D/C battery to reset CEL, now won't start

'99 XJ, stock

My guess is an aftermarket alarm, to which we have to key fob to turn it off with.

Disconnected battery for about a minute. Connected it and flashers are going on/off. Get in to start, turn the key and all i get are the dummy lights and the radio and odometer blinking at me in unison with the flashers. Get out and the doors automatically locking themselves (which they didn't do before).

I know nothing about alarms. I looked under the dash to at least try and see what brand it is, no joy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Butch

yup sounds like an alarm, but it might not be aftermarket, try locking and unlocking the door with the key, worked on my 92 limited before i gutted all the factory key less entry.

Thats a good place to start. Also... (and I know this is going to sound redundant) ...but really check how well those battery terminals have been put back on. If they're at all not 100% secure with a good connection (hopefully you cleaned the posts and the terminals while they were off) then there's a good chance it wont start, but it will give you dash lights. The 4.0L engine/electrical system is SUPER finicky.,.. it likes to have virtually PERFECT connections in order to behave properly.

Now if you've verified that, then its on to the alarm. (providing there is one) ...remove the knee panel below the steering wheel to gain good access to all the wiring. If there is an alarm, and it has a starter interrupt installed, then there will be a relay that acts as a disconnect once the alarm is armed or triggered. How this works is is the line from the ignition switch to the starter is cut, then the two ends are connected to the switched side of a relay. When the relay is triggered (by arming or setting off the alarm - and many alarms will trigger when power is restored from a loss of power) ...the signal path from the switch to the starter is "interrupted." ...you can find this relay somewhere near the main harness coming from the ignition switch. (its a little black box about 1.5" square) ...there will be two LARGE gauge yellow wires coming off of it. This will be the two halves of the starter wire that has been cut. Pull them from the relay and reconnect. That will basically bypass the starter interrupt of the alarm.

Figured it out. I thank you for the advice, but like Frankie, I did it my way. Which consisted of calling AAA, having it towed to a trusted alarm install business, talk them down on the price of a alarm/auto start/unlock system. 5 hours later...perfection. I'd really like to know how the hell you sell a vehicle with a POS alarm system and not have at least ONE fob that came with it. How do you lose 2 fobs?!?!?
Worked out, turns out the POS one in there was bad, to the point they had to remove it completely and do the install in the parking lot. Lesson learned. No fob, no sale