Aux. Battery: When did yours die (or how old is it now if it hasn't)?

[@californiajeeping]

Cruising voltage is not an indicator of battery health. That voltage is the alternator output, not battery. You need to check voltage at rest, not running, for the battery.

In fact, if you find you’re constantly at 14v all the time, that might actually indicate a problem as the charging system should only be charging when needed, not constantly.

In these Jeeps they are deficient and sit at battery voltage on cruise. After deleting my aux and running the wires to the main the float voltage holds 14v. It may still be dropping off some float charge for economy or it’s being tricked to keep it going either way it’s a massive improvement. My headlights no longer flicker when the bass hits.

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[ShadowsPapa]

In these Jeeps they are deficient and sit at battery voltage on cruise.

Since when? I've only ever seen "battery voltage at cruise" when it was hot, we'd been on the road for several hours and the battery was full. Then the system correctly, rightly, cuts voltage back to maintain and stops charging.
I've otherwise never seen either of mine drop below 13 if the battery wasn't full - and only when the batteries are very charged on long drives.

After deleting my aux and running the wires to the main the float voltage holds 14v.

That makes less sense because that's a reason to actually DROP voltage - less battery to maintain.
It's not logical at all to say you removed one battery and now the voltage is up.
(besides, the IBS only senses the main battery, so there would be no difference)

That's not how these electric systems work.

Back to the original (and yet another battery thread rehashing) thoughts - our Gladiators are not the only vehicles suffering battery issues.
4xes are losing batteries at anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. And there's no evil aux battery at all - only the 12v main like ours has. So let's place blame where it belongs. Batteries and how they are used.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

 

[@californiajeeping]

Having fought the pos fender motorcycle battery in two Jeeps and regularly seeing 12.2V while driving…..whatever deleting that thing did and installing a proper battery it’s a drastic difference.

I almost never see below 14V even with a large amplifier that draws 90-100A on music.

I also had an issue with intermittent loss of power steering for about 10 seconds. The new battery and running the wires for the aux up to it has resolved this also.

The factory design is a failure no way around it. There’s thousands of threads across the internet with battery problems. You can keep nursing the junk design along or just bypass it.

 

[Kevin_D]

I almost never see below 14V even with a large amplifier that draws 90-100A on music.

If you're pulling that much current all the time, small wonder you cooked the aux. battery and see 14V nearly constantly.

The factory design is a failure no way around it. There’s thousands of threads across the internet with battery problems. You can keep nursing the junk design along or just bypass it.

Thousands? And you've seen them all?
Out of how many hundreds of thousands of vehicles?
And that's just Jeep. They're not the only manufacturer to use a similar design.

Kevin

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Having fought the pos fender motorcycle battery in two Jeeps and regularly seeing 12.2V while driving…..whatever deleting that thing did and installing a proper battery it’s a drastic difference.

I almost never see below 14V even with a large amplifier that draws 90-100A on music.

I also had an issue with intermittent loss of power steering for about 10 seconds. The new battery and running the wires for the aux up to it has resolved this also.

The factory design is a failure no way around it. There’s thousands of threads across the internet with battery problems. You can keep nursing the junk design along or just bypass it.

Maybe FCA should hire you as a engineer for their vehicles. It's a failure because Internet folks like you want to make it a failure by assuming you know what your talking about. Most of the time it's the main battery that's the issue and not the aux battery. I have no idea how these things work but I know a few guys who work at my respected dealership and they said at least 90% of the time people come in demanding the aux battery be swapped out when once they hook it up to the machine it shows the larger main as the issue. Sometimes people even replace both. That aux battery is designed to last a while, I know guys who have well over 100,000 miles on theirs in their JLs. I got 75,000 miles on mine.

 

[sharpsicle]

Having fought the pos fender motorcycle battery in two Jeeps and regularly seeing 12.2V while driving…..whatever deleting that thing did and installing a proper battery it’s a drastic difference.

I almost never see below 14V even with a large amplifier that draws 90-100A on music.

I also had an issue with intermittent loss of power steering for about 10 seconds. The new battery and running the wires for the aux up to it has resolved this also.

The factory design is a failure no way around it. There’s thousands of threads across the internet with battery problems. You can keep nursing the junk design along or just bypass it.

I'm sorry my friend, but it really sounds like you might have induced your failures. It's unfair to blame the battery or even the system in your truck when you're killing batteries like that. With that much draw you should probably consider having an actual capacitor in-line with your audio equipment to prevent exactly what you caused with those surges in voltage drops. You got a bigger battery now, which is masking that problem more and will take longer to die from that, but it can still die.

And again, you are taxing the crap out of your alternator if it is constantly at 14v. These are not the same as alternators of the 80s or 90s. @ShadowsPapa showed a great graphic on how it should work. I'm sorry you don't understand how this system, or car electronics in general, are supposed to operate, but don't let that lack of knowledge turn into defiance. "Whatever deleting that thing did" is showcasing this knowledge gap.

All this is coming from a former MECP Master certified technician with over a decade of experience not only working on car audio, but running a general automotive repair shop. I should think that counts for something when talking about this stuff.

 

[Captn_Obvious]

Took delivery of my 2020 JTR in Oct 2019 - I hadn't had any battery issues yet, but since I'm approaching the 4 yr mark, just recently had my shop throw in a new Full Throttle main battery and do an aux battery delete to avoid the inevitable.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Took delivery of my 2020 JTR in Oct 2019 - I hadn't had any battery issues yet, but since I'm approaching the 4 yr mark, just recently had my shop throw in a new Full Throttle main battery and do an aux battery delete to avoid the inevitable.

If no problems why the Aux battery delete??

 

[Jeeperjamie]

I know little about how the battery system works so I may be off here or maybe I'm not. My wife use to be a claim adjuster for a few different insurance companies in the past and they denied claims where audio speakers and other electrical wiring aftermarket caused fires in vehicles and they burned up. These were where it was obvious that the aftermarket wiring caused the fires and was not part of the original system. I'm wondering if by doing a aux delete like some are doing if this could become a case where a insurance company could have a case if something with crazy with the electrical system and the jeep burned up. My wife use to tell me stories all the time where claims were denied because of this and owners were left paying on a vehicle that was a total lose.

 

[Captn_Obvious]

If no problems why the Aux battery delete??

@Jeeperjamie Hey, I don't ever use the auto start-stop, and was concerned about potentially being stranded in the mountains when the aux battery decided to go out - my shop here in GA [JK Land] highly recommended doing the aux delete.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

@Jeeperjamie Hey, I don't ever use the auto start-stop, and was concerned about potentially being stranded in the mountains when the aux battery decided to go out - my shop here in GA [JK Land] highly recommended doing the aux delete.

It's hardly ever the Aux battery that's your problem, normally the main. I would assume a shop would recommend something if they can make money on it so that makes sense. Those aux batteries will normally last longer than the main

 

[Flyboy2109]

Removed the Aux as a preventative measure within 2 months of my purchase and my Jeep would be in and out of long term storage with the battery removed. I did not want to dive in to get it in and out twice a year. The delete has worked out great, no problems. Who would want to be in the middle of an off road drive and have a failure of that battery? Get rid of it.

After thought: I forgot to note my Sport S is a manual (so many requirements for ESS to even happen) with ESS memory chip installed so it never shuts down.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Removed the Aux as a preventative measure within 2 months of my purchase and my Jeep would be in and out of long term storage with the battery removed. I did not want to dive in to get it in and out twice a year. The delete has worked out great, no problems. Who would want to be in the middle of an off road drive and have a failure of that battery? Get rid of it.

Hopefully that main battery holds up

 

[Ogre_FL]

On our JL the first had issues/ESS stopped working around the 1 year mark, the 2nd Aux battery had issues/ESS stopped working less than year after its replacement and its about 6 months into its 3rd aux and a new main battery. Daily driven pretty regularly about 10K miles a year. A few 800-1000 mile trips in its first 2-3 years.

The JT ESS has not worked for about 6 months, so about 2 years in. Need to bring it in and see if its the Aux, Main or both. The JT sits a LOT, about 5K miles per year with a few 800-1000 mile trips each year. Based on the JL I am surprised it has gone as long as it has.

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