Do I have a bad alternator

[entropy]

So I have a brand new battery. My AUX battery is bypassed and ESS is deactivated. Every few weeks, three weeks or so I have to recharge my main battery with a smart charger. Then the battery runs strong for a week or two until it starts to die and I have to recharge again. During the week or two that it is strong it passes load tests easily, then it craps out.

What I notice is that when the battery starts to die, I drive the jeep and the alternator charges the battery but very slowly. It is like it has issues bringing the battery over 12V. Then I plug my charger overnight and the battery charges normally. I measured the voltage coming from the alternator and it is about 14.5V.

I do not drive the Jeep much. But every other week I go for a longish 1hr trip or so.

I dont have this issue with my other car that gets driven little as well.

Is this just a shitty alternator and I need a stronger one?

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[chadk77]

Do you have a tazer by chance?

My battery was getting drained on mine and apparently Tazer Firmware 11.3.7 has an issue with draining your battery sometimes. Updated my firmware and zero issues so far.

 

[entropy]

Do you have a tazer by chance?

My battery was getting drained on mine and apparently Tazer Firmware 11.3.7 has an issue with draining your battery sometimes. Updated my firmware and zero issues so far.

I do have a tazer. Will run the firmware update today. Thanks!

 

[Maverick909]

please let us know if that was the problem!

 

[58Willys]

If you’re getting 14.5v from the alternator, then no you dont have an alternator problem. My Jeep isn’t my daily driver, so I keep on a battery tender; you should too they need it. Update you Tazer, and then measure parasitic draw.

 

[Crawl Away]

My battery occasionally drains and I’m pretty sure the Tazer is the culprit. If I use any of the functions the involve the ABS system, like line lock, it seems to get into a loop that will kill my battery.

 

[entropy]

please let us know if that was the problem!

Woke up to a dead battery. parasitic draw seems to be the issue. I unplugged the tazer, winch and my towing harness. None of those are the source of 2.5amps parasitic draw. I am gonna gave to go through the fuses.

 

[LittleDog]

Woke up to a dead battery. parasitic draw seems to be the issue. I unplugged the tazer, winch and my towing harness. None of those are the source of 2.5amps parasitic draw. I am gonna gave to go through the fuses.

I think ~2A was my parasitic draw the last time I checked.

What engine do you have? I have the 2.0T with eTorque, and an electrical gremlin moved in a few months after I got the jeep. The voltage out the 12V plug varies from 13+ to 14.7 when the jeep is running. Having the ESS engage a few times seems to calm it down.

I find that the head unit and instrument cluster will sometimes flash the loading screens intermittently when I am away, even if the keys are nowhere around. It sometimes happens all night, every few minutes.

I've given up and just keep the gremlin fed with a hood solar panel now, but if you find a likely fuse culprit, please update us!

 

[entropy]

I think ~2A was my parasitic draw the last time I checked.

What engine do you have? I have the 2.0T with eTorque, and an electrical gremlin moved in a few months after I got the jeep. The voltage out the 12V plug varies from 13+ to 14.7 when the jeep is running. Having the ESS engage a few times seems to calm it down.

I find that the head unit and instrument cluster will sometimes flash the loading screens intermittently when I am away, even if the keys are nowhere around. It sometimes happens all night, every few minutes.

I've given up and just keep the gremlin fed with a hood solar panel now, but if you find a likely fuse culprit, please update us!

3.6 V6 pentastar with 8speed tranny.

I went through the all the fuses. tedious. But I found the culprit.

F97 pulling 1 amp (Something related to RADIO)
F105 pulling .10 amps (something related to AC)
f15 pulling 1 amp (IPC/switch bank HD elec)

I dont know what any of these fuses do.

*edit. This circuits draw power only for 30 seconds or so when I connect my ampmeter. Then the draw drops to 0.3AMPS so there isnt actually parasitic draw issue with my jeep.

 

[58Willys]

My Jeep is not my daily driver. It needs to be on a tender. I have a Noco Genius 10.

 

[entropy]

My Jeep is not my daily driver. It needs to be on a tender. I have a Noco Genius 10.

*edit:

There is no parasitic draw. When I connect my ampmeter it turns something on and I guess the computer draws energy for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds the amp draw drops to about 0.3A. So I am back to square 1.

I am charging my battery now that I updated the tazer we will see how this goes. If my battery dies again I am gonna have to charge it and let it rest unplugged to see if it drains. If that happens then this is just a bad battery. Sucks I will have to try to get a warranty replacement. It is an odyssey, not exactly a cheap battery.

 

[Gorilla57]

*edit:

There is no parasitic draw. When I connect my ampmeter it turns something on and I guess the computer draws energy for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds the amp draw drops to about 0.3A. So I am back to square 1.

I am charging my battery now that I updated the tazer we will see how this goes. If my battery dies again I am gonna have to charge it and let it rest unplugged to see if it drains. If that happens then this is just a bad battery. Sucks I will have to try to get a warranty replacement. It is an odyssey, not exactly a cheap battery.

Have fun getting an Odyssey warranty replacement. They said they are 8-10 weeks out on warranty replacements. WTF????

 

[entropy]

Have fun getting an Odyssey warranty replacement. They said they are 8-10 weeks out on warranty replacements. WTF????

Yeah.... It is gonna be brutal. I regret buying an odyssey. Shouldve gone to O'Reilly's or something.

 

[CaJLMetalHead]

*edit:

There is no parasitic draw. When I connect my ampmeter it turns something on and I guess the computer draws energy for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds the amp draw drops to about 0.3A. So I am back to square 1.

I am charging my battery now that I updated the tazer we will see how this goes. If my battery dies again I am gonna have to charge it and let it rest unplugged to see if it drains. If that happens then this is just a bad battery. Sucks I will have to try to get a warranty replacement. It is an odyssey, not exactly a cheap battery.

0.3 is still rather high... try waiting for 5 mins and see if current draw drops below 100ma

 

[Beachcomber72]

Woke up to a dead battery. parasitic draw seems to be the issue. I unplugged the tazer, winch and my towing harness. None of those are the source of 2.5amps parasitic draw. I am gonna gave to go through the fuses.

2.5 amps sounds like a phone charger type load. Nothing is plugged into the dash or the rear 12v socket?

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