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Battery Light on Dash - Dealer Stumped

cafecito820

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Hello all! We've had our JL in and out of the dealer half a dozen times now for electrical issues, but this latest one has me genuinely wondering if something bigger is wrong. Just curious if anyone has any ideas what else to check.
  1. Our first trip to the dealer was shortly after buying it. The Aux 1-4 buttons were illuminating, but no power was being sent to the leads. The dealer changed a few different things and got them working.
  2. Months later, my wife kept getting low battery lights on her dash. We'd take it in, and they changed out the battery and aux battery. And it would stop.
  3. Fast forward to recently, her remote start stopped working. It would honk once and then not start (usually honks twice). We changed the battery in her keyfob, and it went away.
  4. Now as recently as October of this year, the battery light kept coming on again. I hooked it up to a charger and conditioner overnight, but it didn't matter. She drove it to work, and the light came on while she was coming home. She drove it straight to the dealership for service, and they had it from then (middle of October) until just today. So in six weeks, they changed the aux battery and installed a new alternator. No luck - the light still comes on. He said he checked fuses and everything was good. He said there are no error codes in the OBD either. They then tried to point the finger at aftermarket lights we have on the vehicle, but 100% of the lights are hooked up to a single controller that is only powered by the Jeep's Aux buttons, so there's no way they could even be affecting the system if the switch is closed. I disconnected them all anyway just so they could continue troubleshooting. That was a few days ago.

    They took it out for a 40 mile drive this morning and said the light didn't come on and asked me to pick it up. I started driving it home, and the light came on less than 5 miles from the dealership.
What else could we possibly check? The tech said he was emailing Jeep engineering for advice on troubleshooting, and they clearly still haven't figured it out. The odd thing is that the battery never actually dies - it just throws the light on the dash. To me, that sounds like a faulty sensor or a bad connection somewhere, but I wouldn't even know where to begin.

(I'm taking it back to them next week. I'm just curious if anyone else has had this issue.)
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Pat’s Sahara Unlimited

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Not sure my reply will help, but I'M following a Youtube chain called South Main Auto. And what that the mechanic there thought me is that chassis grounds are the mother of a huge number of electrical issues, like good alternators not charging the batteries, ECM glitches etc.. If you live in the salt belt, corrosion of those big copper tress chassis/body leads can create havoc on your electrical system as the might look ok but be corroded from the inside thus not allowing enough current to pass through. From that mechanic,s experience, seems like a lot of dealers go for the obvious and just load the parts cannon... This is an example of a damaged ground lead on a grand Cherokee

Jeep Wrangler JL Battery Light on Dash - Dealer Stumped 1701442474657
 

SargeDiesel

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Hello all! We've had our JL in and out of the dealer half a dozen times now for electrical issues, but this latest one has me genuinely wondering if something bigger is wrong. Just curious if anyone has any ideas what else to check.
  1. Our first trip to the dealer was shortly after buying it. The Aux 1-4 buttons were illuminating, but no power was being sent to the leads. The dealer changed a few different things and got them working.
  2. Months later, my wife kept getting low battery lights on her dash. We'd take it in, and they changed out the battery and aux battery. And it would stop.
  3. Fast forward to recently, her remote start stopped working. It would honk once and then not start (usually honks twice). We changed the battery in her keyfob, and it went away.
  4. Now as recently as October of this year, the battery light kept coming on again. I hooked it up to a charger and conditioner overnight, but it didn't matter. She drove it to work, and the light came on while she was coming home. She drove it straight to the dealership for service, and they had it from then (middle of October) until just today. So in six weeks, they changed the aux battery and installed a new alternator. No luck - the light still comes on. He said he checked fuses and everything was good. He said there are no error codes in the OBD either. They then tried to point the finger at aftermarket lights we have on the vehicle, but 100% of the lights are hooked up to a single controller that is only powered by the Jeep's Aux buttons, so there's no way they could even be affecting the system if the switch is closed. I disconnected them all anyway just so they could continue troubleshooting. That was a few days ago.

    They took it out for a 40 mile drive this morning and said the light didn't come on and asked me to pick it up. I started driving it home, and the light came on less than 5 miles from the dealership.
What else could we possibly check? The tech said he was emailing Jeep engineering for advice on troubleshooting, and they clearly still haven't figured it out. The odd thing is that the battery never actually dies - it just throws the light on the dash. To me, that sounds like a faulty sensor or a bad connection somewhere, but I wouldn't even know where to begin.

(I'm taking it back to them next week. I'm just curious if anyone else has had this issue.)
If you haven't already, I would repost this on the Gladiator forum as well... lots of electrical threads over there with similar issues. Maybe someone can help.
ALSO
see if @JeepCares can help.
 

KillerRubi

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@cafecito820 Did you end up solving this issue, I’ve been experiencing something similar with my 2019 JLUR, any insights would be greatly appreciate?
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