Aux battery delete???

[Tommyd]

And perhaps you don't need to respond to every posting. Take a rest. Jus' sayin"

He’s trying to keep people from thinking false information. There is a lot of that out there.

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[Glad23]

Picked up my 23 Gladiator 2 months ago. Currently using the ESS system as designed. However I disconnected the aux battery on our 2019 GC when we took delivery in 2019. Each startup activates the chime, briefly shows the disable message on the dash, and activates the indicator light. No problems for 40,000+ miles. Don't know if the eliminator device is worth the cost.

 

[legacy_etu]

I've just made pushing the button another thing that I do in my startup sequence.
Buckle up
Start
Turn on my light switch one click
Press the ESS button

There's a lots of ways around it and they're all simple and easy. The hood pin is another one, but I don't like annoying lights on the display.

Ha, the "startup sequence" . Just be glad we're not driving Bronco's. To hear them tell it , they have to hit like 10 buttons to setup stuff before driving off. They complain about it being like running thru a startup sequence for flying a plane! HA, LOL.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

I think our factory charging systems suck. I’ve been driving for nearly 40 years and can someone tell me why, with this JT, I need to have a battery charger close by to keep these batteries charged? I have never in all my other miles put behind me in other vehicles, easily 30 plus vehicles in my care, have I needed to be so “up” on the batteries. ??

A couple months back i turfed both my factory batteries for a big ass H7 Optima yellow top and upgraded the aux (non Mopar) with real hope that id finally be able to uninstall my battery tender charger and just forget about having to maintain the charge on both. I was having to hook up the charger every 3-4 days to bring the 12.4v back up to 12.7-13v. The wife and I got tired of the ritual so I convinced her we needed to roll the dice on the most expensively convenient available batteries I could find and did the root canal from up top and yanked them both. Laid out a good $800+ Canadian dollars and got it done. I decided to keep the aux system because, in my mind, I was of the belief, ‘there’s nothing wrong with the system as it is engineered. The batteries are bad’. So while everybody else was turfing the little guy, I decided to keep it and see what happens.

The dash charge indicator eluded to nothing wrong, showing typical charge numbers 13-14ishV. I also independently charged both batteries to 13+v, uninstalled the tender and reset the IBS and put both these bad boys in there place.

I forgot about them for the first 3 weeks since putting them in because were suppose to forget about them and drove all over mid to southern Alberta enjoying the summer and Fall. After about the first 3 weeks or so I had this little inclination to hook up the multimeter and do a load test.

(Someone recently told me I have problems because I go looking for it.. hmmmm, I am on top of most things and maybe that even explains why our health and financial systems are so bad…??) ‘just leave it alone and the whole world would just heal and recover on its own

My load test showed 12.4v?! What? So I hooked up my charger until it shut itself off and said full. Another 2- 3 weeks go by and the load test says 12.4v again. Then ….? the wife caught me taking off the battery charger the other morning and because she doesn’t understand just how finicky this system is, put on her army boots and reminded me of all the hundreds of dollars we paid to have the best batteries put in and what the frI$&k I was doing with having to charge them again??!

IDK. I tried to help her understand the data that said the old system needed to be charged every 3-4 days and now the new system needs it every 2-3 weeks….. it wasn’t a pleasant conversation to say the least and here I am defending and deflecting because I don’t get it.

I have a theory… the battery monitoring system, “the brain” or what ever, doesn’t like the batteries to be “full” so it dumps the charge out some ‘back door’ to keep them …depleted for some good reason. Maybe full batteries all the time have a greater chance to self ignite ??.

Crazy thought?

 

[obrianmcc]

I chose to delete my AUX over a year ago and replaced the main with an Odyssey 48-720 ... all systems work as designed. The ESS system will error out after six cycles, but will reset at the next restart. I rarely see six cycles and really don't pay much attention to it.

For those who state the AUX isn't an issue ... I call BS. My AUX died and then took out the starter battery with it. Luckily I did not experience the no start and inability to jump start, but given the few who have ... I opted to go the delete route. My time is too valuable to run back and forth to play the warranty game. I also do regularly travel into remote locations and I wanted to lesson my chance of being stranded due to a battery issue.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The problem is - I see a lot of repeating what has been read or what people have "been told" on the internet, with no evidence or testing or information to otherwise back it.
The internet - first person says "my aux battery died and took out the main battery. I could not jump it".
Another person ends up with dead batteries and reads that as the explanation and posts "the aux battery in my Jeep went bad and took out the main battery".
And on and on it goes. And yet no one can show anything other than "because I said so" or because "it's all over the internet, that's exactly what happens".
As a former professional troubleshooter (yes, I've been hired to places specifically for that very purpose - a troubleshooter, problem solver) I see too much speculation, no supporting evidence. Also knowing batteries and electric systems - it just doesn't always fit, in fact, not really typically for that matter.

I am NOT saying or even suggesting that it never happens or can't happen. I'm saying - it's become fact because Jeep people keep repeating it over and over - and the next person who has a dead battery and a Jeep that won't start will make yet another post claiming "my aux battery died and took out the main battery" - because it's been suggested or even drummed into their heads - that's how it works - and not just sometimes, but almost all the time.

Knowing how people in general are, and sorry, but I'd say even especially too many Jeep people who pride themselves on DIY and knowing their Jeeps and learning from the internet - I can safely say, many of those cases are wrong, and many times the inability to jump the vehicle isn't the Jeep situation, it's the person doing the work.
No one connects and sits back for a minute these days. Hey, I insist I keep moving, go go go go, jump it, start it and move on - I don't have time to do it right! (and following directions isn't the manly thing to do as Red Green rightly says)

A battery can go bad and drain the other battery - but, there are so many different scenarios under which batteries go bad, and how they go bad, and the time the one could possibly drain the other, it's really not that easy to drain a battery down to not cranking the vehicle and that battery be ruined. If that was the case then any vehicle with a large parasitic drain (including normal stuff, or accessories/lights left on, whatever) would mean that battery would be ruined and need to be replaced. Just doesn't happen that often. As long as a battery isn't shorted and drained fast causing internal heat damage, it can usually be charged up again.

My thinking is that in many of these cases, the main battery goes bad, the aux battery has been going south for a while but is ignore because who cares if the ESS doesn't work, and that aux switch voltage message - heck it goes away..........
So I'd bet that in many of those cases, the aux battery was losing it, lost capacity, the main battery finally went south and then the Jeep wouldn't start - both batteries were checked, and the aux battery was blamed for the whole thing.

I could lay out a list of ways batteries can go bad - and in many of those ways, it's little or even no impact on the other battery, and where there is impact, unless that bad battery is shorted inside, it's not going to "ruin" the other battery.

I just see to much bad information repeated over and over, mostly from people with no experience with batteries or electric systems, and some if it comes just simply from pure hate and annoyance that such a system should even exist.
Worse is when Jeep is blamed for it - when Jeep only adopted what others invented before them.

There are times when I wish I was still active working in a shop taking in such vehicles...... but then by the time they come in, it's too late, the damage has been done (and I don't mean because of the aux battery)

How many people connect jumper cables, increase the idle on the "donor" vehicle and wait 1 or 2 full minutes before trying to start the dead vehicle?
Very few, I'd bet.

How many people connect a jump pack or booster, and fairly quickly get in and try to start the dead vehicle?
I'd suspect quite a few......... and they believe that jump pack has enough energy stored in it to overcome 2 dead batteries, or even one very dead battery? Yeah, ok.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

You could just press the button, I mean all that for that.

 

[WendyH]

Thanks... so now I just need a tazer to cutoff the ESS! Gotcha

What is a tazer?

 

[Mr._Bill]

What is a tazer?

Expensive.

https://www.zautomotive.com/

 

[WendyH]

Expensive.

https://www.zautomotive.com/

I guess so! Thank you

 

[Mr._Bill]

I guess so! Thank you

There are several options available if you want the truck to remember to turn ESS off for you.

@SmartStopStart.com is a forum sponsor.
https://www.smartstopstart.com/jeep-dodge-chrysler-products.html

I do recommend getting the Security Gateway extension cable set from ZAutomotive ($30).

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Just make sure you spell it correctly or it will cost from $1,000 on up............

If your main concern is ESS - you can save money and do nothing but push the button on the dash, or spend only $100 and get an ESS kill device.
My option was to do nothing and let it work, if I get into a ton of stop/start traffic like in the Atlanta area, I push the button to disable it.

 

[sharpsicle]

Just make sure you spell it correctly or it will cost from $1,000 on up............

If your main concern is ESS - you can save money and do nothing but push the button on the dash, or spend only $100 and get an ESS kill device.
My option was to do nothing and let it work, if I get into a ton of stop/start traffic like in the Atlanta area, I push the button to disable it.

Damn, you beat me to it!

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Just make sure you spell it correctly or it will cost from $1,000 on up............

If your main concern is ESS - you can save money and do nothing but push the button on the dash, or spend only $100 and get an ESS kill device.
My option was to do nothing and let it work, if I get into a ton of stop/start traffic like in the Atlanta area, I push the button to disable it.

Dang, that's free to do. You mean I can not spend a few hundred dollars And waste my time and just push a button, imagine that. Those engineers at FCA thought of it all

 

[OldSarge]

Ha, the "startup sequence" . Just be glad we're not driving Bronco's. To hear them tell it , they have to hit like 10 buttons to setup stuff before driving off. They complain about it being like running thru a startup sequence for flying a plane! HA, LOL.

Naaaa, I have a Bronco and a JT, no difference in start up except that the Bronco accelerates when you push the skinny pedal. That said, I drive the JT daily and wife drives the Bronco. She loves it. I actually prefer the JT.

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