Was sitting in a 4 lane road today at a stoplight, when the motor just died. I tried to restart it, and it will simply click once and not crank. It was tough to put it into neutral so we could push it to the side of the road. I had to wiggle the key and shift lever a bit to finally get it to go in to neutral. Additionally, there was a burning smell coming from the engine bay.

The dealer now has it, says they were not able to get it to start and will look at it again on Monday. Perhaps they're waiting for it to fix itself?!

An oddity I noticed earlier today:

Earlier in the day, I went to unlock the doors with the remote and the horn honked once - it's never done that.

 

Sorry to hear that -- maybe a battery issue? I had a TJ with an aftermarket alarm and it started acting up when the battery was on its way out. Just a thought.

 

Was there a red light flashing in the fuel guage area?

 

Yep, sounds like a dead battery. The electronics act real weird when the battery is on its way out and with the new cars and they won't try to crank like old cars, they either crank or they don't. Reason is the starter is not actually linked to the key anymore. When you turn the key it sends a signal to the computer to crank the starter. Then it completes the circuit with the computer. So if the battery's voltage is too low for the computer to work right it won't even try to crank.

See if someone can drive you and your battery to a place like Pep Boys because they'll diagnose your battery for free. If it's bad, replace it and go from there. Good luck!

 

Not sure what any information shared on here will do to help with the dealership fixing the vehicle? Don't really recommend trying to tell the tech how to fix your vehicle.

 

My JK is exactly 2 years old. Went out to start and click click, no go. Jump started.
Bought new barttery even though old battery read 12.65. When installing noted that
battery cables not tight. The bolt facing up on the cable connector on both posts were
loose. This was probably the reason why I had click, click. But......piece of mind,
knowing I have new battery. Will check connections monthly.

 

ok so my horn has started beeping when i unlock the doors. does this mean my battery is onits way out? thats the onlyfunny electronics stuff im noticing so far

 

I don't recall a red light flashing on the dash.

It died when sitting at a stoplight - probably not the battery.

And no, I don't plan on telling the dealer how to fix it, but I do prefer to be informed about what the heck is going on.

 

before it died out, did u notice anything strange with anything power related? such as headlights dimming if it was night or dash lights dimming or blinking? how long had u driven it when u left you last location? im wondering if possibly your alternator went out.
if the alternator went out, then what happens is while you were driving, you were running strictly off of battery power. whenthe battery power ran out it shut down. the battery should not have shut down while running unless it wasnt getting its charge from the alternator.

 

X2, if your alternator was working as long as the Jeep was running the Jeep would have stayed running, maybe the burning smell you noticed was the alternator? The battery more than likely is fine, unless it was over discharged by the lack of charge from the alternator.