Dead battery under 20,000 mi.

[NachoRuby]

You are incorrect because you don't know that the software monitors battery voltage and discharge rates. If the system was in good condition, the battery would never be depleted as it is getting charged by the alternator.
The car is programmed to display an error message once battery is below the healthy threshold. You will get stranded and then you will cry on the forum that the car is crap and you had to get a tow and Jeep sucks. A generic message is "Ice Warning". The ESS message you're getting is an error message. It is not normal to get the ESS message when the battery is relatively fresh (under 3-4 years).

No one would know that outside of these forums. The error messages displayed don't often seem to have anything to do with that second battery. The average person would think the alternator/charging system light would light up if there's a charging issue, not an auxillary "switch" warning. If I see an auxillary switch warning, I'm going to think... My auxillary switches aren't working. Not that the battery is dead. It seems like this battery thing causes all sorts of warnings that aren't immediately obvious they are related to the secondary battery. I've seen on here gladiators that wouldn't shift out of park, Gladiators that say vehicle will shut down soon, and this one that mentions the "auxillary switches", not the auxillary battery. None of these warnings would alert most people that it's the secondary battery. Especially if you're not familiar with the issue, and haven't had a vehicle with an aux battery before. If it monitors both batteries, a more apt message would be "Service aux battery", or "service charging system", or something similar.

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[ShadowsPapa]

No one would know that outside of these forums. The error messages displayed don't often seem to have anything to do with that second battery. The average person would think the alternator/charging system light would light up if there's a charging issue, not an auxillary "switch" warning. If I see an auxillary switch warning, I'm going to think... My auxillary switches aren't working. Not that the battery is dead. It seems like this battery thing causes all sorts of warnings that aren't immediately obvious they are related to the secondary battery. I've seen on here gladiators that wouldn't shift out of park, Gladiators that say vehicle will shut down soon, and this one that mentions the "auxillary switches", not the auxillary battery. None of these warnings would alert most people that it's the secondary battery. Especially if you're not familiar with the issue, and haven't had a vehicle with an aux battery before. If it monitors both batteries, a more apt message would be "Service aux battery", or "service charging system", or something similar.

If the vehicle sits for a while, there's enough draw keeping things alive and alert that the aux battery will eventually be low. Check the voltage on these after they sit a while.
There will be an alert if the charging voltage drops too low. I've seen such an alert and a code is usually set. But the battery - aux battery - can be low and things work fine (save for certain accessories like ESS) and cause no harm to anything.
I do get the ESS message as have several others here - it's nothing at all indicating anything is going to blow or fail. It's how things work. (I think one or two keep battery tenders on their trucks as they sit for long periods)
This was truly a non-issue and the OP has nothing to worry about and did nothing wrong.
There was no risk to any electronics. The OP was just trying to let people know - another person had a bad set of batteries.
If it had been a major issue - the thing would have told her it was a major problem.
This got so blown out of proportion.

 

[WendyH]

You didn't do anything wrong. And that includes any thoughts on that message you saw. There was no way to know it would leave you stranded. Many of us get "xxx not ready, battery charging" messages. And normally it works out fine. One Jeep we had gave the messages about ESS not ready and what the dealer said happened is that the AUX battery was bad - and the way these things are designed it apparently can lead to the main battery going belly-up as well.
Mine has operated for OVER 2 years with a "ESS not ready, battery charging" message off and on and I expect that message to come up again when temps get down under 40 degrees or so and yet things work just fine.
If I saw THIS message - "auxillary switch temporarily unavailable battery charging" - I'd not be alarmed. It says "battery charging" and it says "temporarily". If it was ALWAYS there and in conjunction with some other message, I might take note.

There was no chance of any damage. You will get other messages if the voltage gets too low. These are smarter than all that. And I HAVE gotten those messages on other Jeeps.

Thank you, I respect and appreciate your opinion

 

[NachoRuby]

If the vehicle sits for a while, there's enough draw keeping things alive and alert that the aux battery will eventually be low. Check the voltage on these after they sit a while.
There will be an alert if the charging voltage drops too low. I've seen such an alert and a code is usually set. But the battery - aux battery - can be low and things work fine (save for certain accessories like ESS) and cause no harm to anything.
I do get the ESS message as have several others here - it's nothing at all indicating anything is going to blow or fail. It's how things work. (I think one or two keep battery tenders on their trucks as they sit for long periods)
This was truly a non-issue and the OP has nothing to worry about and did nothing wrong.
There was no risk to any electronics. The OP was just trying to let people know - another person had a bad set of batteries.
If it had been a major issue - the thing would have told her it was a major problem.
This got so blown out of proportion.

I agree with the OP. It just seems like the warning system would be better (and the crappy batteries) after 4 years of a known issue, counting the JL. It's a minor issue, but it just seems like it could have been resolved by now. A lot of manufacturs just use a bigger main battery, instead of going with 2 batteries. I'm sure there's a reason they chose to do it this way.

 

[Mr._Bill]

I'm waiting to see if I can get my original batteries replaced under warranty. They have been through three hot summers and still working. I'm at 26k miles and my 36 months will be up next July. The build on my Overland started in March 2019.

 

[psyvad]

Just had both batteries replaced earlier this week at 10 months / 16k miles. About a month ago the "auxillary switch temporarily unavailable battery charging" message started showing just after starting, but I figured that was because of the cold temps. Two weeks ago it wouldn't start, so had to jump start it to get home. Tried it a couple of days later and wouldn't start again. Called the Jeep dealer and the service guy said sometimes the start stop battery has issues and takes out the main battery. I'm hoping it's a one-time issue.

I forgot about the message! Yes, I had a message that started coming up everytime I started it, "auxillary switch temporarily unavailable battery charging". I am new to all of the electronics etc, my last vehicle was a 2003 Jeep Wrangler X with hand crank windows! LOL

 

[ecidiego]

OEM batteries always suck.

Get an X2 Power AGM battery.

 

[DidYouJustGrabMyAss]

I had both of mine replaced within 3k miles.

 

[DAVECS1]

Well your all circling the larger problem in my opinion.

At the end of the day if Jeep is going to have a multi-battery design. It should not allow one bad battery to take down the whole system, yet it does.

For whatever reason the auxiliary battery is the only battery on the circuit that controls the charging relay to the alternator. The relay is needed as the batteries do not charge at the same rate, so if they are not disconnected when the vehicle is off the dead battery will steal the charge from the healthy battery until it dies. You can start to see how this goes off the rails.

On the Jeep system once the aux battery goes, it is a crap shoot on how the charge relay ends up, and eventually you loose either way. If the relay ends up latched closed, and the vehicle sits to long the bad battery kills both batteries and nothing works. If the relay gets stuck in the open position and your starting battery is good, it lets you start but now the truck is on and the battery os not charging, and the aux battery is getting charged but it is broke, and eventually the good battery just runs out of juice, as it is never hooked to the alternator.

There are a couple ways to fix that s debacle that are not entirely to expensive. In my opinion it is a pretty significant design flaw for an OEM. It could lead to some unfortunate consequences during primary operation and as such should of never passed the hazzard analysis or fmea phase.

At some point I will probably fix mine.

 

[ATLTiger]

I took my Launch Edition in and had both batteries replaced under warranty. 26,600 miles.

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