DIY How-to: Take the Aux Battery Offline

[Lunentucker]

Made a short and sweet video (slideshow).

There is more detailed information in the full description of the video on YouTube.

Worth noting - Jeep inexplicably changed the ground cable configurations in 2021 around mid year, so depending on which side of that change your vehicle was built, it could be the larger cable or it could be the smaller one. If you remove one and there's no power, simply swap them.

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[Rick_Jame55]

Takes smart people to invent things. Takes Genius’s to simplify to invented things. Thanks for the slide show on this. I’ve been looking for this for awhile now. My batteries went out about a year ago and after readying how the aux battery can kill both.

 

[Jefe1018]

Thank you. I’m thinking about doing this too.

 

[Minty JL]

Nothing better then K.I.S.S - Keep it Simple Stupid

 

[Lunentucker]

This is cool but I guess the aux battery positive cable is still connected? Maybe it doesn’t matter since the ground is removed? What are you referring to with “themes” and “subscriptions”?

Yes. it's inert without a ground.

 

[Technomancer]

Will someone please explain why this is beneficial? Keeping sensitive electronics on an isolated circuit during starts seems like a good thing to me. Thanks​

 

[sharpsicle]

Will someone please explain why this is beneficial? Keeping sensitive electronics on an isolated circuit during starts seems like a good thing to me. Thanks​

This method he's videoing is really the most useful for isolating a bad aux battery from the system. Some do this when it goes bad rather than replacing it. If your system is in good health, this is unnecessary.

 

[Lunentucker]

Will someone please explain why this is beneficial? Keeping sensitive electronics on an isolated circuit during starts seems like a good thing to me. Thanks​

It is until it isn't. When the batteries begin to fail your entire dash starts going haywire, and the failing smaller motorcycle type battery can draw down your main battery. And you don't know it's happening until it does that.
The entire reason for the aux battery is to do that while the vehicle is shut off during an ESS. No ESS cycle = no need for aux battery.
Tons of other single battery vehicles are stuffed with electronics and have no issues.

 

[Technomancer]

Ah, I see. That makes sense, thanks!

 

[Badweather]

How long can we expect the auxiliary battery to last before it fails. I have the start/stop disabled using a tazer so I’m hoping the aux battery last longer.

 

[Jefe1018]

How long can we expect the auxiliary battery to last before it fails. I have the start/stop disabled using a tazer so I’m hoping the aux battery last longer.

My original batteries only lasted about a year and 3 months.

 

[Lunentucker]

How long can we expect the auxiliary battery to last before it fails. I have the start/stop disabled using a tazer so I’m hoping the aux battery last longer.

The average seems to be around two years. Certainly your climates and driving habits play roles in any battery life. Mine was at 20 months and showing no signs of problems, but I wanted to stay ahead of it, rather than having to make on the road fixes.

 

[Lunentucker]

This is cool but I guess the aux battery positive cable is still connected? Maybe it doesn’t matter since the ground is removed? What are you referring to with “themes” and “subscriptions”?

Your background themes in the U connect, and subscriptions for for XM, Navigation, Off-Road pages, etc.
They need some time to re-sync after a power loss. I suppose you could use one of the OBDII power savers and not have that, but it's not a huge deal.

 

[Lunentucker]

Takes smart people to invent things. Takes Genius’s to simplify to invented things. Thanks for the slide show on this. I’ve been looking for this for awhile now. My batteries went out about a year ago and after readying how the aux battery can kill both.

I appreciate that. One thing that annoys me on how-to videos is when they go into a protracted history and draw things out. I had made a video that documented the entire process, but I decided to condense it to under a minute so it would fit the YT Short criteria and be succint.

 

[Badweather]

OK this is a rant but honestly two years of life for a battery that is essentially inaccessible is ridiculous. And the fact that you don't know when it is failing makes it all the worst.

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