Weird electrical/cold start gremlins

[Matt]

I know you said you had the battery tested... but is it the original battery? Batteries can be going bad and still test good; all depends on the time of machine used to test them.

Assuming the battery is good, i'd check all of your electrical connections. Make sure the battery terminals are all tight and corrosion free. Check the engine and body grounds.

Check the fuse for the radio. The contacts could be worn a bit.... throw a new fuse in or swap it with an equivalent one (swap it with something minor like the fog lights, door locks, etc)

[07JeepXK]

I'm thinking it probably doesn't have the original battery in it. Most battery's only last 3-4 years at most. His XK is 7 years old. If it somehow does then it definitely needs to be replaced

[Matt]

Gotta rule out the obvious. I've known people going 6+ years on batteries....against my recommendation obviously, but its not unheard of; a lot of owners wait for something to go wrong before replacing batteries.

Most batteries are solid for a good 60 months.

[RyanD]

Battery is original to me, so, yes, it is still the same one. Who knows how many miles on it before I picked it up, but I do know that we've put about 60K on this one. Gotta be nearing death.

Will try fuse swaps. I just hope I didn't foul something up when I had it all set aside for the lift installation.

What are the general battery recommendations? Planning a trip to Big Bend next month and would like to not be stranded!

[Matt]

There's a lot of good ones.... Diehard Gold AGM and Bosch S5 to name some.

Definitely change that thing out. And check your ground connections too

[RyanD]

There's a lot of good ones.... Diehard Gold AGM and Bosch S5 to name some.

Definitely change that thing out. And check your ground connections too

Alright, I gotta admit that I'm a real greenhorn when it comes to the electrical work on vehicles. Where are the grounds typically located in our trucks and do I just need to check for looseness, corrosion, etc? Thanks, going to look into a new battery today.

[Matt]

Take a look under the hood. Anywhere theres a black wire bolted to the body is a ground. Theres one or two near the battery, another on the firewall and I think one on the passenger side near a computer module you'll see.

Make sure they're not rusted/corroded, and wiggle them to see if they're loose at all.

Also check the positive and ground connections in the fuse blocks.