Gold. Thankfully, Autozone refunded me the entire amount of my new Duralast Gold considering it was under a 3 year warranty. We'll see if this battery can last longer or if the Arizona sun will drain this one within a year also.

RockinRubiAnn

Glad it was just the battery!

Mountain Man Tim

good to hear ya got it fixed. sometimes batteries just go bad unfortunately, but without making them cost way more theres no way around it other then good warrenties.