Dead battery

[Hootbro]

Thanks
Honestly I'm baffled now as what my electric issue could be. The abs, traction control, 4serv lights are all on and the battery is draining (I disconnect the loaner so I can ensure it starts Thurs for the appointment).
Hoping it's something dumb and I can get back to enjoying the new tot

There is no telling what exactly it could be other than somewhat educated stabbing guesses here.

I can say from working on aircraft electrical/electronic systems and there is a problem and somebody has worked on it before recently, rechecking their work is a top priority.

It's plausible the batteries got spanked if they drained low enough or may one or both just need a good long slow charge. Having the dealership look at it under the guise of warranty submittal may or may not work out in your favor. If they trace it back to the step or air pump install, then that is going to be on your dime and you will then have to try to get your pound of flesh back from the installer. If they replace the batteries under warranty, then no harm, no foul.

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[tysongladiator]

Thanks
Honestly I'm baffled now as what my electric issue could be. The abs, traction control, 4serv lights are all on and the battery is draining (I disconnect the loaner so I can ensure it starts Thurs for the appointment).
Hoping it's something dumb and I can get back to enjoying the new tot

I'd like to offer a suggestion. And this may be something that you and/or the shop may have already checked. Make sure all connections are checked. There's a reason I say this. I did a video on my YT channel back in 2020. I had a few of the same symptoms as yourself. Dealer checked it out and nothing. I'm out looking and still trying to find the issue. All of a sudden I give the negative battery terminal a little tug and it came right off. I tightened it as tight as I could get it and that didn't work. The dealer even got another terminal from a JL and that didn't work. For some strange reason, the battery terminal was too small. The dealer tried to blame it on me saying that I must have been using a battery terminal cleaner and made it small. Yea whatever!!!!! I bought a set of battery terminal shims from the auto parts store and everything worked great for about another 30,000 miles until I hit about 52,000 miles and had to change the batteries.

BLUF: Had I not been just randomly physically checking everything, I would not have found it. Here is the video back from 2020 when I found the issue. Fast forward to the 5:35 mark past all of my talking? and you'll see where I found it. May or may not be what's going on with yours, but just a suggestion.

 

[Alwaysthinking]

I'd like to offer a suggestion. And this may be something that you and/or the shop may have already checked. Make sure all connections are checked. There's a reason I say this. I did a video on my YT channel back in 2020. I had a few of the same symptoms as yourself. Dealer checked it out and nothing. I'm out looking and still trying to find the issue. All of a sudden I give the negative battery terminal a little tug and it came right off. I tightened it as tight as I could get it and that didn't work. The dealer even got another terminal from a JL and that didn't work. For some strange reason, the battery terminal was too small. The dealer tried to blame it on me saying that I must have been using a battery terminal cleaner and made it small. Yea whatever!!!!! I bought a set of battery terminal shims from the auto parts store and everything worked great for about another 30,000 miles until I hit about 52,000 miles and had to change the batteries.

BLUF: Had I not been just randomly physically checking everything, I would not have found it. Here is the video back from 2020 when I found the issue. Fast forward to the 5:35 mark past all of my talking? and you'll see where I found it. May or may not be what's going on with yours, but just a suggestion.

Thanks I'll spend some time tomorrow checking all the ground points and connections

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The dealer tried to blame it on me saying that I must have been using a battery terminal cleaner and made it small. Yea whatever!!!!!

Holy cow, it would take a lot of cleaning to take away that much material. I have a Craftsman termina cleaner from the 70s that has 3 "blades" in it that takes of an extremely small amount to clean the terminals and you can clean the terminals every year and not make them too small.

As far as batteries - dead - can harm them if fully emptied, but even then a GOOD charger will usually recover them. Again, I keep saying a GOOD quality charger. You truly get what you pay for and there's reasons the best are up there in $$. A good charger can take a flat battery and bring it back in most cases.

A bad terminal connection can do weird stuff, not unlike a battery issue.

Still, what happened with the installer bugs me.

 

[HooliganActual]

Obviously I can only make guesses based on the information you have provided but I kinda feel like you've solved/answered your own question.

and the installer told me the next day the battery was dead and I had a short (he has done all work to date)

Sounds like the installer accidentally drained one or both of the batteries. I'm not vilifying your installer but maybe he did something during his install (like, who knows, left your headlights on accidentally and didn't realize it):

The next day he called back and said he left something on and after removing it he was able to charge it up and we brought it home

That literally makes it sounds like he drained the batteries twice but maybe that's not what you meant.

Maybe the batteries were already weak (I'll get to that in a minute) and whatever he "left on" drained them enough to prevent starting. You haven't said what voltage they dropped to; it could have been just below the minimum necessary starting voltage but not actually drained to zero. Typically when someone "needs a jump" it's not because battery voltage is 0, it's because it's 12.3V (or something similar) and it just needs a little help.

Then you say he "charged them up":

The next day he called back and said he left something on and after removing it he was able to charge it up and we brought it home

but as @ShadowsPapa has said:

Charge the batteries with a good AGM charger. It takes hours if the batteries are very low.

So that begs the question how much he charged them up and was it just enough to get the vehicle to start and not a full charge. This makes me return to my previous statement about the batteries being weak: if he didn't give both batteries a full charge, how many miles/minutes did you drive it between him getting it started at his shop and you trying to start it two days later?

Unless you drove it A LOT, you probably never got a full charge on those batteries getting it from the shop to your house.

The next day he called back and said he left something on and after removing it he was able to charge it up and we brought it home

As has been already discussed, there is a parasitic load created by those RSE steps and as has not already been discussed, there is a considerable parasitic load in these Gladiators already; you can search this forum and find numerous discussions where people haven't driven their Gladiators for a couple of weeks and the perfectly good batteries are dead.

So after that diatribe I'd summarize, before you knee jerk on battery replacement and battery deletes and a bunch of other troubleshooting, just make sure you have 2 good fully charged batteries before you do anything else. That's the starting point from which you need to begin your troubleshooting. Based on the information presented, I'm not convinced you have anything going on other than accidentally drained batteries that have never been properly recharged.


Now for your next question:

2. The dealer isn't dumb and I'm sure the jeep computer records the changes I made with the tazer (tire size) if I'm asked is it better to just say yes I have a third party module or no say nothing?

Personally, I have never had an issue with the two dealers I visit for service with regards to the Tazer. I literally tell the service advisor "I have a Tazer installed. Please tell the tech not to do any updates to the computer or you will 'brick' the Gladiator." I've never had them refuse service or blame anything else on the Tazer, because a service team worth their salt knows that the Tazer isn't going to be responsible for a given problem.

One time, the Service Advisor forgot to tell the Tech and the Tech tried to do a software update and it did literally "brick" the computer. After messing with the software for about an hour, the SA came to me all apologetic that something was wrong and they couldn't figure it out. I asked him "Did you forget I told you I have a Tazer installed?" So, I went out to the service bay, unmarried the Tazer, and then the Tech did the software update (with the Tazer installed, the security gateway is disabled and the software update can't install).

My point here is that it's probably best to unmarry the Tazer before taking it to the dealership to avoid that folly. They will never know that a Tazer was installed and even if they did, it shouldn't matter...but...YMMV.

 

[HooliganActual]

Still, what happened with the installer bugs me.

This ^^^ 100%

 

[Alwaysthinking]

Obviously I can only make guesses based on the information you have provided but I kinda feel like you've solved/answered your own question.

Sounds like the installer accidentally drained one or both of the batteries. I'm not vilifying your installer but maybe he did something during his install (like, who knows, left your headlights on accidentally and didn't realize it):

That literally makes it sounds like he drained the batteries twice but maybe that's not what you meant.

Maybe the batteries were already weak (I'll get to that in a minute) and whatever he "left on" drained them enough to prevent starting. You haven't said what voltage they dropped to; it could have been just below the minimum necessary starting voltage but not actually drained to zero. Typically when someone "needs a jump" it's not because battery voltage is 0, it's because it's 12.3V (or something similar) and it just needs a little help.

Then you say he "charged them up":

but as @ShadowsPapa has said:

So that begs the question how much he charged them up and was it just enough to get the vehicle to start and not a full charge. This makes me return to my previous statement about the batteries being weak: if he didn't give both batteries a full charge, how many miles/minutes did you drive it between him getting it started at his shop and you trying to start it two days later?

Unless you drove it A LOT, you probably never got a full charge on those batteries getting it from the shop to your house.

As has been already discussed, there is a parasitic load created by those RSE steps and as has not already been discussed, there is a considerable parasitic load in these Gladiators already; you can search this forum and find numerous discussions where people haven't driven their Gladiators for a couple of weeks and the perfectly good batteries are dead.

So after that diatribe I'd summarize, before you knee jerk on battery replacement and battery deletes and a bunch of other troubleshooting, just make sure you have 2 good fully charged batteries before you do anything else. That's the starting point from which you need to begin your troubleshooting. Based on the information presented, I'm not convinced you have anything going on other than accidentally drained batteries that have never been properly recharged.


Now for your next question:

Personally, I have never had an issue with the two dealers I visit for service with regards to the Tazer. I literally tell the service advisor "I have a Tazer installed. Please tell the tech not to do any updates to the computer or you will 'brick' the Gladiator." I've never had them refuse service or blame anything else on the Tazer, because a service team worth their salt knows that the Tazer isn't going to be responsible for a given problem.

One time, the Service Advisor forgot to tell the Tech and the Tech tried to do a software update and it did literally "brick" the computer. After messing with the software for about an hour, the SA came to me all apologetic that something was wrong and they couldn't figure it out. I asked him "Did you forget I told you I have a Tazer installed?" So, I went out to the service bay, unmarried the Tazer, and then the Tech did the software update (with the Tazer installed, the security gateway is disabled and the software update can't install).

My point here is that it's probably best to unmarry the Tazer before taking it to the dealership to avoid that folly. They will never know that a Tazer was installed and even if they did, it shouldn't matter...but...YMMV.

Thank you for an informative reply

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