Dealer Trying to Void Warranty

[Zachanadandy]

Why is the winch wired directly and not through a switch or solenoid?
If there's a wireless remote control option, it could be drawing power when not in use because it has to be awake to take the wireless remote commands. And of course, the safety aspect.
The compressor should take nothing when not powered on
The light bar should be taking nothing at all when not powered on.

So all I can think of draining power is lack of driving it, lack of long trips- or if the winch has the ability to use a wireless remote.

I've never wired a winch to a relay or solenoid. Sure you can, but there's a reason most manufacturers recommend good old straight to the battery connections. The winch motor already has solenoids. It's not drawing power when it's not running, even a wireless remote option has no more parasitic draw than the vehicles proximity sensors in my opinion. Our JLUR has sat for weeks in the airport parking lot and fires right up every time. Odds are its just a falling aux battery being out was within a month of its warranty anyway..

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[ShadowsPapa]

The winch and compressor draw too many amps for the aux switches.

LOL totally aware of things electric.
You can STILL control them like I did - solenoid turned on by aux switch controls my winch. You can control the compressor... Just not eun the compressor power thru the aux switch relay. On the other hand, a compressor that draws only 30 amps max could be run via aux switch. You have not seen my jeep wiring and winch and plow, etc

 

[Lost1wing]

I've never wired a winch to a relay or solenoid. Sure you can, but there's a reason most manufacturers recommend good old straight to the battery connections. The winch motor already has solenoids. It's not drawing power when it's not running, even a wireless remote option has no more parasitic draw than the vehicles proximity sensors in my opinion. Our JLUR has sat for weeks in the airport parking lot and fires right up every time. Odds are its just a falling aux battery being out was within a month of its warranty anyway..

That works well, unless you have a little accident and then you have a welder looking for something to weld. They make continuous use solenoids that can handle high amps. They also have a manual switch for that. Anything to kill the power up front.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I've never wired a winch to a relay or solenoid. Sure you can, but there's a reason most manufacturers recommend good old straight to the battery connections. The winch motor already has solenoids. It's not drawing power when it's not running, even a wireless remote option has no more parasitic draw than the vehicles proximity sensors in my opinion. Our JLUR has sat for weeks in the airport parking lot and fires right up every time. Odds are its just a falling aux battery being out was within a month of its warranty anyway..

So why do Warn and others sell cutoff solenoids? Never run full live battery power to the front bumper. Do some reading on the topic here.
You are talking to an auto-electrician.
Yeah, added with the other stuff, a remote receiver waiting for a command can add to the problem. Not more than the other systems but could be added draw, additive.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

That'll fix his batteries....change the engine.

 

[whysoserious]

CA engine change rules:

https://bar.ca.gov/consumer/smog-check-program/engine-changes

What is the difference between an engine change and an engine replacement?
An "engine change" is the installation of an engine that is different from the one which was originally installed in the vehicle and does not qualify as a "replacement engine."

Engine replacements include:

• A new, rebuilt, remanufactured, or used engine of the same make, number of cylinders, and engine family (test group) as the original engine with the original emission controls reinstalled;
• An engine which matches a configuration offered by the manufacturer for that year, make and model of vehicle, and the appropriate emission controls for the installed engine, and chassis components are present and connected.

No 392 Gladiators will ever be "legal" in CA unless Jeep makes one. Even worse, say they make a 2025 392 Gladiator. Only 2025 model year 3.6's could legally swap to the 392. You couldn't do it in 2020-2024.

Perhaps not a 392, but a 5.7 would be possible.

 

[ecidiego]

Perhaps not a 392, but a 5.7 would be possible.

Which Gladiator came with a 5.7?

note:

An engine which matches a configuration offered by the manufacturer for that year, make and model of vehicle,

 

[whysoserious]

Which Gladiator came with a 5.7?

note:

An engine which matches a configuration offered by the manufacturer for that year, make and model of vehicle,

That's for a "replacement engine". An "engine change" has different requirements.

State of California -Engine Change Guidelines

JT is a light duty truck. 5.7 hemi's were offered in light duty trucks.

 

[chorky]

I have a 2020 LE, bought in early 2021, adding the RSE Stepsliders in the first few weeks. Early on, had a ton of electrical gremlins that culminated with a corporate jeep team replacing several harnesses, swapping a computer, probably more. My biggest issue though was with the ESS system. A half dozen or so issues in the first couple months with it leaving me with a dead battery. Ultimately, the fix was to swap both batteries at once, from a new vendor. All this was done through warranty. After a couple months without issue, I added a light bar to the aux switch, a ARB twin compressor that is controlled through aux switches, but wired to the battery, and a winch that is connected directly to the battery.

Flash forward to this week. The truck is now on the extended warranty, I have had no other issues until a couple days ago when I got the service ESS system message on my truck, which had been sitting in the driveway for over a week. I continued to drive it, fault went away, drove it again, no fault. Still planned to get it serviced within a week anyway so thought no more of it.

Yesterday, it was completely dead. My jumper pack did get it to start, but it shut off again after a couple minutes. Had to tow it to the dealer. The tech said that the extra connections on the terminal of the battery have voided my entire electrical system warranty and batteries specifically (which had a month left).

I told them to replace the batteries and I'll get the oil service at another dealer. Very disappointed, as this was the good service dealer previously. claiming a electrical warranty is void because of a couple accessories that have been on there for years, usually off, and connected to their aux control system. I was planning on upgrading to the 4xE when available, but all the horror stories of jeep playing warranty games has me reconsidering.

Its a extended warranty i got thrown in for free, so i wasn't really expecting much anyway, and I know if there were a real issue worth fighting, I don't think their stance would pass muster in court, but its just another example of warranty games in the past couple years.

Maybe you can draw us a little wiring diagram or sketch of how your things are wired in.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I've never wired a winch to a relay or solenoid. Sure you can, but there's a reason most manufacturers recommend good old straight to the battery connections. The winch motor already has solenoids. It's not drawing power when it's not running, even a wireless remote option has no more parasitic draw than the vehicles proximity sensors in my opinion. Our JLUR has sat for weeks in the airport parking lot and fires right up every time.

Like a college prof used to say - just because you've done something that way for xx years doesn't make it right. You got by.

Perhaps not a 392, but a 5.7 would be possible.

and the 5.7 would definitely resolve the OP's battery warranty issue - he'd have none.

 

[Deadeye]

Why is the winch wired directly and not through a switch or solenoid?
If there's a wireless remote control option, it could be drawing power when not in use because it has to be awake to take the wireless remote commands. And of course, the safety aspect.
The compressor should take nothing when not powered on
The light bar should be taking nothing at all when not powered on.

So all I can think of draining power is lack of driving it, lack of long trips- or if the winch has the ability to use a wireless remote.

I was just keeping it simple. I do have a toggle switch in the engine bay that cuts power to the winch unless in use. My winch isn’t remote, just a cabled controller.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

I've never wired a winch to a relay or solenoid. Sure you can, but there's a reason most manufacturers recommend good old straight to the battery connections. The winch motor already has solenoids. It's not drawing power when it's not running, even a wireless remote option has no more parasitic draw than the vehicles proximity sensors in my opinion. Our JLUR has sat for weeks in the airport parking lot and fires right up every time. Odds are its just a falling aux battery being out was within a month of its warranty anyway..

Chances are more likely it's your main battery than your aux battery. The same thing happened on mine and almost identical to yours did and dealership said the main had a few dead cells and replaced it and I haven't had anymore issues. The battery was replaced at 52,000 miles, I still have my original Aux battery installed and I'm at 82,000 miles now. Don't assume both batteries are the problem or it's just the Aux battery.

Also my harbor freight Badlands winch came with a solenoid kill switch to wire between the battery and the winch so when not in use I just turn the switch off and it draws nothing. A winch can absolutely draw enough to drain a battery if a vehicle sits for a few days and can draw from the battery. Most of the not cheaper winch's come with a kill switch nowadays

 

[Zachanadandy]

Chances are more likely it's your main battery than your aux battery. The same thing happened on mine and almost identical to yours did and dealership said the main had a few dead cells and replaced it and I haven't had anymore issues. The battery was replaced at 52,000 miles, I still have my original Aux battery installed and I'm at 82,000 miles now. Don't assume both batteries are the problem or it's just the Aux battery.

Also my harbor freight Badlands battery came with a solenoid kill switch to wire between the battery and the winch so when not in use I just turn the switch off and it draws nothing. A winch can absolutely draw enough to drain a battery if a vehicle sits for a few days and can draw from the battery. Most of the not cheaper winch's come with a kill switch nowadays

Warn not only doesn't provide one, if you call and talk to them they don't recommend one. Even their solenoid kit is listed under rear mounted winch accessories in their catalog as that is a temporary connection and having live wires hanging at the back all the time just isn't necessary. I'm not saying you can't run one, but it's not necessary at all.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Warn not only doesn't provide one, if you call and talk to them they don't recommend one. Even their solenoid kit is listed under rear mounted winch accessories in their catalog as that is a temporary connection and having live wires hanging at the back all the time just isn't necessary. I'm not saying you can't run one, but it's not necessary at all.

I've bought a warn winch that came with one and I know people with warn winch's that have them installed. Other brands provide them as well. You can argue all you want about it but maybe back in the day that didn't but a lot of people use them in today's times. I'm not saying your winch is the problem but it absolutely gives the dealership ammunition to void a warranty if you have it wired directly to the battery without a kill switch. Just saying, my dealership had no problem fixing my battery on mine with a winch installed with a kill switch.

 

[whysoserious]

and the 5.7 would definitely resolve the OP's battery warranty issue - he'd have none.

See? There's no problem the members of this forum can't solve, once we start putting our heads together

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