Main Battery and Aux Battery

[Miami_Canes]

First time posting but thought I’d share my recent experience with my batteries. Maybe it will help someone in the same situation. Long post alert!!

I’ve got a 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon. I had noticed a message flash on the dash display a few times about the Auxiliary switches were disabled and the Aux battery was charging. This happened a few times. Then one day we had been out driving around and came home. Jumped back in it, hit the switch and nothing. Jumped it off but it immediately gave a message that the Jeep was going to shut off. It started running really rough so I shut it off. Read online and decided to replace both the batteries. Replacing the Aux battery is a little bit of a pain. Got both batteries replaced, cranked it up and got the same message about the Jeep going to shut off. Took it down the road and sure enough it shut off. ? Power steering started to go, brakes, running terrible. Got it somewhat out of the road before it completely died. Wouldn’t go into park, nor would it go into Neutral on the transfer case. Back wheels were locked down. Took my wife’s Grand Cherokee and had to drag it out of the road back tires skidding. Had it towed back home. YouTube’d for a bit and searched this forum and determined it was the High Amp fuse array that was the problem. I remember I ark’d the battery a couple times putting it back in and figured that’s when it blew the fuse array. Called four dealerships before I could find one that either had the fuse array or that would sell me the one they had. Put it in and after driving it the check engine light went off. The only issue left over was that both the front and backup cameras were showing blue screens and then they both went away. Literally they went away. Couldn’t even select them on the screen. Let it sit overnight and by this evening they were back and working properly. I’m guessing it had a software update or something.
Hope this helps someone else but it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Aux battery was $175 from dealer and High amp fuse array was $80-ish.

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[Not2Late]

Thanks for sharing your story and this is good stuff to know. I assume we are all going to be in the position of having to replace those batteries at some point. And taking it down to the local battery switchout place doesn't seem plausable anymore due to the complication(s) involved. This dual battery start/stop feature almost caused me not to buy the vehicle; it gave me pause anyway.

I hate this feature and think it exists solely for corporate mileage figures/rules and not to benefit the actual individual owner. Once I am through my warranty period, I may try getting rid of the dual battery system. I seem to recall someone had a write-up on this. End of rant

 

[Rusty PW]

Thanks for sharing your story and this is good stuff to know. I assume we are all going to be in the position of having to replace those batteries at some point. And taking it down to the local battery switchout place doesn't seem plausable anymore due to the complication(s) involved. This dual battery start/stop feature almost caused me not to buy the vehicle; it gave me pause anyway.

I hate this feature and think it exists solely for corporate mileage figures/rules and not to benefit the actual individual owner. Once I am through my warranty period, I may try getting rid of the dual battery system. I seem to recall someone had a write-up on this. End of rant

The system is for increasing the fuel mileage. You can blame the CAFE standards for it. Manufactures are looking for way to increase fuel mileage anyway they can to meet the standards.

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