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ESS Doesn’t work and No light.

Janey

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So a couple weeks ago I had a dead battery in the morning, not sure why although maybe I left in on accessory? Not uncommon for me to forget to shut it off completely. I know right.

Anyways, I noticed that the ESS has stopped working since then. Not sure if that is coincidence but it is kinda nice. No light on the dash either so if took me a bit to notice. So the question is do I fix it? Lol -or just leave it not working. What would you do?

2018 rubicon jl, of course.
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Perhaps the battery is still not fully charged, so it will not auto stop until then.
 
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Janey

Janey

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Perhaps the battery is still not fully charged, so it will not auto stop until then.

It shows 14.4 on the dash monitor when I’m driving.. ?
 

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There is a secondary (auxiliary) battery for ESS. I believe the voltage monitor is for the main battery only.

Scroll through the menus with the up or down arrow on the steering wheel and it should come to the ESS status on the display.
 

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It shows 14.4 on the dash monitor when I’m driving.. ?
That sounds to me like your battery isn't charged yet. On mine, after I've been driving for a while, that'll drop to about 12.7 which indicates the batteries are fully charged and the charging system isn't putting the extra voltage into them. Once your batteries are charged enough, ESS will probably work.

The JLs battery charging system seems pretty smart. It only charges the batteries when they need it instead of the way most old cars do it by constantly putting 13.8 volts into them. That helps the mileage a bit I'd imagine. Also makes it easy to tell how charged your batteries are. If you're seeing about 12.7, your batteries are charged. If you're seeing 14.7 your batteries are really low. 14.4 means the batteries are probably lower than you want them. You should probably take it for a longish drive or put a battery charger on. While driving with the batteries charged, you may notice when you let off the gas, the voltage will go up and you'll feel some extra engine braking so the alternator is helping slow you down and making sure the batteries are topped off.
 
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That sounds to me like your battery isn't charged yet. On mine, after I've been driving for a while, that'll drop to about 12.7 which indicates the batteries are fully charged and the charging system isn't putting the extra voltage into them. Once your batteries are charged enough, ESS will probably work.

The JLs battery charging system seems pretty smart. It only charges the batteries when they need it instead of the way most old cars do it by constantly putting 13.8 volts into them. That helps the mileage a bit I'd imagine. Also makes it easy to tell how charged your batteries are. If you're seeing about 12.7, your batteries are charged. If you're seeing 14.7 your batteries are really low. 14.4 means the batteries are probably lower than you want them. You should probably take it for a longish drive or put a battery charger on. While driving with the batteries charged, you may notice when you let off the gas, the voltage will go up and you'll feel some extra engine braking so the alternator is helping slow you down and making sure the batteries are topped off.
My battery reads14 all the time going down the road and every so often it will read 13.8 but not very often, it used to do what you are describing but that was many, many months ago, I brought it to the dealers attention and they said the battery is good.
 

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My battery reads14 all the time going down the road and every so often it will read 13.8 but not very often, it used to do what you are describing but that was many, many months ago, I brought it to the dealers attention and they said the battery is good.
Have you hooked any accessories directly to the battery? This is only a theory but the normal way a charging system would see that a battery is topped off is to look for the amperage the battery draws to drop below a certain level. If you have an accessory pulling current right from the battery connection it could be fooling the charging system into thinking the battery isn't full yet so it's holding 13.8 - 14 volts to try to fill it up but since the current never drops, the system won't drop the voltage.
 

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Have you hooked any accessories directly to the battery? This is only a theory but the normal way a charging system would see that a battery is topped off is to look for the amperage the battery draws to drop below a certain level. If you have an accessory pulling current right from the battery connection it could be fooling the charging system into thinking the battery isn't full yet so it's holding 13.8 - 14 volts to try to fill it up but since the current never drops, the system won't drop the voltage.
No sir nothing connected to the battery, it’s all stock except for the Tazer being connected but it was at 14 before that, as I said I asked the dealer about it and told them what it was doing and they said they tested the charging system and all was good
 

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That sounds to me like your battery isn't charged yet. On mine, after I've been driving for a while, that'll drop to about 12.7 which indicates the batteries are fully charged and the charging system isn't putting the extra voltage into them. Once your batteries are charged enough, ESS will probably work.

The JLs battery charging system seems pretty smart. It only charges the batteries when they need it instead of the way most old cars do it by constantly putting 13.8 volts into them. That helps the mileage a bit I'd imagine. Also makes it easy to tell how charged your batteries are. If you're seeing about 12.7, your batteries are charged. If you're seeing 14.7 your batteries are really low.
Fully agree. That’s how mine behave s and that’s how it should be. My ESS shuts the engine off maybe 50% of the times I stop. That seems normal to me with the AC blowing. We’ll see how it does as the weather cools down
 

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No sir nothing connected to the battery, it’s all stock except for the Tazer being connected but it was at 14 before that, as I said I asked the dealer about it and told them what it was doing and they said they tested the charging system and all was good
I'm not sure about your dealer but if the Jeep starts I'm pretty sure mine would tell me there's nothing wrong with the battery. If you've got a multi meter, you could check your battery voltage after it's been sitting all night. If it's less than 12.6 your battery is probably a bit weak. It might keep working well enough to start your Jeep for a while but then again, it might not.

A sulphated battery can pull more current than it should even when it's as close to full as you can get it.

Are batteries covered under the bumper-to-bumper warranty? They were on my old Toyota but not sure on the Jeep.
 

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@DirtRoad I have an extended warranty that covers batteries and several other things so may just make an appt to have them check it, not sure what to tell them as it starts and no error messages and it been this way for several months
 

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@DirtRoad I have an extended warranty that covers batteries and several other things so may just make an appt to have them check it, not sure what to tell them as it starts and no error messages and it been this way for several months
I'm not sure I'd bother taking it in yet. Like you said, it starts ok so they'll probably refuse to replace it anyway. If it's starting to fail, it'll probably happen before your extended warranty is up. When it happens, just jump start it and take it in then.
 

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I'm not sure I'd bother taking it in yet. Like you said, it starts ok so they'll probably refuse to replace it anyway. If it's starting to fail, it'll probably happen before your extended warranty is up. When it happens, just jump start it and take it in then.
Sounds like a good plan, they still owe me several free oil changes so maybe I will just mention it each time I go in just to have a record of it
 

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So a couple weeks ago I had a dead battery in the morning, not sure why although maybe I left in on accessory? Not uncommon for me to forget to shut it off completely. I know right.

Anyways, I noticed that the ESS has stopped working since then. Not sure if that is coincidence but it is kinda nice. No light on the dash either so if took me a bit to notice. So the question is do I fix it? Lol -or just leave it not working. What would you do?

2018 rubicon jl, of course.
Greetings, in my case the problem is similar I stop turning off. But when I search the menu options to see the condition of the ESS I don't have that option in the steering wheel menu.
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