Auxilary Battery - Gladiator

[dcompton]

Help! I bought a 2021 Gladiator 10 days ago. I'm female, not a automotive gal, just liked the look of the Gladiator. Twice before the jeep would not open with my fob. Both times I caught a ride, brought back the second fob and it opened. Yesterday, neither fob would unlock the jeep. I called roadside assistance and soon the fob did work to unlock. I decided to drive directly to the dealership for help. Four times during that attempt, the Jeep completely lost power in traffic, would not restart as if I had no key. In frustration I pushed every fob button and finally the jeep would recognize the fobs and restart. After the fourth scare, I pulled off the road and again called Chrysler Roadside Assistance (which took 4 hours to come help).
The Gladiator is now at the dealership and they are telling me I have a faulty auxiliary battery. Has anyone else had this experience?

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[WK2JT]

Help! I bought a 2021 Gladiator 10 days ago. I'm female, not a automotive gal, just liked the look of the Gladiator. Twice before the jeep would not open with my fob. Both times I caught a ride, brought back the second fob and it opened. Yesterday, neither fob would unlock the jeep. I called roadside assistance and soon the fob did work to unlock. I decided to drive directly to the dealership for help. Four times during that attempt, the Jeep completely lost power in traffic, would not restart as if I had no key. In frustration I pushed every fob button and finally the jeep would recognize the fobs and restart. After the fourth scare, I pulled off the road and again called Chrysler Roadside Assistance (which took 4 hours to come help).
The Gladiator is now at the dealership and they are telling me I have a faulty auxiliary battery. Has anyone else had this experience?

Yeah, there are a few threads on here about the aux (start/stop) battery. Have a search as there is a lot of info on it.

 

[Mark Doiron]

FYI, the aux battery is a small motorcycle battery mounted underneath the main battery. It provides power in certain situations when its desirable to avoid draining the main battery--for example, while stopped at a light and the engine automatic stop-start engages. This is the aux battery, exposed when I removed the start (main) battery and mounting tray to replace the aux battery with a full-size battery ...

This may suggest (I drive a manual and hold the clutch in at lights, so never see stop-start engage) that if you have an automatic transmission and had you pressed the button to turn off the automatic stop-start, that once you got it started you'd have been able to drive it to the dealer without further interruption. Just something to keep in mind.

You do have to press that button every time you start the Gladiator, however, for it to turn off the automatic stop-start. If you drive a manual, just hold the clutch in and leave the Jeep in gear, ready to go when the light changes.

 

[GrubbyBaja]

On a side note, recommend you take a quick look at the owner's manual regarding the fob and key access. The fob has a mechanical key that can be used to unlock the door. Additionally, if the fob battery dies (or in your case the aux battery has problems), the fob can still start the vehicle if you use the fob to press the start button ( however, your aux battery issue may have prevented this from working). As others stated, once vehicle started, immediately turn off the ASS (auto-start-stop).

 

[jeremydepp50]

Yeah, there are a few threads on here about the aux (start/stop) battery. Have a search as there is a lot of info on it.

Well that sucks and another reason not to like the Start Stop system if there is no over-ride.

 

[Sparty]

Well that sucks and another reason not to like the Start Stop system if there is no over-ride.

There's an override - it just needs to be pressed every time you start the vehicle.

Becomes muscle memory after a while

 

[brianinca]

I use a Tazer Mini and keep the ASS setting OFF. Lots of other benefits to the Tazer but that was the first thing I had to have!

Well that sucks and another reason not to like the Start Stop system if there is no over-ride.

 

[seasure1]

Just installed an autostop eliminator. Best money I spent so far took 10 minutes to install

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Help! I bought a 2021 Gladiator 10 days ago. I'm female, not a automotive gal, just liked the look of the Gladiator. Twice before the jeep would not open with my fob. Both times I caught a ride, brought back the second fob and it opened. Yesterday, neither fob would unlock the jeep. I called roadside assistance and soon the fob did work to unlock. I decided to drive directly to the dealership for help. Four times during that attempt, the Jeep completely lost power in traffic, would not restart as if I had no key. In frustration I pushed every fob button and finally the jeep would recognize the fobs and restart. After the fourth scare, I pulled off the road and again called Chrysler Roadside Assistance (which took 4 hours to come help).
The Gladiator is now at the dealership and they are telling me I have a faulty auxiliary battery. Has anyone else had this experience?

Yes - BOTH batteries had to be replaced on our Grand Cherokee - both the main and the aux battery. The dealer ship said there's been a rash of bad batteries, they've replaced a lot in different Jeep models.

 

[Mike the mechanic]

Dealership replaced my auxiliary battery yesterday. 2020 Overland less than 3k miles. The first sign of it going bad for me was that the auto stop quit working. Next both batteries would be dead if it sat a couple of days.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Dealership replaced my auxiliary battery yesterday. 2020 Overland less than 3k miles. The first sign of it going bad for me was that the auto stop quit working. Next both batteries would be dead if it sat a couple of days.

I thought the name of the group was Mike AND the Mechanics.. oh, well.
Holy cow, dude, you have some plaques and certs there.

Anyway, that's the exact same symptoms as my wife saw on her 2018 Grand Cherokee.
The ESS stopped working - she doesn't drive the Jeep all that much (2.8 years, 13,000 miles) so it does sit. After a few days she was going to meet some friends and it wouldn't start. I charged it a while, then jumped it for her and she was fine the rest of the day and into the next. It sat another week - same thing, dead battery, I did the same thing........
Then a third time. I finally said - time to take it in, it's under warranty. She mentioned other stuff that stopped working as well and I asked her when - oh, about the same time the battery started going dead. OK, it's all related, dead battery, ESS..........
Dealer said BOTH batteries were bad and they have been seeing a lot of bad batteries - I asked ESS/aux or main or both? They said BOTH. Apparently dating back to at least the 2018 model year, Jeep has gotten some bad batteries. And it's impacting everything from '18 forward from how they talk.

 

[Willys2Gladiator]

Great!!! Im sure no TSB but rather wait till your having issues to get fixed.
They should be able to figure out what model and years are effected and get them replaced. I'm sure they can pass the cost on to the battery manufacturer.

Come on Jeep! Bronco is coming so take care of us so we don't stray.

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