Electrical Problems! What could it be?!

[Jnowe413]

21' rubicon ecodiesel with 7,700 miles on it..... A few days ago I moved my jeep in my apartment parking lot (thankfully I wasn't out on the road somewhere) and when I pulled it into a parking space and put the thing in park, the dash started to give me a light show, beeping, every dash light and code that the jeep has came on, interior lights flickering etc.... So I tried to turn the thing off. The engine shut down but all the electronics were still glitching out! The shifter had all lights illuminated (park, reverse, neutral and drive) the dash was ticking and clicking and the rpm and tach needles were jumping. Just a total nightmare. So I disconnected the main battery and pulled it out, then disconnected the aux battery and also pulled that out to finally make the jeep stop. I tested both batteries with a multi meter and the main battery was good 12.8 volts, the aux battery was 6 volts. So i put the aux battery on the charger and got it to 12 volts and 100% charged according to my battery charger. Put the batteries back in and jeep started up! No issues besides the typical "auto start stop fault" after you have a aux battery problem. So I tried to drive it in the parking lot again and voltage dropped so quick and boom the jeep shut down on me in drive and the same exact electrical glitch happened (same stuff with all the flickering of lights, ticking, and clicking). So i had to pull the batteries out AGAIN to make the damn thing stop freaking out. Then popped into neutral and pushed into parking space. Then I went out and got a brand new aux battery. Tried it all over again with new aux battery. The jeep ran much longer this time but I didnt even move the jeep because i just monitored the voltage the whole time which kept dropping. Then boom same exact electrical nightmare. I put the origional aux battery back in and called the dealer. It will get towed to a dealer tomorrow. I will keep the forum updated. But has anyone had this happen?!? Or any ideas what the hell it is??? FYI i checked all the fuses and nothing was blown. Cant really tell with the high amp fuses though sinse they are a weird configuration. Maybe PCM / ECM / ECU or something like that?? maybe it is one of the high amp fuses??

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[26 confirmed]

Sounds like your alternator is not charging the battery.

 

[Jebiruph]

Did you check the N3 ESS fuse in the fuse array? That's the common cause of the aux battery not charging.

 

[Jnowe413]

Did you check the N3 ESS fuse in the fuse array? That's the common cause of the aux battery not charging.

I did not check any of the fuses in that fuse array thing. I know there’s like 7 nuts holding down each one and the whole thing comes out as one piece. But not sure how to tell if those fuses are bad because they don’t look like the typical fuses that you can see through and if they are blown…

 

[Jebiruph]

If you have a voltmeter you can check the voltage at the N3 terminal post. If there's nothing on N4, you can move the cable from N3 to N4 to bypass the potentially bad N3 fuse.

 

[Jnowe413]

If you have a voltmeter you can check the voltage at the N3 terminal post. If there's nothing on N4, you can move the cable from N3 to N4 to bypass the potentially bad N3 fuse.

what should the voltage be on these fuses? And it looks like I do have something connected to N4 from the factory.

 

[Jebiruph]

what should the voltage be on these fuses? And it looks like I do have something connected to N4 from the factory.

You need battery voltage at the N3 terminal. If you don't have it, it's probably a blown N3 fuse and you'll need to get power to the N3 terminal, that feeds the electronics. I'm not familiar with the diesel, my advice is based on the 3.6 ESS.

 

[Jnowe413]

You need battery voltage at the N3 terminal. If you don't have it, it's probably a blown N3 fuse and you'll need to get power to the N3 terminal, that feeds the electronics. I'm not familiar with the diesel, my advice is based on the 3.6 ESS.

So I should be getting around 12 volts to that fuse when I read it with the multi meter? And do you think the N4 stuff might just be the aux switches and tow package stuff? If so then I could still leave that disconnected and place N3 in N4 spot to at least see if that’s the problem to begin with

 

[Jnowe413]

So I should be getting around 12 volts to that fuse when I read it with the multi meter? And do you think the N4 stuff might just be the aux switches and tow package stuff? If so then I could still leave that disconnected and place N3 in N4 spot to at least see if that’s the problem to begin with

also it looks like N4 is the AUX PDC. So sounds like just the aux switches inside jeep that I have nothing ran to…. Think it would be safe to try leaving N4 unplugged and putting N3 in N4 to test?

 

[Jnowe413]

**UPDATE** Switching the N3 to the N4 worked like @Jebiruph suggested. Now I will be ordering a new fuse array to put it back to normal. Calling the dealer and tow truck today to cancel was such a good feeling!

 

[Jebiruph]

**UPDATE** Switching the N3 to the N4 worked like @Jebiruph suggested. Now I will be ordering a new fuse array to put it back to normal. Calling the dealer and tow truck today to cancel was such a good feeling!

Good job getting it going. Here's my write up on how the N3 fuse gets blown. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...-cable-caution-and-ess-n3-fuse-warning.66247/

 

[Jnowe413]

Good job getting it going. Here's my write up on how the N3 fuse gets blown. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...-cable-caution-and-ess-n3-fuse-warning.66247/

@Jebiruph I wish I searched a little more and saw this post earlier. Great post on your part. Thanks a lot for all this info. If I didn’t keep digging and keep trying…. Then the jeep would have been stuck at a dealership for god knows how long lol. Thanks again!

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