Any Early Warning for Battery Failure?

[natzuen]

Thanks for the advice, ….Yes, agree, time to replace and get ahead of future dead battery. Come to find out, I do have the Etourqe with tow package, so no aux, just the large 48 volt. Stupid question coming….; is it simply a matter of going to Walmart or auto shop and buying a 48 volt battery and just easy removal and replacement?
TIA
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you have a regular 12volt battery like a normal car, and a 48volt lithium ion battery for the etorque. The 48 volt from my understanding is just for the ESS. You can replace your 12volt like normal

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[Jeep life]

Even after charging periodically I started to get this message consistently after initial start up. But this is only if you have the auxiliary switches. I change the batteries preemptively in our vehicles, typically every 3-4 years. The Jeep was sooner.

That would make sense, however I have no auxiliary switches installed and for about 3 months I would get that message upon start up. I took the Jeep in for a 36k mile check up and they did a whole bunch of stuff to the tune of $1,200, including removing a mouse nest on the battery, since then, the message no longer pops up

 

[Jeep life]

you have a regular 12volt battery like a normal car, and a 48volt lithium ion battery for the etorque. The 48 volt from my understanding is just for the ESS. You can replace your 12volt like normal

Thanks for the info, didn’t know that

 

[Nvdardx28]

My tell tale sign was that my Jeep would fail to remote start. It would start fine once I got in and use the push to start. Once I changed my batteries the remote start starting working fine again.

 

[Jeep life]

Hey Allan:

I do believe, as other posters have reflected, that time itself is an early warning sign of the need for a battery (or in a dual AGM battery JL, both batteries) to be replaced.

I replace preventatively every 3 years or so.

But that said, it seems to me that an investment in a load tester to gauge the health of your batteries might be a more direct metric of their remaining life that you seek to gauge than looking for some of the symptoms within the vehicle itself which have been reported, that may or may arise from one vehicle to the next.

Before attaching the load tester to your main battery, temporarily remove the smaller diameter factory cable on the main battery's negative post, and keep its loose end away from metal. This cable connects at its other end to the negative post of the Aux battery. (The other factory cable connects at its other end to the body ground and should remain connected at both ends.)

Doing this temporarily cable removal will insure that your load test of the main battery is not influenced by the Aux battery, which is normally connected in parallel. Put the load tester's leads on the main battery's terminals.

Next, move the load tester's negative side to the detached cable. Even as you keep the positive side of the load tester on the main battery's positive terminal, this cable swap will solely test the power of the Aux battery as it's the only battery at this point which completes a circuit with the load tester.

Reinstall that temporarily disconnected cable.

If either of your batteries is need of replacement, and you want to run ESS events, replace both (information on how to do this yourself available on request.)

If you have no desire to run ESS events and your Aux or main battery is in need or replacement I recommend that you bypass the Aux battery (information to do this available on request), pull Fuse 42, replace the main battery, and turn ESS off at the console button each time you cold crank, or purchase tech (information also available on request) to automatically do this button push for you.

An additional purchase that might be useful is a portable jump starter. But please don't use possession of this device as an excuse to only replace the batteries after they've first failed and this jump start device proves needed to get going.

Great information and buying a load tester (and jump starter) are smart moves, will do
Thanks for the thorough response
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[rmeJeep]

Main battery on my 2023 died after 30 months. It was sudden, at the very end....

 

[Rhinebeck01]

Thanks for the advice, ….Yes, agree, time to replace and get ahead of future dead battery. Come to find out, I do have the Etourqe with tow package, so no aux, just the large 48 volt. Stupid question coming….; is it simply a matter of going to Walmart or auto shop and buying a 48 volt battery and just easy removal and replacement?
TIA
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@Jeep life

Based on another post you made in this thread, I do believe you have the factory "tow package".

IF you did, you would have Aux switches and you mentioned you do not.

 

[Heimkehr]

My OEM H6 battery died at 4 years, almost to the day, and without any warning. It started the engine just fine the evening prior, and was as dead as a doornail the next morning.

I bypassed the ESS battery at the same time I installed a new Interstate H7 AGM battery. Done.

 

[Jeep life]

@Jeep life

Based on another post you made in this thread, I do believe you have the factory "tow package".

IF you did, you would have Aux switches and you mentioned you do not.

I do, but they don’t run anything, as I have nothing connected (lights, etc…)

 

[Mocopo]

I do, but they don’t run anything, as I have nothing connected (lights, etc…)

Shouldn't matter. You'd still likely get the aux switch unavailable message when you're battery starts to go. I did with mine. '22 3.6l e torque.

you have a regular 12volt battery like a normal car, and a 48volt lithium ion battery for the etorque. The 48 volt from my understanding is just for the ESS. You can replace your 12volt like normal

The 48volt does more than just run the ESS, it will also periodically add as much as 90 ft lbs of torque to the driveline, usually in low gears from a stop to increase acceleration.

 

[Jeep life]

Good to know about the 90ft lbs….ty

 

[jaymz]

Absolutely! Just replaced my main battery (2019 vintage) and removed the auxiliary. The main battery was too weak to enable ESS (which I kinda liked) but still started the engine just fine. Only downside is ESS is enabled once more…but better than being stranded.

Mine ran that way for well over a year before the locker lights and slow crank. Maybe over 2 years. I don't recall exactly. It was definitely a nice little treat to not need to push the damn button every time I'd go for a drive.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

I just went through this: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...the-brakes-briefly-engage.160589/post-3307628

Never would have thought an aging battery could cause ABS faults, but here we are.

 

[FF5Cobra]

I have found the life of a so called maint free agm battery is 4 years
be it in my ford truck, Honda suv. I change them out every 4 years
my Honda and ford truck batteries both failed between 4 and 41/2 years. No warning,no slow cranks just dead.
I plan to do same with my 2025 jeep.
I prefer to be proactive then preactive when it comes to batteries.

and yes every time I start my jeep press 2 buttons. 1 to start, 1 to disable ess. Has become habit to me. Will probably by pass aux battery at next change and go with larger capacity main battery
because it removes anthothe point of failure to starting system.

 

[Heimkehr]

I have found the life of a so called maint free agm battery is 4 years
be it in my ford truck, Honda suv. I change them out every 4 years
my Honda and ford truck batteries both failed between 4 and 41/2 years. No warning,no slow cranks just dead.

The Jeep is the first vehicle I've owned that uses an AGM-type battery. Every other 12V battery that I've used, whether in autos, motorcycles or OPE, has used traditional lead acid batteries.

I say that because the Jeep's OEM H6 AGM was the first vehicle battery that didn't provide at least a five year service life (my experienced-based personal standard for any 12V battery in any application.) That was a surprise, and an annoyance, not least because unlike the lead acid batteries with which I have a long history, the Wrangler's AGM battery gave no warning signs of its impending failure. Like yours, mine worked one day and was dead the next.

There's any number of online articles that claim a comparatively longer lifespan as a distinct advantage of AGM batteries. While my experience is a sample of one, I can't yet agree with that claim.

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