08/18/2021
Leaking oil pan gasket caused the starter to fail. As you can see it's pretty dirty. I circled the starter in red, pointed to the clip in yellow, the nut on the positive wire from the battery bolted to the starter in purple, and pointed in blue to the oil pan fl**ge where it bolts to the bottom of the engine( and thats where the gasket is at, all around the top perimeter of the pan, between the oil pan fl**ge and the engine. The bolts go through the gasket) in the pics for those who don't know car parts.... this is on a 2004 jeep grand cherokee that is 2WD with the 4.0L engine. It's a very simple process on the 99-04 jeep grand cherokee with the 4.0l engine, so since I didn't video tape the process I decided to do my first write up of what to do if your car doesn't start!
99-04 jeep grand cherokee 2WD 4.0L No Start Condition
(I'm not sure how different it would be for the 4WD)
Since it's a jeep I'll add, depending on your ride's height, you may not need to jack the vehicle up, but most people will esp any stock vehicle.
Theres more than one way to do virtually everything, so if you don't have a digital multimeter, or you don't know the proper specifications to test the battery and/or starter you can always skip to Step 3 and remove the starter to take to any auto store and have tested for free(I advise against doing this or advise that you really pay attention to them while they test, solely because not all employees at auto stores know what they are doing. I've had an employee hook up an alternator to test it and their testing machine said error low voltage as in their machine was having an error, I 100% know for a fact their machine was not working properly and rather than admit that, or trying to fix their machine, he told me my alternator was bad. I knew my alternator was bad, but I knew they hadn't tested it to know it was bad, I went to a different auto store with an employee that was able to test it although they had issues finding pieces to their machine and took forever, all for me to confirm what I already knew) Google is your friend and you can Google any cars specifications and with the battery voltage it's the same with any car that if you don't have 12v at least it is not charged and it won't start.
Step 1: Using a digital multimeter test the voltage at the battery with the key set to the OFF position, and then with the key to the ON position to make sure you're getting enough voltage at the battery, and after turning the key in the ignition to make sure the ignition is good. If the battery doesn't have enough voltage have it recharged and tested, if the voltage drops after turning the key on check all fuses and relays, and check ignition wires and connectors, if the battery does have enough voltage go to step 2.
Step 2: With the key still turned to ON, test the voltage at the starter with the positive lead on the red wire bolted to the starter that comes from the battery(purple arrow in picture), and the negative lead on the negative battery terminal. Make sure you have slightly over 12v there as well to make sure enough voltage is getting to the starter. This will also be your indicator of if there's an issue in the circuit before the starter; wiring, fuses, relays, ignition, and battery. If you have good voltage do a drop voltage test if you want( I didn't do a drop test because I knew it was an issue in the starter), or go to step 3 to replace the starter, if you do enough voltage check fuses, relays, wires,ignition, or battery for your problem.
Step 3: Make sure key is turned to off, and disconnect the battery(at least the negative terminal if you don't want to disconnect both, and make sure that it is wrapped or pushed off to the side enough that it can't touch the battery post again)
Step 4: jack the front end of the vehicle up and support it with jack stands. Put a chock behind the real wheels, or apply the parking break.
Step 5: From underneath the vehicle( you can start this from above if you prefer before you jack the vehicle up after disconnecting the battery) unhook the clip(yellow arrow in picture) and remove the nut(I believe 9/16 or 14mm(purple arrow in picture)) on the positive wire from the battery from the starter. Remove the wires and try to push them off to the side or tie them out of the way.
Step 6: Remove the 2 bolts mounting the starter to the transmission they are two different sizes, one that you can see that goes in through the starter mounting hole on the starter side is a 9/16 or 14mm and I used 15mm on the one that goes in from the transmission side but I think it's actually 5/8. The starter will come out after you remove these two bolts. I take this opportunity to also look at and inspect the visible part of the flywheel at this time too, just in case.
Step 7: Put new starter in and tighten the bolts to 30ft lbs.
Step 8: Unscrew the nut from the stud where the positive battery wire goes(purple arrow in picture). Reconnect the clip(yellow arrow in picture), and put the positive battery wire back on the stud(purple arrow in picture) and tighten the nut to 100 INCH lbs.
Step 9: Reconnect battery terminals and try to start the car! If it starts go to step 10, if it doesn't either the starter wasn't bad, or you forgot to connect something correctly, so check your work.
Step 10: Remove jack stands and lower vehicle. Give yourself a reward for your success.
