Battery voltage while engine is off?

[RDiddy]

I was cycling through my dash display the other day while waiting in a parking lot and noticed the battery voltage meter on the in dash display stated that my battery was sitting at 12.2 volts which seemed low to me. I started poking through threads in this forum and a lot of them said not to trust that and buy a multimeter, so one is on it's way from amazon as we speak.

In the mean time however I still can't shake the feeling that that is somewhat odd. My jeep is 7 months old and has the upgraded alternator. It does however sit a lot more than it should due to my wife now working from home and my drive into work is literally 5 minutes a day... so the jeep only gets little short trips with an occasional run to the grocery store (20 mins each way) every two weeks.

What does your in dash volt meter say while the engine is off?

I own this battery charger ... is it the right kind of charger for a stock battery in a Wrangler? What mode would be best for this battery and can I charge the battery without disconnecting everything from it under the hood?

Thank you for your time.

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[OldGuyNewJeep]

I was cycling through my dash display the other day while waiting in a parking lot and noticed the battery voltage meter on the in dash display stated that my battery was sitting at 12.2 volts which seemed low to me. I started poking through threads in this forum and a lot of them said not to trust that and buy a multimeter, so one is on it's way from amazon as we speak.

In the mean time however I still can't shake the feeling that that is somewhat odd. My jeep is 7 months old and has the upgraded alternator. It does however sit a lot more than it should due to my wife now working from home and my drive into work is literally 5 minutes a day... so the jeep only gets little short trips with an occasional run to the grocery store (20 mins each way) every two weeks.

What does your in dash volt meter say while the engine is off?

I own this battery charger ... is it the right kind of charger for a stock battery in a Wrangler? What mode would be best for this battery and can I charge the battery without disconnecting everything from it under the hood?

Thank you for your time.

12.2 is low. Your Noco charger is perfect. Search forum for “battery” and also for “bypass” - you’ll find all the info you need.

 

[RDiddy]

12.2 is low. Your Noco charger is perfect. Search forum for “battery” and also for “bypass” - you’ll find all the info you need.

Thank you for the confirmation OGNJ. Much appreciated.

 

[YYCSahara]

I was around 11.8V for a while and my start stop wouldn't work anymore because of it. Not sure how it kept starting when it was that low but it did. Got the Noco hooked up for a few hours and it's back to 12.5 or above now. Start stop works great. Same thing as you. I stopped driving to work every day so I assume that's why.

 

[RDiddy]

I was around 11.8V for a while and my start stop wouldn't work anymore because of it. Not sure how it kept starting when it was that low but it did. Got the Noco hooked up for a few hours and it's back to 12.5 or above now. Start stop works great. Same thing as you. I stopped driving to work every day so I assume that's why.

Thanks for the information and chart, I saved it for future reference.

What is the correct charge setting on the NOCO for these batteries? Did you charge yours while still hooked up under the hood?

Thanks again

 

[nU7OuxIx]

Thanks for the information and chart, I saved it for future reference.

What is the correct charge setting on the NOCO for these batteries? Did you charge yours while still hooked up under the hood?

Thanks again

I went through this same thing when I had my 2021 JLUR 3.6L w/ eTorque delivered. We drive it maybe once or twice a week, and recent prior experience has demonstrated that it will kill a battery by doing this in a few short months.

I bought the NOCO Genius 5 with a NOCO GC0008 m10 eyelet connector. I also ended up ordering $12 of nuts and washers from fastenal. I ordered a M6, M8, and M10 Zinc Serrated Hex Flange Nut with similar sized washers. My ground clamp had a lug but no bolt on the Jeep. You can probably go to the local hardware store to buy a .50 nut but I was lazy and didn't know what I needed. I *think* it was an M8 but don't hold me to it. I also bought some plastic cable protector conduit thing to just make it look pretty and protect it.

The battery in mine is an AGM with a big yellow sticker that says don't charge it over (14.4?) volts. Many of the chargers will charge it a bit more, but I haven't had any issues with this. On the NOCO, I choose "AGM" mode and just let it do it's thing. Whenever I come back from driving, I immediately plug it in so it keeps the battery charged up. I don't have any complaints about it and it seems to do as it says.

The biggest thing for me is making the battery last. On my other car (not a jeep), I bought a new battery in June of last year. I drove the car once a week, maybe once every two weeks. After about 6 months, the battery was toast and would no longer hold a charge more than a day to start the car. Since then, I put a Noco 1 on that battery and it's been good. I think a NOCO 1 would work for ours, it would just take a considerable longer amount of time to charge the battery than the NOCO 5.

 

[melendez69]

Your NOCO should pick up the proper settings... 12v, AGM, etc. I keep a smaller NOCO mounted and connected to the battery terminals along with a charging port. When I want to charge, all I do is plug in the electrical cord to the port.

 

[DadJokes]

I should have checked. Check it in the run position?

I’m getting a new battery as we speak. I’ve only gone 35k miles and in 1.5 years of ownership. That’s SAD for battery life. I’m glad it went bad now rather than on the trail in a couple of months in the boonies.

 

[WranglerMan]

As stated get something like a NOCO 10, I’m sure the NOCO 5 would be sufficient if you have the stock battery setup.

If you go with the NOCO it has a EPROM chip that remembers the last setting you chose, I run a NOCO 10 and Odyssey 20 on my Jeep and the NOCO I use weekly so it’s unplugged 6 out of 7 days and always remembers the last setting, also the NOCO 10 has a repair mode and I like to suggest to those that will only have this charger to use the repair mode at least once a month.

The repair mode on the NOCO 10 sends 14.3+ volts to the batteries for ( 4 ) hrs then goes back to stand by and these AGM batteries love to be warmed up once in awhile to knock of any sulfate buildup on the plating especially if a vehicle is parked a lot, AGM typically don’t have a lot of buildup but I’m quite sure the factory batteries are not the greatest compared to say Northstar, Odyssey, Fullriver etc…but if you are replacing the stock battery you have to get a particular size.

Also don’t pay much mind to the EVIC voltage display as by the time you get to it on the display the voltage will likely be low due to the fact its pulling power as soon as you go to the ACC/RUN mode to get the reading so it’s best to get a meter and take readings directly off the batterie(s)

The BIGGEST thing on getting a charger is get a properly sized charger, you ant to get a charger that is in the .20-.35% rating of the batteries amp hour rating, there are nothing wrong with these little battery maintainers once a battery is fully charged but to use that as a sole charger will likely result in premature failure.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

I should have checked. Check it in the run position?

I’m getting a new battery as we speak. I’ve only gone 35k miles and in 1.5 years of ownership. That’s SAD for battery life. I’m glad it went bad now rather than on the trail in a couple of months in the boonies.

In my experience, you should get about 3 to 4 years, which, coincidentally, is when battery warranties expire.

I would also encourage everybody to get a small jump pack for $100 bucks, at the most. I have one and absolutely love it. Just remember to charge it before a trip.

Do you drive the Jeep everyday? Did you have it on a tenderizer? Do you have the 3.6L with eTorque or ESS?

 

[DadJokes]

In my experience, you should get about 3 to 4 years, which, coincidentally, is when battery warranties expire.

I would also encourage everybody to get a small jump pack for $100 bucks, at the most. I have one and absolutely love it. Just remember to charge it before a trip.

Do you drive the Jeep everyday? Did you have it on a tenderizer? Do you have the 3.6L with eTorque or ESS?

I have a nice little jump pack. We’re taking it on our big summer trip.

We drive the hell out of I think. 35k in 1.5 years. Most trips are not short. It’s the 2.0 eTorque. No battery tender. No warning lights. Just wouldn’t start yesterday evening out of nowhere.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

I have a nice little jump pack. We’re taking it on our big summer trip.

We drive the hell out of I think. 35k in 1.5 years. Most trips are not short. It’s the 2.0 eTorque. No battery tender. No warning lights. Just wouldn’t start yesterday evening out of nowhere.

That's so bizarre. I have the 3.6L with eTorque and I'm confused about how these extra batteries work. From what I understand, there's the straight old fashioned engine with the regular battery. There's the 2.0L eTorque with 48v(?) battery. There's a 3.6L with ESS and a hidden battery or two under the main battery. Then there's the 3.6L eTorque with the 48v battery. There's some special thing you have to do to jump the ESS with extra batteries by way of a jumper cable on some terminals. For mine, as far as I know, you just hook it up as you normally would.

At least when I charge it, that's what I do. Red to red, black to black. From what I read, the 48v system is separate from the 12v system so it won't damage anything.

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