Car won't start

Factual Questions
1

Ok here’s the deal. I have a 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee with ~100,000 miles on it. I had to go to the hospital last week and was unable to drive myself, so a friend drove me. When he parked my car, he left the headlights on. It was two days before I could go pick the car up, and leaving the lights on for two days is obviously not a good thing.

Jump starts were unable to start the car. It would crank forever but not start. I bought a replacement battery. All the car’s electrical components (lights, mirrors, radio, etc) seem fine, but the car still just cranks and cranks and cranks and will not start.

The car has never had any problems starting before. The only recent problem it’s had is the check engine light came on once, and a scan revealed it was the fault of the oxygen sensor. I didn’t do anything to repair or replace the sensor, but the light hasn’t come on again in over a month.

I’m not exactly mechanically inclined, so I don’t know what the problem could be. I also won’t have the money to get the car towed to a mechanic for another couple of weeks (thanks, medical bills!).

Are there any diagnostics I, as a layman, could perfom so I could maybe diagnose this problem?

Thanks guys.

2

Spark or fuel, spray a little starting fluid in the air intake while cranking it, if it fires up for a second or two its a fuel problem, if you get a fire burning in your intake its a fuel problem and you sprayed too much starting fluid.

3

Have you considered “push-starting” it to prime the fuel system?

In any case, this guy had it worse.

4

You may need to reset your computer. Try taking the negative battery cable off and putting it back on.

5

The spark is easy to check. Take out one spark plug, plug it back into the spark plug boot, and while holding on to the insulated boot (might wanna use insulated handle pliers just to be sure you dont get a shock)hold the spark plug end (the end that came out of the cylinder) close to a ground such as the engine block, have someone crank the engine. If it sparks then you’ve got electricity and so that could mean a fuel pump problem. If no spark, then you’ve most likely got fuel, so that means it could be an ignition problem. I’m guessing that its gonna be the Ignition Module. Dont try to push start it if its an automatic.