Dealer service story , ESS related .

[Junker21]

So ESS has not worked for awhile . Always showed " not ready " . I knew from these forums that it was probably a battery issue . Truck has 6k miles , build date
4/2021 . Voltage would be 12.1 / 12.2 after an overnight . Not normal . Service advisor was well aware of the aux battery issues but said they had to charge
the battery for 4 hours before they could load test it . Main battery tested ok , aux was not . They replaced only the aux battery . I see some people get both
as a matter of course .Oh well .
In my research about this I watched a YouTube by [Banned Site] . Highly recommend . He replaced both batterys in 15 min by going from in from the top , removing the fuse box etc . Some comments said this was factory procedure , some said they get in by way of the wheel well by removing the fender liner .
When I got home I thought I'd see if how they did it . Here"s what I found .

Yeah , obviously thru the fender well . Jeez !!!!

I also got a Jeep Cares oil change and made a point of telling them that last time they overfilled by a quart . Got it right this time .
Was told it would take a day or so for ESS start working but it kicked in on the drive home . I don't care about ESS but I didn't want it to take down the main battery
like other people have experienced .

I was wondering how this might end up for lots of people . Would the screws fall out on the garage floor and give them a flat tire ?
Would the fender liner start flapping in the breeze ? Maybe nothing ?
It reminds me of a Dealer experience my sister had with a new car I helped her buy . 10,000 miles and they sold her on a fuel injection treatment for
$200 . I got it reversed with a phone call but so so many people are at the mercy of dealers and shops it makes me crazy !

Rant over !

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[Hootbro]

If you get a visit survey, thrash them. Then when the Service Manager calls you all boo-hoo, just ask for his email and send the pics.

 

[ecidiego]

Scumbags.

Actually that's an insult to bags filled with scum.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

There's a reason they go in via the fender liner - the books says to. And they get paid flat rate, not by experimenting or trying other methods. Owners can do what they want, dealers have to follow procedures or miss getting paid back by Jeep.
If you are paying you'd have a right to have them do it how you wanted, assuming you promised to pay extra for any issues when disconnecting the PDC, and so on. There's a risk disconnecting that stuff, especially when the "book" says for warranty work, this is how you do it.
Had they removed the PDC and done it like owners do - what if something had gone wrong, poor connection, electrical issues later - it has happened to users here who have removed that and not gotten things exactly right going back in.

But to screw up the book procedure like that - that's a different animal!
Be happy they didn't remove the PDC! Imagine the issues you'd be having.

 

[Largemarge_JT]

I’m also having the ESS issues. Message always shows as “not ready, battery charging”. I also do not care about the feature but want to avoid it taking out the main battery. Curious does anyone know if I simply disable ESS altogether using a tazer Will this solve the issue of ESS potentially taking out my main battery?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I’m also having the ESS issues. Message always shows as “not ready, battery charging”. I also do not care about the feature but want to avoid it taking out the main battery. Curious does anyone know if I simply disable ESS altogether using a tazer Will this solve the issue of ESS potentially taking out my main battery?

No, it will not. The batteries are connected in parallel. It won't impact anything other than turn off ESS.
It's not ESS taking out batteries.

 

[dcmdon]

No, it will not. The batteries are connected in parallel. It won't impact anything other than turn off ESS.
It's not ESS taking out batteries.

What if you were to jumper the main battery to the Aux battery terminals so they were both being fed by the main battery along with disabling the ESS.

I would think that would work?

I say this as someone who is conflicted on the ESS. On one hand I spend about 2/3 of my time living in an urban area and it does save me a lot of fuel. On the other hand it complicates and makes a battery change more expensive.

Thoughts??

A friend just changed both batteries in his Pacifica minivan. Its got 55k and is 3 years old. He did the work himself and both batteries cost him $300.

Amazingly, the battery in my wife's 2015 Volvo is still going.

 

[Pescado]

I had both batteries replaced about 6 weeks ago. I'm just wondering if the aux battery will be dead again in another year.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

What if you were to jumper the main battery to the Aux battery terminals so they were both being fed by the main battery along with disabling the ESS.

They are already connected. Sitting in your garage, they are connected together, driving they are connected together. Sitting at a stop light with ESS turned off, they are connected together.
The only time they are not is during an ESS initiated engine stop, then they are not connected together.
So - there's nothing to jumper. That's why some folks get into trouble thinking they can pull the cable off the negative main battery post and have a cold system, only to see sparks when they hit ground with a wire.
Both batteries discharge and both batteries charge at the same time (except when ESS shuts the engine down)
So if the aux battery goes bad, it's going to drain the main battery.
IF you connect a charger to the main + and the top of the IBS on the main negative, you are charging both batteries.

 

[dcmdon]

They are already connected. Sitting in your garage, they are connected together, driving they are connected together. Sitting at a stop light with ESS turned off, they are connected together.
The only time they are not is during an ESS initiated engine stop, then they are not connected together.
So - there's nothing to jumper. That's why some folks get into trouble thinking they can pull the cable off the negative main battery post and have a cold system, only to see sparks when they hit ground with a wire.
Both batteries discharge and both batteries charge at the same time (except when ESS shuts the engine down)
So if the aux battery goes bad, it's going to drain the main battery.
IF you connect a charger to the main + and the top of the IBS on the main negative, you are charging both batteries.

So it disconnects when you start the vehicle to provide adequate voltage to the computers when the starter drags the voltage down on the main battery.

Is that right?

If that's the case, then you should be able to go to 1 battery if you disable the ESS. Except that the computer will probably see 0 volts to the Aux battery leads and freak out.

So if you jumped them, wouldn't that solve the problem. The goal here is that the computer would think the Aux battery was present. Since the vehicle won't stop unless you turn it off, it should be ok.

Thoughts?

 

[Mr._Bill]

So it disconnects when you start the vehicle to provide adequate voltage to the computers when the starter drags the voltage down on the main battery.

Is that right?

If that's the case, then you should be able to go to 1 battery if you disable the ESS. Except that the computer will probably see 0 volts to the Aux battery leads and freak out.

So if you jumped them, wouldn't that solve the problem. The goal here is that the computer would think the Aux battery was present. Since the vehicle won't stop unless you turn it off, it should be ok.

Thoughts?

Then you risk random reboots of the truck computers due to low voltage, which can create a myriad of odd issues.

 

[dcmdon]

Then you risk random reboots of the truck computers due to low voltage, which can create a myriad of odd issues.

Why would there be low voltage if there are no restarts?

(read my post above. It assumes you have disabled ESS)

 

[Shopshirt]

I've seen several threads on bad ESS batteries. What is causing them to fail? Bad batch of batteries or something else?

 

[Mr._Bill]

I've seen several threads on bad ESS batteries. What is causing them to fail? Bad batch of batteries or something else?

Bad or Poor Quality. There were dealer reports of a batch of bad batteries some time ago.

The Build on my truck started 3/28/2019. I bought it July 2019. I am still on the original set, in a battery unfriendly environment, and the ESS still works when I forget to turn it off.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Bad or Poor Quality. There were dealer reports of a batch of bad batteries some time ago.

The Build on my truck started 3/28/2019. I bought it July 2019. I am still on the original set, in a battery unfriendly environment, and the ESS still works when I forget to turn it off.

We took my wife's 2018 Grand Cherokee in for symptoms that started out ESS not working and finally to engine won't crank. This was in fall of 2020, dealer said they'd seen a lot of bad batteries and replaced them both under warranty (2 months before the warranty ran out and we traded it for a 2021)

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