Dead Boot -- What do you know about this ?

[drpulpit]

My 97 XJ6L sputters and lurches and quits when I attempt to accelerate quickly.

A friend has a similar car, and when his did that, he had been told to Dead Boot it, which reset all of the computers, etc. Take the ground cable off the battery and hold it onto the postive post of the battery for 20 to 30 seconds. He said his wouldn't restart after similar symptoms and has had no problem since.

I can't bring myself to do it, yet.

Have any of you any experience with this?

Eric in NC.

 

[Deleted member 8987]

That's what we did with General Misunderstandings, too. Wipes the codes.

 

[MikeP]

Don't see why you'd need to hold the ground to the positive terminal. You're not creating a circuit since the battery negative terminal isn't connected to anything. Like most new cars just removing one or the other cable for awhile should cause all computers to run down and reset when reconnected and the car started.

 

[Deleted member 8987]

It was a function of some US auto computers. Something about keep-alive memory. That kills it, and it works. Can't hurt...as long as you disconnect the one lead before grounding!

 

[drpulpit]

Thanks TOC and MikeP,

My mechanic has had a stroke, is in the hospital, and may never get back to his great work.

I'm glad you have offered some experienced advice.

EricF aka drpulpit

 

[philrob7]

drpulpit;

did you try this and did it cure your problems? My '97 XJ6 won't start after sitting a month or so while I overhauled the driver's door latch... First thought was that I left something disconnected, but shouldn't have disconnected anything related to ignition. Then I thought fuel, but replaced filter and seem to be getting pressure at the fuel rail. Hmm. Maybe ignition.

Can't quite bring myself to connect chassis to positive current, seems like something I should avoid! So I'm curious if others have found this successful.

Phil Roberta aka philrob7

 

[equiprx]

The idea behind the Dead Boot is when you connect the negative terminal to the positive is it discharges all the capacitors. So I'm told. It didn't solve my particular problem, but that is another issue.