Commander not starting

[The_War_Wagon]

This is one of those inexplicable things on Jeep's part - of all the guages you COULD put in a dash, HOW could you leave off the amp meter and oil pressure guage?!?!

Granted, bean counters probably DON'T think of bogging or crawling a Commander; neither do soccer moms or mall commandos add a rack of KC's to the roof. STILL... it seems the factory would make some sort of aftermarket guage pod - to snap on the top of the steering column - so WE could add them ourselves.

I mean, I didn't bog or crawl my Mercury Grand Marquis - but the Big M has carried BOTH guages for the last TWENTY YEARS!!! What's Jeep's excuse?

[07JeepXK]

I found this out the hard way, but on our Commanders, you cant just go to a local auto parts store and have the battery or alternator tested like a normal vehicle. I cant remember the exact reason why this is but I promise you the test will give you false readings. About a year and a half ago I left the house to go to work and the XK started no problem. Drove about a mile down the road and stopped at the corner store for a pack of smokes. When I got back in the XK it wouldnt start. Had my friend come and jump it off of his truck and it started right up. I took it to the local parts store and had a test done on the alternator and battery. Batter tested fine and alternator tested bad. Swapped out the alternator later that day with a new alternator from the dealer and the Jeep wouldnt start. I was furious. I called the dealer and told them they gave me a bad alternator. They had me bring in the old and new alternators and ran a test on both of them. Both tested Good at the dealer. Of course the dealer refused to take back the new alternator because they have a no return policy on electrical parts. So I reinstalled the old alternator and purchased a new battery from the dealer as my battery was 3 years old. The Jeep started right up and I havent had a problem since that day and over 30,000 miles later! I went back to the local autoparts store that told me I had a bad alternator and explained that it ended up being the battery and that I was out well over $200 on an alternator that never needed to be replaced. Needless to say after several phone calls and a lot of bitching, I got a store credit for the price that I paid the dealer for the alternator due to their screw up and still got to keep the new dealer alternator!