dpoker52
Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Recently I brought my 2021 Jeep Wrangler Sahara into the dealership for an oil change and vehicle check-up. My engine is the 2.0L I4 Turbo and the jeep has 49K miles on it. A recommended repair by the technician was to replace both the main and Aux batteries due to low CCA, 463CCA/750 for the main and 103CCA/200 for the AUX. ESS has not been working for a few months so this was a bit expected. I did not have them replace the batteries at the time with intentions on doing it myself. The following day, after a short drive with the Jeep it was completely dead when trying to start a few minutes after being parked. Key fob didn't work, no lights, nothing. I called AAA and while waiting for them arrive I used the key in the fob to lock the driver's door manually. Locking the door manually tripped something and all electrical came back on fully operable. The jeep started and drove fine with no apparent issues.
I called the dealership to troubleshoot what was done that would create this problem where a battery goes completely dead only to go back to fine because I manually locked the door. They did not offer any suggestions.
Fast forward a few days and this morning the Jeep would not start, and as with before there was no power to anything, completely dead. Remembering the manual key lock 'trick' from a few days ago I tried manually locking the jeep, but did nothing this time. As a guess I disconnected the negative terminal from the main battery and reconnected. For some reason this worked and the jeep started and ran fine. I had a few appointments this morning and the jeep started without issue multiple times and ran fine all morning.
This afternoon I replaced both batteries. After replacing I started the jeep and drove around for a bit to make sure everything was working. No issues, ESS working again as expected, looked good to go. My wife took the jeep to the store about 10 minutes away, and when returning the jeep died while idling at a red light. No power at all. No lights, key fob not working, nothing. A helpful police officer jumped the jeep without any problem, and after sitting for a bit my wife drove the jeep home.
I just tested the batteries and as expected they appear as a new battery should with full CCA and charge. I also ran a charging test a couple of times and all is good with that as well.
My concern is that even with new batteries installed there is still something wrong. What would cause my Jeep to go from running fine to completely dead without any warning? And this has happened with both older batteries and new batteries. Why would manually locking the door, or disconnecting and reconnecting the negative battery terminal somehow fix a completely dead jeep? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated. Looking to figure this out and avoid any future problems. Thanks!
I called the dealership to troubleshoot what was done that would create this problem where a battery goes completely dead only to go back to fine because I manually locked the door. They did not offer any suggestions.
Fast forward a few days and this morning the Jeep would not start, and as with before there was no power to anything, completely dead. Remembering the manual key lock 'trick' from a few days ago I tried manually locking the jeep, but did nothing this time. As a guess I disconnected the negative terminal from the main battery and reconnected. For some reason this worked and the jeep started and ran fine. I had a few appointments this morning and the jeep started without issue multiple times and ran fine all morning.
This afternoon I replaced both batteries. After replacing I started the jeep and drove around for a bit to make sure everything was working. No issues, ESS working again as expected, looked good to go. My wife took the jeep to the store about 10 minutes away, and when returning the jeep died while idling at a red light. No power at all. No lights, key fob not working, nothing. A helpful police officer jumped the jeep without any problem, and after sitting for a bit my wife drove the jeep home.
I just tested the batteries and as expected they appear as a new battery should with full CCA and charge. I also ran a charging test a couple of times and all is good with that as well.
My concern is that even with new batteries installed there is still something wrong. What would cause my Jeep to go from running fine to completely dead without any warning? And this has happened with both older batteries and new batteries. Why would manually locking the door, or disconnecting and reconnecting the negative battery terminal somehow fix a completely dead jeep? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated. Looking to figure this out and avoid any future problems. Thanks!
Sponsored
