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My Jeep won’t even begin to turn over, behind the instrument panel there’s a clicking and all of the gauges go haywire when I go to turn the key. Replaced the starter 5 months ago, battery is 2 years old and I just had it tested all good. I’m pretty mechanical and have checked the grounds for the engine and to the starter but can’t for the life of me diagnose this… Any ideas??
The instruments going haywire and not starting is a sign of low voltage. You can get low voltage from either a bad battery (yes, its new, but they do go bad on occasion - have it checked before the warranty runs out). With electrical gremlins, battery is ALWAYS the first place you check. Nice clean connections! The other cause of low voltage is a bad ground. The instruments (and most of the stuff behind the dash) hook to a ground wire that is actually under the center console, near the parking brake. I did a complete dashboard removal and forgot to tighten that nut …. worked for a while and then one day it went nuts. (AC, overhead console, gauges - but the motor would start).
