Gladiator Down! Failed to Start with no warnings

[Flipturn2]

So I am out and about with my kids in my new Gladiator. We park the car and run some errands. We come back and jump in the car and try to start the car. Nothing! No turnover! No Sounds! Na Da!. The instrument cluster lights up. We can open and lock the doors. The interior lighting works. Nothing on the touch screen. I call the dealer and the next thing I am getting the car towed back to the dealer. They keep it for a few days and finally tell me that the Start Stop battery had failed and it would be over week to get the replacement. Needless to say, the car has not been returned. The problem I have is: how would Jeep design a start system for a car that is designed to go out to the middle of nowhere, that can fail to start when even has two batteries with no signs or warnings? Could you imagine being stuck on the Rubicon trail with no way to start your car? There has to be a way to bypass this system in a pinch.

Sponsored

 

[Pazzo]

Well that sucks and another reason not to like the Start Stop system if there is no over-ride.
Good luck and if you find out anything let us know.

 

[Hootbro]

Yeah, I wish someone would come up with a hard wire kit that can take out that ESS system and eliminate it all together.

 

[RedTRex]

Yikes! We need to figure out a bypass for this crap real quick

 

[Rex3rd]

Can you not piggyback wires from the main battery to the ess battery? Maybe a small jumpbox under the seat to keep in case this happens?

 

[Sorbs]

Yikes! We need to figure out a bypass for this crap real quick

Here ya go: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-aux-battery-bypass.17293/

Go on over to the JL forum when ya get stumped. The JL has a 1.5 year head start on common issues.

 

[RedTRex]

Here ya go: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-aux-battery-bypass.17293/

Go on over to the JL forum when ya get stumped. The JL has a 1.5 year head start on common issues.

True. Thanks for the link

 

[Flipturn2]

Here ya go: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-aux-battery-bypass.17293/

Go on over to the JL forum when ya get stumped. The JL has a 1.5 year head start on common issues.

Thanks for the above reference. I checked it out and noted that when the AUX battery was disconnected the instrument panel was dead to test the bypass cable. This did not happen on my gladiator. The dealer claims the AUX battery was faulty. I would think I would have had the same outcome. My gut feeling is that this saga is far from over.

I will keep you all updated

 

[Tortooga Custom Works]

I have one of those small batteries sitting in my garage. Maybe it got used 3 or 4 times. I pulled it out when I installed the genesis dual battery kit. It’s worth noting that the dual battery kit obviates that problem.

I should post my stock batteries for sale. Someone might want/need them.

 

[smlobx]

I have one of those small batteries sitting in my garage. Maybe it got used 3 or 4 times. I pulled it out when I installed the genesis dual battery kit. It’s worth noting that the dual battery kit obviates that problem.

I should post my stock batteries for sale. Someone might want/need them.

I’ve been thinking of installing the Genesis system when my Gladiator comes in. How was the install? There videos seem to do a pretty good job detailing it but I’d like some feedback from someone who’s actually done it.
Thanks.

 

[Tortooga Custom Works]

I’ve been thinking of installing the Genesis system when my Gladiator comes in. How was the install? There videos seem to do a pretty good job detailing it but I’d like some feedback from someone who’s actually done it.
Thanks.

The video made it a piece of cake. I also transcribed the instructions, it helped me prepare for it. I wrote more stuff about it here:
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/genesis-dual-battery-kit.18839/

 

[Ole Cowboy]

So I am out and about with my kids in my new Gladiator. We park the car and run some errands. We come back and jump in the car and try to start the car. Nothing! No turnover! No Sounds! Na Da!. The instrument cluster lights up. We can open and lock the doors. The interior lighting works. Nothing on the touch screen. I call the dealer and the next thing I am getting the car towed back to the dealer. They keep it for a few days and finally tell me that the Start Stop battery had failed and it would be over week to get the replacement. Needless to say, the car has not been returned. The problem I have is: how would Jeep design a start system for a car that is designed to go out to the middle of nowhere, that can fail to start when even has two batteries with no signs or warnings? Could you imagine being stuck on the Rubicon trail with no way to start your car? There has to be a way to bypass this system in a pinch.

Well there you go. With luck, LUCK you will come across other Jeepers will pull you back to the trail head.

There is a trail in Moab I think it is rated 1, it is literally a dirt road. My buddy was doing a turnaround and slid off, less than 20 feet from the road. Not having lockers the red mud would not let him back to the road. Not being much of a trail or challenge it sees little traffic other than BLM folks. Worse where he turned around there was NOTHING to winch to. So he walked about a 1 1/2 mi and got a cell signal and found a guy with a wrecker.

Guy showed up, hooked on his winch and pulled him 20 feet to the road...$2000 bucks.

If it had not been raining he would have been able to drive back the 20 feet.

Toss 'start-stop' into the mix and ANY off-road could turn into a high dollar expense.

Jeep is amiss if there is not a bypass switch for OR or would come on automatically when put into 4 wd!

I am going to guess on this, but I think what has happened is that the original team that saved Jeep IMO by developing the Rubicon, I think all of them have left Chrysler. I know several of them and they left to start their own companies and go to work for some of the bigger OR companies. I sense that today Jeep is run by non-Jeepers, folks that would not know 4x4 from a 2 by 4 and more driven by what the snowflakes may want to buy rather than guys like me.

I think MY next Jeep is going to be another TJ and let the wife have her Glady.

 

[Sorbs]

Well there you go. With luck, LUCK you will come across other Jeepers will pull you back to the trail head.

When off-road this is a truism for any issue, i.e. stuck in the mud, off in a bad spot, mechanical failure...the ESS battery is related to only a bad battery though.

For whatever reason the battery manufacturer that FCA OEM’d from sold a batch of crap batteries and this one (1) Flipturn had crapped out on him. Sorry, not a valid reason to throw away all of our Jeeps over.

 

[WXman]

Any update?

I doubt the Aux battery is the issue. Both batteries are connected parallel so the Jeep should start regardless. There's always power on the system. That's why it's so important to disconnect ALL grounds before working on the vehicle.

Did you check your fuses? Sometimes the fuses aren't seated in the panel firmly enough from the factory.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

When off-road this is a truism for any issue, i.e. stuck in the mud, off in a bad spot, mechanical failure...the ESS battery is related to only a bad battery though.

For whatever reason the battery manufacturer that FCA OEM’d from sold a batch of crap batteries and this one (1) Flipturn had crapped out on him. Sorry, not a valid reason to throw away all of our Jeeps over.

NO ONE said throw away the Jeep. But compare a TJ to JK, JL, JT and what we see is 50 years of simple basic engineering morphing into more and more complexity.

PFA (Point of Failure Analysis). I cut my engineering career in R&D and that is where is learned PFA. Complexity = more points of failure and without doing a proper analysis to identify and have a mitigation solution failure shows up on your front door. Start/Stop if a is a POF and a simple mitigation is to provide a bypass either manually or when it goes into 4WD, a simple switch at the transfer case can do that.

I feel Jeep is forgetting that some of us spend a lot of time past the curb.

In case you missed my tag line on my business card:
"Built to get you there...
Engineered to get you BACK!"

Sponsored