Jeep down again

[DailyDi]

Battery died again, and it won't stay running after jump-starting so the power gremlin has killed a second battery. Service center admitted they have other jeeps with the same battery drain issue, so this time they are going to do draw tests over the course of a few days to try to find where were loosing energy.

He didn't mention prices, so I hope its still a warranty fix.

[rusty pins]

If it's an ongoing issue (and you have proof of this happening last year), you can turn them into the state if they don't honor the warrantee, even if they say the warrantee has expired.  That's what I had to do with an ongoing A/C problem with my brand new 1988 GTA Trans Am back in 1989.  After dealing with the issue for a year, they said it was out of warantee even though I had the 5 previous invoices from when I bought it showing it was in for the same issue.  I knew it was a leak in the compressor and told them so.  They would charge it, a month later it would blow hot air and I'd take it back. There was no freon in the compressor.  I'd say, "you charged it last month right?  Is there any freon in the compressor?  No?  What happened to it then?"  They just kept charging it even though I complained every time.  Finally they told me it was out of warrantee and I'd now have to pay.  After an argument I left and called the state to complain.  10 minutes after I hung up the dealer was calling me stating they "just got a new compressor leak tester" and bring my car in.  I did so and yup!  There was a leak!  I said, "Now you know what I have been telling you for a year and you will cover the repairs and replacement compressor under warranty!"  They said they couldn't.  Another call to the state and 10 minutes later they called and said to bring it in, the repairs would be covered. 

Sometimes you have to push back and call the big boys.  The long arm of the state for consumer protection reached down and told them take care of it or else!  In the back of the owner's manual they used to print the consumer protection agency number for automobile issues for each state.  I don't know if they still do (my issue was in 1989 and I had a previous issue in 1979 with my brand new 1979 Oldsmobiel Cuttlas that I also had to call the state for assistance with), but with the internet I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to do a Google search.  Mikey, this has been going on with your Jeep long enough, it's time they shit or get off the pot and get it fixed once and for all, no charge to you and especially since they have the same issue with other Jeeps.

[beallucanb]

If they can't repair it tell them to install a battery cut off switch, turn it on when you use the car shut it off when the car stands for a few days.

https://www.amazon.com/Post-Battery-Master-Disconnect-Switch/dp/B001N729FS

[Cute_Kitten]

It's very frustrating when you have to keep taking it to the shop for the same issue. I hope they find out what's causing the problem and fix it for good. ?

[square_duck]

I was going to recommend taking your Jeep in to a Theripist, since you posted it was "down".....I figured it might just be depressed....

[Little Cub Pants]

6 minutes ago, square_duck said:

I was going to recommend taking your Jeep in to a Theripist, since you posted it was "down".....I figured it might just be depressed....

That was so hilarious! Hahahahaha!!!!!??????????????????☺️

[feralfreak]

this reminds me of a problem we had, not with a car, with a laptop, we had one of the first laptops that had a gig storage space, ctx brand, turned out it was GARBAGE, within the first year the hard drive kept grinding, you could hear it real bad, it was like a little angle grinder being used inside, i send it in for repair, they sent it back, with the form  virus!, now the virus was easy enough to kill, msav did the job, but the drive still was grinding, 7 times in the course fo 2 years it was sent in for repair, only go come back bad again, the last time we sent it in, the power board on it was shot, and we never saw it again, the company doing the repairs just cashed us out on it. NEVER buy CTX brand anything! if someone would give me anything made by them now, id take it to the yard and shoot the damn thing!

[rusty pins]

23 hours ago, beallucanb said:

If they can't repair it tell them to install a battery cut off switch, turn it on when you use the car shut it off when the car stands for a few days.

https://www.amazon.com/Post-Battery-Master-Disconnect-Switch/dp/B001N729FS

True, but that is putting a band aid on the problem.  It would work until you forget to turn the switch on, but the point is you shouldn't have to buy something like that and pay out of your pocket for something you shouldn't have to have.  They need to get to the root of the problem, fix it right once and for all no matter how long it takes them within a reasonable time frame.

[beallucanb]

1 hour ago, rusty pins said:

True, but that is putting a band aid on the problem.  It would work until you forget to turn the switch on, but the point is you shouldn't have to buy something like that and pay out of your pocket for something you shouldn't have to have.  They need to get to the root of the problem, fix it right once and for all no matter how long it takes them within a reasonable time frame.

The modern jeeps are known for these types of electrical problems, there are a few computers on these jeeps, one controls the engine, the other controls the body, and there is another for the transmission where the short is who knows.

I would sooner spend 20 bucks, then have to open the hood twist the knob before you use the jeep but you will  know the battery is going to start the jeep, rather than loading parts cannon then firing it at the jeep.

If my idea does not work your out 20 bucks,  if you change the body computer and you have the same short somewhere else, its going to take out the battery again, now your out for the computer and labor and a new battery again.

[Apache Raccoon]

17 minutes ago, beallucanb said:

The modern jeeps are known for these types of electrical problems

Can't think why....

[oznl]

On 3/24/2022 at 5:58 AM, DailyDi said:

Battery died again, and it won't stay running after jump-starting so the power gremlin has killed a second battery. Service center admitted they have other jeeps with the same battery drain issue, so this time they are going to do draw tests over the course of a few days to try to find where were loosing energy.

He didn't mention prices, so I hope its still a warranty fix.

I'm assuming that when you say "won't stay running" it means that the battery will not hold enough charge to restart the engine even after 20 mins or so of idle right?  If the engine just flat out dies off idle then I'd have thought it's unlikely to be the battery since the alternator should easily produce enough current to keep things alive.

With old cars you could buzz out current draw on various circuit just by using a multimeter across a pulled fuse (well, for load up to 10A anyway) but I'm sure in 2022, it's probably more complicated than that now.

I can remember I was getting continuous "low battery" warnings on a BMW X5 I once owned.  It turned out to be my fault.  Because I have an indoor garage at home that was secure, I never bothered locking the X5 after parking it.

It turns out that those X5 keep a lot of systems alive when they are unlocked.  They are in a kind of "light sleep" mode rather than powered down and if I was on a trip of something and it was parked like that for more than a few days, I could expect trouble.

My problems resolved simply by locking the car habitually when I was done with it.  It was impressive how many dealer calls it took before I found a tech senior enough to suggest this.

It may not work for a Jeep but I thought I'd share.

You NEVER want to kill a high-end BMW battery.  They are made in outer space from unicorn dust and plutonium by NASA...  At least that's what their price told me.

4 minutes ago, Apache Raccoon said:

Can't think why....

Two companies made for each other:  Fix It Again Tony and Just Empty Every Pocket

[AwakenEvil]

On 3/23/2022 at 2:58 PM, DailyDi said:

Battery died again, and it won't stay running after jump-starting so the power gremlin has killed a second battery. Service center admitted they have other jeeps with the same battery drain issue, so this time they are going to do draw tests over the course of a few days to try to find where were loosing energy.

He didn't mention prices, so I hope its still a warranty fix.

Electrical issues are absolutely the worst sort of car thing you can have and most of the time its in that grey area they wont fix under warranty in my experience. My wife in 2011 bought a used 2010 Fusion and about 9 months into it we had electrical issues with the car just shutting off on its own randomly, and after replacing everything under the sun they got to a point they simply refused to work on it any long unless we paid hourly wage. We traded it in for a Mazda 3 after that.

[DailyDi]

2 hours ago, oznl said:

I'm assuming that when you say "won't stay running" it means that the battery will not hold enough charge to restart the engine even after 20 mins or so of idle right?  If the engine just flat out dies off idle then I'd have thought it's unlikely to be the battery since the alternator should easily produce enough current to keep things alive.

It runs for a few minutes and then just dies, idling or driving. The battery has been fully discharged and jumped multiple times so it hasn't had a good life.

[oznl]

43 minutes ago, DailyDi said:

It runs for a few minutes and then just dies, idling or driving. The battery has been fully discharged and jumped multiple times so it hasn't had a good life.

Yep, I believe you're on the money there.  Lead acid batteries that aren't specifically designed as "deep cycle" batteries and HATE being flattened.  I guess if the battery has a short in it that could be enough to stall out the car.  If you had any kind of volt meter  plugged into it you'd see the voltage fall.  Whilst running, your car's voltage should float around 13 - 14v.

I seem to remember that you bought a trickle charger to deal with this ages ago though.  That should have stopped the battery from getting drained.

If the battery died anyway, that shouldn't be sooo much money.

On my old classic car, I have an input to the battery cable-tied (subtly) to the grill so I can hook it up to a trickle charger in the garage without having to pop the bonnet (hood).  This because I only drive it at weekends and with gas prices being what they are right now, not at all.

[Little Cub Pants]

48 minutes ago, DailyDi said:

It runs for a few minutes and then just dies, idling or driving. The battery has been fully discharged and jumped multiple times so it hasn't had a good life.

It probably just needs a new battery.?????? But then again I get the feeling that that's not going to fix it.??☹️?

[olympus]

By any chance do you have an aftermarket stereo installed? I had one put in my truck a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500. The module they put in to trick the computer into thinking there was still a factory radio installed did not work initially. This resulted in the computer never going to sleep and would drain the batteries after 2 days. I had the module replaced with a different one and the problem went away. Hope this helps.

[DailyDi]

12 hours ago, olympus said:

By any chance do you have an aftermarket stereo installed? I had one put in my truck a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500. The module they put in to trick the computer into thinking there was still a factory radio installed did not work initially. This resulted in the computer never going to sleep and would drain the batteries after 2 days. I had the module replaced with a different one and the problem went away. Hope this helps.

Nope. Car is all factory original.

[AbabeBill]

15 minutes ago, DailyDi said:

Nope. Car is all factory original.

Mikey’s got a record player under the hood of his Jeep. When you want tunes, you pull the cord in the dashboard. ?

(only kidding Mikey) 

[ValentinesStuff]

1 hour ago, AbabeBill said:

Mikey’s got a record player under the hood of his Jeep. When you want tunes, you pull the cord in the dashboard. ?

(only kidding Mikey) 

 

That's the one.

[beallucanb]

22 hours ago, Apache Raccoon said:

Can't think why....

Exactly, Fiat now Stellantis, plus Chrysler corp. cars have always been known for screwed up electrical systems going back years.

 

 

[rusty pins]

On 3/24/2022 at 7:08 PM, beallucanb said:

If my idea does not work your out 20 bucks,  if you change the body computer and you have the same short somewhere else, its going to take out the battery again, now your out for the computer and labor and a new battery again.

No, that's my point!  When you have all the documentation and invoices of how many times you have taken it back for this same problem, you will not be out for the computer part, battery and labor.  You have consumer rights and if this problem happened under warranty and they could not get it fixed during that time, it's on them and not you to fix it once and for all under the original warranty!

[Apache Raccoon]

@DailyDiI've been on Paint.net and drawn up a scheme to improve your motorcar, all you need is an angle grinder, some welding gear and some extra parts and you can turn your car from this

INTO THIS!

Get rid of the back seats and turn the back into a pick up truck, fit chunky wheels and tires and jack up the suspension to give it more ground clearance

Pull the FCA engine out and stick an American V8 under the hood from a Mustang and fit a massive tale pipe out the back so it makes a more entertaining noise and Bob's your uncle: oh and a 4-wheel drive system if you ain't got one already.

You might void the warranty but you should totally do it anyway because of reasons.

[Little Cub Pants]

9 minutes ago, Apache Raccoon said:

@DailyDiI've been on Paint.net and drawn up a scheme to improve your motorcar, all you need is an angle grinder, some welding gear and some extra parts and you can turn your car from this

INTO THIS!

Get rid of the back seats and turn the back into a pick up truck, fit chunky wheels and tires and jack up the suspension to give it more ground clearance

Pull the FCA engine out and stick an American V8 under the hood from a Mustang and fit a massive tale pipe out the back so it makes a more entertaining noise and Bob's your uncle: oh and a 4-wheel drive system if you ain't got one already.

You might void the warranty but you should totally do it anyway because of reasons.

But if he voids the warranty he probably won't be able to get it fixed. Still that's very good information to know. I'm sure @Young1 would find all that quite interesting!??♥️☺️

[beallucanb]

I didn't know you were dealing with a warranty issue, if you are check your states lemon laws, I doubt it will cost you anything to file.

 In Pa if you take a new or used car back more than 4 times for the same problem(under warranty) it qualifies as a lemon, the dealer must buy the car back for the purchase price, what you paid for tax and tags.

If this was an ongoing problem since you had the car by all means try for the lemon law.

When you said you had a jeep I thought you were speaking of a  wrangler, like a 07 to 22, those little jeeps are much worse for problems, the renegade  are the dodge omni/plymouth horizon of today.

That renegade will give you nothing but trouble as long as you own it, do your best to dump it, you are better off with something older that is way more reliable.

[rusty pins]

One other thought.  If you were to get one of those battery cut off switches, you would have to reset the clock in the car each time you turned off the switch, and with the battery cutting off power to the Jeep, your anti theft and security alarms would be disabled as well as your remote to unlock the doors.