judojosh
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- Thread starter
- #1
I recently (last year) got myself a 2020 jeep gladiator overland. Everything was fine for the first year. I worked a job that was about 30 mins away. This year I got a new job that is literally down the street, like a 7 min drive for me. Since starting the new job the battery has been starting to have issues.
Here is the situation I have noticed. After driving to work a lot of days, all of a sudden my battery will go and I would need to jump the car to start it. And this was an everyday thing BUT I noticed something. If i jump the car and then drive somewhere far, like an hour or so, then my truck would start no problem for a week or so after that long drive, and then the problem would come back and the truck would need jumps to start.
My hypothesis was that since my commute to work was so short, the alternator wasn't able to charge the batteries and they were just slowly draining. Also to add, my car would sometimes say this message "stop/start unavailable" and "Auxiliary switches temporarily unavailable battery charging" My jeep also has the ESS option, although I literally never use it.
My thoughts were that my aux battery was draining my main battery because it was not being able to charge because my commute is too short and the truck has an battery sensor which decides when to charge the batteries and was not prioritizing charging the batteries during my commute. So when I drove to work the main battery took a hit and never really charged during my drive and when I parked at work the aux was stealing juice from my main to recharge that battery, leaving my main even more drained. so when I was done work I was unable to start the car.
I don't know if that actually makes sense, but thats what I was thinking. So my plan was to delete the aux battery until today. I jumped the truck in the morning and did a long drive to a doctors apt (over an hour away). When I left the doctors the truck started just fine. I drove it about 20 mins and stopped at a friends house. When I went to leave there, truck again started no problem. I drove another 20 mins and parked. But this time when I went to start it, the car was dead. I went to jump it and the car started but gave me a battery error warning it was going to shut off. I went to drive it and my power steering didn't work. So I let it run a little thinking the alternator would charge it a little and the message would go away. It didn't. I turned the truck off because I wanted to check the volt of the battery using the car dashboard option and couldnt with it running since it would only show me that car would turn off warning. So I turned it off, connected my jump box and put it in acc to check the battery volt with the dash and it showed as only 9 volts (since the issue first happend I have been driving with the battery volt screen up all the time and when driving it is always around 14v). So I went to start the car and the dash lights and interior lights started flickering and it wouldn't start at all. It was like it was completely dead even though the jump box had power. I found someone in the parking lot to give me a jump and when I connected the juper cables, same thing. Wouldnt turn over or anything.
So currently I towed the car home and my plan is to finally disconnect the aux battery (remove negative from main battery and pull fuse) and then trickle charge my main and see if I am good to go or if I need to replace main all together (and if I replace main I saw it recommended I go with a H7 battery instead of the H6). Assuming that my analysis of what my problem is, is right, does this plan make sense? My two main questions moving forward are: How do I check with my main battery is good or not still? And when I disconnect the aux negative cable at my main battery terminal how do I isolate it to prevent it from touching something else? Can i just wrap it in electrical tape and zip tie it out the way?
what are your thoughts on all this?
Here is the situation I have noticed. After driving to work a lot of days, all of a sudden my battery will go and I would need to jump the car to start it. And this was an everyday thing BUT I noticed something. If i jump the car and then drive somewhere far, like an hour or so, then my truck would start no problem for a week or so after that long drive, and then the problem would come back and the truck would need jumps to start.
My hypothesis was that since my commute to work was so short, the alternator wasn't able to charge the batteries and they were just slowly draining. Also to add, my car would sometimes say this message "stop/start unavailable" and "Auxiliary switches temporarily unavailable battery charging" My jeep also has the ESS option, although I literally never use it.
My thoughts were that my aux battery was draining my main battery because it was not being able to charge because my commute is too short and the truck has an battery sensor which decides when to charge the batteries and was not prioritizing charging the batteries during my commute. So when I drove to work the main battery took a hit and never really charged during my drive and when I parked at work the aux was stealing juice from my main to recharge that battery, leaving my main even more drained. so when I was done work I was unable to start the car.
I don't know if that actually makes sense, but thats what I was thinking. So my plan was to delete the aux battery until today. I jumped the truck in the morning and did a long drive to a doctors apt (over an hour away). When I left the doctors the truck started just fine. I drove it about 20 mins and stopped at a friends house. When I went to leave there, truck again started no problem. I drove another 20 mins and parked. But this time when I went to start it, the car was dead. I went to jump it and the car started but gave me a battery error warning it was going to shut off. I went to drive it and my power steering didn't work. So I let it run a little thinking the alternator would charge it a little and the message would go away. It didn't. I turned the truck off because I wanted to check the volt of the battery using the car dashboard option and couldnt with it running since it would only show me that car would turn off warning. So I turned it off, connected my jump box and put it in acc to check the battery volt with the dash and it showed as only 9 volts (since the issue first happend I have been driving with the battery volt screen up all the time and when driving it is always around 14v). So I went to start the car and the dash lights and interior lights started flickering and it wouldn't start at all. It was like it was completely dead even though the jump box had power. I found someone in the parking lot to give me a jump and when I connected the juper cables, same thing. Wouldnt turn over or anything.
So currently I towed the car home and my plan is to finally disconnect the aux battery (remove negative from main battery and pull fuse) and then trickle charge my main and see if I am good to go or if I need to replace main all together (and if I replace main I saw it recommended I go with a H7 battery instead of the H6). Assuming that my analysis of what my problem is, is right, does this plan make sense? My two main questions moving forward are: How do I check with my main battery is good or not still? And when I disconnect the aux negative cable at my main battery terminal how do I isolate it to prevent it from touching something else? Can i just wrap it in electrical tape and zip tie it out the way?
what are your thoughts on all this?
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