Auxilary Battery Died then Main Battery Died - Important Info

[Reddjeep]

hey all,

so my car wouldn't start. was able to jump it initially and it started. then, at a light, the auto engine off thing turned the engine off and voila....nothing worked anymore. tried to get a jump start, nothing. called jeep and ended up getting towed. apparently, if your aux dies, it'll drain everything. at one point my wipers started going for no reason.

anyway...learned something at the dealer. if you want to jump your car (or get a charge to even close the windows), you'll need 2 packs/charges at the same time to charge both the main battery and the aux battery.

to jump the aux battery, there is are a bunch of posts under the fuse housing on the right. pic attached. attach the red jumper to the one closest to the battery and that'll jump your aux battery (ground goes to any ground).

just thought it was helpful. this double battery thing on the jeep is awful.

thankfully...all covered under warranty, including the towing.

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[Geoarch]

hey all,

so my car wouldn't start. was able to jump it initially and it started. then, at a light, the auto engine off thing turned the engine off and voila....nothing worked anymore. tried to get a jump start, nothing. called jeep and ended up getting towed. apparently, if your aux dies, it'll drain everything. at one point my wipers started going for no reason.

anyway...learned something at the dealer. if you want to jump your car (or get a charge to even close the windows), you'll need 2 packs/charges at the same time to charge both the main battery and the aux battery.

to jump the aux battery, there is are a bunch of posts under the fuse housing on the right. pic attached. attach the red jumper to the one closest to the battery and that'll jump your aux battery (ground goes to any ground).

just thought it was helpful. this double battery thing on the jeep is awful.

thankfully...all covered under warranty, including the towing.

My daughter’s Compass did the same thing. A dead solenoid.

 

[Rockabillyroy]

There's a video from barlow adventures showing them hooking up only the first post and not the main battery to jump start and it worked.

 

[jebiruph]

Here's my explanation of why jump starting from that N1 terminal works when jumpstarting from the battery doesn't. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...in-battery-vs-n1-terminal.87726/#post-1865810

 

[Reddjeep]

Wish I knew this before. Could've saved 3 hours in towing and side of the road time.

Quick question now that I know about this secret terminal. I leave my gladiator in the garage for 8 weeks and use a battery tender / trickle charger connected to the main battery.

Should I connect one to the N1 terminal too? Or will the aux battery piggy back off of the trickle of the main battery? Or should I just hook it up to the N1 terminal?

 

[bgenlvtex]

Agreed, that is a terrible design and worse execution.

Good post on jump starting though, important to note that if you jump your vehicle you should immediately disable the auto start "feature" to avoid what happened here.

"Feature", LOL no it is a flaw.

 

[Chocolyle]

Okay, so what company will be the first to come up with a kit to get rid of the AUX battery and make this simple?? I checked out the ESS jump starting article, WTH!!??

 

[IamPro2A]

I wonder if installing a battery isolator like many boats have between the 2 batteries would fix at least some of the issues?

I used to run one in my truck back in the old days of high wattage halogen lights and high wattage sound systems. I ran the offroad lights, winch and the amps off the secondary battery so I never worried about killing my starting battery.

 

[22EcoDs]

Okay, so what company will be the first to come up with a kit to get rid of the AUX battery and make this simple?? I checked out the ESS jump starting article, WTH!!??

I believe someone on the forum already did a dual battery delete. Was able to run both circuits off the main. Another member did a larger secondary battery too.

 

[Mr._Bill]

Okay, so what company will be the first to come up with a kit to get rid of the AUX battery and make this simple?? I checked out the ESS jump starting article, WTH!!??

Genesis Dual Battery Kit has been available for a long time.
https://www.genesisoffroad.com/jt-dual-battery-kit

 

[Reddjeep]

Any advice on how to best put on a trickle charger for long-term storage?

Also thinking of getting a second set of jumper cables and creating a short cable from the red cable to hook up between the positive of the main and the N1 terminal. Not sure if that's a good idea so I'm asking. (only if needed while jumping a dead battery as I was told by the service guy that this is a recurring problem)

 

[WhyNotJeep]

The more I learn about this Jeep the more is scares me. My ESS has not worked since I bought it and I did a trickle charge on the main battery. Still not working. When it starts working I'll be trying to turn it off. LOL.

 

[BAT]

Yep just had mine die and same it took out the whole truck. Jeep replaced the Aux Battery and all seems fine now

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You can often jump start the dual battery jeep the old fashioned way and I've done it several times. My wife's WK2 had the same exact setup. The AUX battery went bad. I jumped started her Jeep from my Jeep, no issues at all - with a bad aux battery. I had my truck running the whole time, left the cables on for a couple of minutes before we cranked her Jeep and it took right off.

The dealer said her aux battery had gone bad and was draining the main or crank battery every time I charged things. It got to the point that charging did no good - take the charger off and the voltage was barely 11 volts.

You can also charge both without doing any more than taking the IBS off the negative terminal of the main battery IF the N3 fuse is good. No need to take a ton of things off and apart. Just separate things at the negative terminal on the crank battery.

Connect one charger to the positive cables on the main battery and the other to the cable you lift off the main battery negative terminal - that'll charge the aux battery if the fuses are all good.
Then the other charger connects to the negative post of the main battery and the positive cables at the main battery.
I charged both batteries at the same time using two chargers by only taking the IBS with the negative cables off the main battery neg terminal.

If the N3 fuse is blown, you can't charge the aux battery like I've outlined...........

 

[WhyNotJeep]

I guess I need to look at the N3 fuse.

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