Battery problems

[sidedrifter]

Well the hated battery failure got our 21 Mojave with 3000 miles on it this morning. and now a 2 week wait for the dealer to get the parts, They said both battery s failed. Good thing is we don't need it. we have 2 other rigs to drive.

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[dmwphoto]

Yea a 21 with 3000 miles on it……you don’t need it much
Sorry for your troubles

 

[Hootbro]

How often did it sit not being driven? Did you use a trickle charger for any long sits?

 

[sidedrifter]

The JT is still sitting at the dealer and still no battery's 4 weeks is unexceptionable!!! Lythia in Medford, Oregon is the dealer. Very bad service!!!

 

[HopSlammer]

Hundreds of pages on here regarding batteries prematurely failing. Dealers are finding it difficult to keep replacement OEM batteries in stock in my area too. It’s obviously a huge ongoing problem yet Jeep only covers the costs to repair during the original warranty. Waiting weeks for parts all while the sun shines has got to be painful. Got my fingers crossed for ya.

 

[Killroy Was Here]

"unexceptionable!"

Is that a word??

 

[BearDog]

A while back my '20 main battery decided it was done. Dealer said "3 week" wait. Mine is my daily so that was a no-go for me. I went to the parts store and bought a new one. Bigger and more amp hours. Left the stock fiber dust cover off.

A couple weeks ago my aux battery started going out. Will be doing the aux delete in the next few weeks to resolve that. This dual battery system is stupid.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

How often did it sit not being driven? Did you use a trickle charger for any long sits?

When I see a very low miles vehicle with battery issues, that's my first instinct - parasitic draw + vehicle sitting for 3 or 4 days at a time = battery failure unless maintained.

Hundreds of pages on here regarding batteries prematurely failing. Dealers are finding it difficult to keep replacement OEM batteries in stock in my area too. It’s obviously a huge ongoing problem yet Jeep only covers the costs to repair during the original warranty. Waiting weeks for parts all while the sun shines has got to be painful. Got my fingers crossed for ya.

It's not just a Jeep issue although they seem to be having a worse time. Found out from another fellow in the local NAPA distribution center while I was there for a battery for my car - he can't make batteries in his cars last more than 3 years. Hmmm, sounds familiar.

Anyway, unless you drive these enough - and that means more than 30 minutes at a time, and more than every 3 or 4 days, the batteries will sit at 50% charge or less, and grossly lose capacity over time. There's a ton of info out there - real info, not from forums and anecdotal, explaining how sitting at a reduced state of charge (SoC) a battery will lose capacity over time. The lower the SoC, the worse it gets.
"but I drive it to work and back" - and if that is less than a few minutes a trip - so what, doesn't count.
The last few percentage of charge is the hardest to get into a battery so your drives of 30 minutes or less may keep it at 60 or 70%, but it takes a whole lot longer to go from 85 or 90% up to 100%.
I can use a charger and get a battery to 90+ % in short order, then it sits for another couple of hours to get to 100%. If you think an alternator running at 14-14.5 volts is gonna cut it on short commutes, think again.

As far as Jeep warranty - most battery warranties have shrunken badly in in the last few years.
A $170 NAPA battery is warranted for a whopping 4 years and then if it fails after 3, you pretty much still buy a new battery.
So really, Jeep covering the original batteries for 3 years isn't far from a battery industry standard these days.

I encourage Jeep (or heck, Ford, Chevy, Hyundai, whatever) owners to open the hood, use a volt meter on the battery terminals and measure the voltage of the battery in their vehicle. If it's like I suspect, 12.5 or less, you need to either drive it more, or put a good charge into it and try to keep it above that range.
Fully charged AGM batteries with no load should read 12.7-12.8 (depending on brand, etc.)
With the load of the Jeep, it's unlikely to read that unless you JUST got done driving it for an extended period.
Once they get down to the area below 12.5, and they sit like that or lower, you are giving away battery capacity and life.
A battery can easily start a modern engine but still have no capacity to run a marathon - I hear out there on the fakebook pages "yeah, but it still starts fine". To that I'd love to say "so what, that only means it's got some short term life to it and your engine starts easily - as it should."

 

[Pstores]

Another thread @JeepCares

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