Buh Bye Jeep

[DailyDi]

So the power gremlin was hungary with this cold snap and I had to jump start the Jeep twice in a week, so we decided to trade it in and go back to a Kia Soul. Tired of worrying about if a car will start.

[Cute_Kitten]

Sorry to hear the Jeep crapped out on you, but I'm glad you now have a reliable vehicle!

[beallucanb]

You made a good move, modern jeeps are crap, last good jeeps had the 4.0 straight 6 in them.

 

[Little Sherri]

34 minutes ago, beallucanb said:

last good jeeps had the 4.0 straight 6 in them.

Amen, brother, although I did kind of want to own either a 392 Wrangler or a Gladiator with the diesel. But it's an Italian diesel. I know it will make me sad in the end; it will save me $3300 in fuel over five years, and then it will eat an injector pump or a turbo, and set me back $5700 in one shot. 

That Kia Soul will not disappoint, @DailyDi. It will start reliably for many years. It might not have as much "soul" as a Jeep, but, it's a golden retriever of a car - it lives to please you. Jeeps are more like Cane Corso's - sometimes, they think about killing you. 

[spoonchicken]

A trade-in, based only upon electrical criterion, may or may not have been mechanically necessary. Reason being...the colder it gets, the less effective batteries function. ( I'll spare you the classroom lecture on the nature of electrcity lol).  So, it may have been only a battery and/or charging system issue.

That all being said, perhaps these recent starting problems were simply "the last straw" regarding any given vehicle. One way or another, the goal of maximum mechanical reliablity certainly seems to have been achieved, no matter the reasons behind it. 

 

[DailyDi]

36 minutes ago, spoonchicken said:

A trade-in, based only upon electrical criterion, may or may not have been mechanically necessary. Reason being...the colder it gets, the less effective batteries function. ( I'll spare you the classroom lecture on the nature of electrcity lol).  So, it may have been only a battery and/or charging system issue.

That all being said, perhaps these recent starting problems were simply "the last straw" regarding any given vehicle. One way or another, the goal of maximum mechanical reliablity certainly seems to have been achieved, no matter the reasons behind it. 

 

When posting I assumed that everyone followed by previous posts about the Jeep. The charging issue has been ongoing since I got it, some kind of power leak that slowly drains the battery. If we didn't use the car for a week or two, the battery dies. Too long and the battery goes dead, dead and has to be replaced.

Since discovering this we've been running the car regularly to keep the battery topped off, so to have it go bad after 6 and then 4 days is just too much. I can't be jump-starting the car everytime we need it, or replacing the battery every few months.

We had enough equity in the Jeep at this point that we could trade in and make the move with no other money down and no change in our car payment, so we decided to do just that.

We're happy with the Kia, we had one before and it's comfortable and enough of a run-around car for us since we don't drive much.

[Apache Raccoon]

Looks nice.

[oznl]

4 hours ago, spoonchicken said:

A trade-in, based only upon electrical criterion, may or may not have been mechanically necessary. Reason being...the colder it gets, the less effective batteries function. ( I'll spare you the classroom lecture on the nature of electrcity lol).  So, it may have been only a battery and/or charging system issue.

I don't know.  Most folk I know who bought a recent-history jeep were happier after it was gone irrespective of battery physics 🤣

4 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

 But it's an Italian diesel. I know it will make me sad in the end; it will save me $3300 in fuel over five years, and then it will eat an injector pump or a turbo, and set me back $5700 in one shot.

I hired one of those "Fiat" jeeps whilst in the US just before the great plague.

O. M. G.  What WERE they thinking?  The 4WD system would periodically make a sound like somebody tossed a wrench into the diff sending a warning light on the dash telling me to "stop".  Add to this I couldn't seal the drivers window shut (It was snowing.  I am unused to snow.  Closing the window was therefore important to me).  I took it back to Hertz and the guy just grinned, drew a huge white cross on the driver window with a paint pen and gave me an upgrade.

We never got as far as engine failure but I'm sure it was in the queue.

[id0ntknow]

I was so confused at first. I hadn't read your post before seeing the picture, and was like "That's not a Jeep". I hope this one works out much better for you and your mom Mikey.

[rusty pins]

19 hours ago, DailyDi said:

When posting I assumed that everyone followed by previous posts about the Jeep. The charging issue has been ongoing since I got it, some kind of power leak that slowly drains the battery. If we didn't use the car for a week or two, the battery dies. Too long and the battery goes dead, dead and has to be replaced.

Since discovering this we've been running the car regularly to keep the battery topped off, so to have it go bad after 6 and then 4 days is just too much. I can't be jump-starting the car everytime we need it, or replacing the battery every few months.

Bought my 2004 used 4 years ago and this past year or so I have had that problem.  i go out and the battery is dead or so low it won't crank over.  Even my mechanic charged it up and overnight it went bad.  I had an expensive $200+ battery with a 3 year warranty, this was only about a year and they replaced it free as not holding a charge.  Everything was fine for months, then went out to go to work and it wouldn't turn over.  I did a lot of researching on line and about 3 different people traced down the parasitic battery draw.  One person would take it so far, another would continue tracing it further from that point and a third did tests to figure it out.  The suspect is the body control module located behind the fuse box.  I suspect that is the cause and yes, I could get a rebuilt one off EBAY and probably replace it myself, but then it would have to be reprogrammed by the dealership or I couldn't start the Jeep.  My solution?  I get home from work, pop the hood and pull the positive cable off the battery.  Next morning I pop the hood, put it on, drive to work where I park, pop the hood, pull the cable off again until I'm ready to leave work 8-1/2 hours later.  I pop the hood, put the cable back on until I get home where I pop the hood and pull the cable off again.  It's a bit of a pain but doesn't take more than 30 seconds and I know when I go to start my Jeep the battery won't be run down.  If I get ambitious enough, I may try to run a cable from the battery inside my Jeep to the dash where I can put a cut off switch in line and run it back under the hood to the battery.  That would help a lot in Michigan winter weather where the snow may freeze on the hood and make it hard to open in the mornings.

[beallucanb]

2 hours ago, rusty pins said:

Bought my 2004 used 4 years ago and this past year or so I have had that problem.  i go out and the battery is dead or so low it won't crank over.  Even my mechanic charged it up and overnight it went bad.  I had an expensive $200+ battery with a 3 year warranty, this was only about a year and they replaced it free as not holding a charge.  Everything was fine for months, then went out to go to work and it wouldn't turn over.  I did a lot of researching on line and about 3 different people traced down the parasitic battery draw.  One person would take it so far, another would continue tracing it further from that point and a third did tests to figure it out.  The suspect is the body control module located behind the fuse box.  I suspect that is the cause and yes, I could get a rebuilt one off EBAY and probably replace it myself, but then it would have to be reprogrammed by the dealership or I couldn't start the Jeep.  My solution?  I get home from work, pop the hood and pull the positive cable off the battery.  Next morning I pop the hood, put it on, drive to work where I park, pop the hood, pull the cable off again until I'm ready to leave work 8-1/2 hours later.  I pop the hood, put the cable back on until I get home where I pop the hood and pull the cable off again.  It's a bit of a pain but doesn't take more than 30 seconds and I know when I go to start my Jeep the battery won't be run down.  If I get ambitious enough, I may try to run a cable from the battery inside my Jeep to the dash where I can put a cut off switch in line and run it back under the hood to the battery.  That would help a lot in Michigan winter weather where the snow may freeze on the hood and make it hard to open in the mornings.

You can use one of those knife switches inside your jeep, got a Miata one that someone had one installed, a few eyelet ended long enough battery cables for the hook up and you are done.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Disconnect-RV-Marine-Vehicle-Negative/dp/B09MRHKLGH?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=AONZIIRJ6WPT6&th=1

 

 

[FretaBWet]

I love ❤️  the color of your new Soul. It was a smart move to get rid of it while you could. There are no good or reliable Chrysler products.

Hugs,

Freta

[DailyDi]

40 minutes ago, FretaBWet said:

I love ❤️  the color of your new Soul. It was a smart move to get rid of it while you could. There are no good or reliable Chrysler products.

Hugs,

Freta

I love the color too though it was literally the only new Soul in the area so we didn’t see any other colors. 
 

yeah, disappointing to learn jeeps don’t live up to the rep of their fandom. 

[vvp39]

"disappointing to learn jeeps don’t live up to the rep of their fandom."

Most people I know who've had jeeps have also had another vehicle that was a reliable daily driver.

[BabyJune]

Jeep was good when it was owned by American Motrs but went down the craper when Chrysler took it over.