KJ will not start ! Please help
 

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help....My (wifes) 2005 KJ 2.8 CRD made a horrid noise apparently as she turned into our street, she continued on to our house and drove up the driveway. Turned the car off and it hasn't really ran since. I was in hospital at the time recovering from a motorcycle accident, when I got home a few days later I tried to start it. It turned over ok but would not fire/run. I had it towed to a mechanic mate. He changed crank and cam sensors (bosch). Checked all fuses, relays etc. Even switched the ECU and still could not get it to start and run. He said there appeared to be good fuel pressure but injector pulse was weak and or was coming and going.....He did spray something into the airbox, maybe aerostart or something ? and it ran for a while apparently. In the end he gave up and sent it to the Jeep dealer. They have had it 4 weeks now and still cant get it to run. They now want to replace both sensors with genuine ones and want to order a fuel pump from the US (6 weeks waiting to get here) they also say that these things may not fix it. My original mechanic is sceptical about the fuel pump, he does not think that is the issue. He is leaning more to computer. The dealer for the most part has been incredibly unhelpful as expected.
Has anybody else had similar issues with this or another similar model ? Do you have any suggestions ?
Any info would be very welcome.
Thank you
Mike

Jump on Facebook and join ‘Jeep liberty crd’ group.

They’ll be able to guide you- without a mechanic and dealer making you throw money at irrelevant areas first.

Bad noise to me does not sound like those sensors. I’d be inclined to think it’s valvetrain related.
When was the timing belt last changed (and water pump, tensioner, idler pulleys)
How many kms has the car done?

Thanks Simon. I will look at the facebook page and see if I can get some help there also.
Yes, timing belt, jumping a cog/tooth etc was suspected right away although has been discounted. The car has done 180,000 never missed a service and I dont think new belt is due until 200k ? All tensioner and idler pulleys bearings etc have been replaced some time ago when we tried to figure out what the god awful noise was at idle. After replacing nearly everything to solve that and still not fixing it, the last thing we did was change the over-run pulley on the alternator. That was it.
Cheers

Mick, you may have already got this sorted by now, but if not, can you describe the noise?
And where are you located?
Do you have access to a code reader? or can the dealer provide you the codes?
It sounds like both mechanic and dealer just started throwing parts at it without much diagnosing first.
If your jeep is a 2005 and is only at 180k, you should have had 3 timing belt changes by now (100k or 5 years in australian conditions) Definitely not a timing belt issue?
If it starts and runs using aerostart and constant squirting, it could be fuel pressure related. It won't start unless it reaches the right amount of pressure, but once started it should continue to run, just not well.
If you have access to a scanner we can get a lot more info to be able to help you.

You need to get codes read out...your Dealer should be able to do that.

The 2005 CRD is the only CRD that has a FCM....Front Control Module. This is a box about the size of a pack of cigeretes floating in the engine bay.
It has only one connector on it which can get all muddied up due to its exposure to the elements..worth cleaning the male and female contacts.

This FCM Module supposedly passes all of the various Busses
PCI, CAN etc. around the whole vehicle.

The Overseas Jeep Forums report that these FCMs are impossible to get hold of from any Breaker yards...if you can find one grab it...the FCM needs no programming....maybe you can borrow one from another 2005 CRD!

The Service Manuals state that the FCM merely passes the various Busses around and has no drivers inside it but I have seen a picture of an opened FCM and it is chock full of transistors and all types of chips!

The fact that the 2005 CRD was the one and only KJ to have this device says a lot!

Location may help.

Would be great to know the outcome.