Low Voltage Issue on the 2.0L - Turbo Boost Lag

[Zandcwhite]

So did you just do the standard "super chips tune" option? I know they have a 91 octane and 87 octane option as well on the initial tuning screen

I tested it with the standard superchips tune, but I believe all their tunes eliminate torque limiting in 4LO.

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[JLU138]

I tested it with the standard superchips tune, but I believe all their tunes eliminate torque limiting in 4LO.

So I ordered the TD3, but there was an issue with the unlocked PCM, so they sent me another one with a phone call. The guy on the phone said that I need to remember about the hidden battery which I assume he means the 48 volt. You did not disconnect to 48 volt battery before you installed your new unlocked PCM did you ?

 

[Zandcwhite]

So I ordered the TD3, but there was an issue with the unlocked PCM, so they sent me another one with a phone call. The guy on the phone said that I need to remember about the hidden battery which I assume he means the 48 volt. You did not disconnect to 48 volt battery before you installed your new unlocked PCM did you ?

No, I think he's referring to a non-etorque model with the 2nd 12v battery?

 

[vmdirt]

Late to the party on this one. I picked up my first Jeep (2019 Rubicon with the Etorq 2.0, stock 33s, 2" Mopar lift, Tazer JL) a couple of months ago and just did my first trip to Colorado with it over the last week. I did several passes (Black Bear, Imogene, Engineer, Cinnamon, Ophir, etc) and my Jeep died on me probably a half dozen times when at high altitude in low range, low RPM. It felt to me like when having to slow down to navigate a tight spot on a climb the RPMs would get down below the turbo and then there just wasn't enough power left in that 2.0 in that thin air to keep going. I don't recall ever seeing any voltage issues.

So with that thought in mind I started using the manual (M) shift mode so I could keep it in a low enough gear to keep the RPMs up to where the turbo would be able to continue to provide boost. I tried to keep it up over 2500 RPM or so and I don't think it ever died on me again when driving like that. But it does suck that you can't just leave it in D and have the Jeep be smart enough to figure that out all on its own. Maybe there is some sort of deeper issue like mentioned earlier in this thread but I wouldn't expect a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated engine (no turbo) to be very useful above 10,000 feet. I used to ride dirt bikes out there and would lose "significant" power above 10k. If there is a fix that would be great.

I do have a Tazer JL in mine but I don't think it does anything to address this issue. I skimmed this thread and I did see mention of other chips that may. Now on to reading through it more thoroughly.

 

[jg45]

3+ hours in 4lo, mud, dirt, small rocks, and snow at up to 8500' elevation today and the voltage never dipped once. The superchips tune is amazing in 4LO. No torque limiting so throttle response is killer. This is the first time in years we've been able to wheel in 4LO for more than 15 minutes without the voltage dropping. 13.9-14v all day. If the charging issue is legitimately cured this easily, F@CK jeep and every one of their engineers, mechanics, and technicians for making me figure this out for myself.

It's been a while now. Did the TD3 truly cure the issue? I was in Moab for EJS and spent many hours in 4LO. I noticed the voltage slowly dropping, but was back on the highway in 2WD before it got low enough to be an issue.

 

[Zandcwhite]

It's been a while now. Did the TD3 truly cure the issue? I was in Moab for EJS and spent many hours in 4LO. I noticed the voltage slowly dropping, but was back on the highway in 2WD before it got low enough to be an issue.

Cured 100% on ours. Crawling all day in 4LO without issue.

 

[AnnDee4444]

I think there's more going on here.

ESS hasn't worked on my JL for about a year (2018 JLR 2.0 eTorque), until I replaced my 12V battery this weekend... It immediately started doing the typical start/stop like when new. I always assumed it was a failing 48V battery, since the 48V battery is responsible for the start/stop. It makes me think that the 48V battery was constantly compensating for a weak 12V battery.

I wonder if a failing (or weak) 12V battery could cause the 4-low charging issue.

 

[jg45]

I think there's more going on here.

ESS hasn't worked on my JL for about a year (2018 JLR 2.0 eTorque), until I replaced my 12V battery this weekend... It immediately started doing the typical start/stop like when new. I always assumed it was a failing 48V battery, since the 48V battery is responsible for the start/stop. It makes me think that the 48V battery was constantly compensating for a weak 12V battery.

I wonder if a failing (or weak) 12V battery could cause the 4-low charging issue.

I had put in a brand new Odyssey battery before EJS as I did not trust the OEM battery to not die at a very bad time. Spending time in 4LO seemed to draw down the battery.

 

[Dekeyrelc]

I can attest this issue is not restricted to high altitude or 4 Lo. Happened in our 2020 Rubicon Recon (11K mi) yesterday. We were towing our small camper accross the panhandle of Texas (3,000'). The day started with a fair amount of idle time during different stages of getting ready to hit the road. Once on the road in 2H, the two lane roads only allowed a speed of 60 mph with the trailer. This was about 2,000 rpm. After about 40 minutes on the road, we started the descent into the Palo Duro Canyon, when the rpms dropped and brakes were applied the check engine light came on. I scrolled through the vehicle screens, but nothing stood out. About 5 minutes later, I got the Battery Low Voltage warning. I switched to the battery page and it was slowly decreasing. Every so often it would jump up to 12.4 to 12.8, but that was the highest I saw. At the time I thought it had an alternator and it was acting like a wiring or ground issue. We kept it going for another 20 miles to the next town and tried charging the battery, but things only got worse. Vehicle was towed to dealership. So far they've determined it is more than a battery issue. Next week their electronic tech will get to it and we'll see what they find. So we had to leave the vehicle 300 miles from home and fly home. I'll update later, but I'm leaning toward the software is not allowing the DC to DC converter to charge at low rpms. Seems like this system has many failure points that manifest the same symptoms?

 

[Windshieldfarmer]

I can attest this issue is not restricted to high altitude or 4 Lo. Happened in our 2020 Rubicon Recon (11K mi) yesterday. We were towing our small camper accross the panhandle of Texas (3,000'). The day started with a fair amount of idle time during different stages of getting ready to hit the road. Once on the road in 2H, the two lane roads only allowed a speed of 60 mph with the trailer. This was about 2,000 rpm. After about 40 minutes on the road, we started the descent into the Palo Duro Canyon, when the rpms dropped and brakes were applied the check engine light came on. I scrolled through the vehicle screens, but nothing stood out. About 5 minutes later, I got the Battery Low Voltage warning. I switched to the battery page and it was slowly decreasing. Every so often it would jump up to 12.4 to 12.8, but that was the highest I saw. At the time I thought it had an alternator and it was acting like a wiring or ground issue. We kept it going for another 20 miles to the next town and tried charging the battery, but things only got worse. Vehicle was towed to dealership. So far they've determined it is more than a battery issue. Next week their electronic tech will get to it and we'll see what they find. So we had to leave the vehicle 300 miles from home and fly home. I'll update later, but I'm leaning toward the software is not allowing the DC to DC converter to charge at low rpms. Seems like this system has many failure points that manifest the same symptoms?

Good luck with your fix. I have a 2020 Recon and have not yet had a problem though I closely monitor voltage when off-roading. I will be watching your posts to learn what the problem is/was. Either a software glitch or something with the BSG/48 volt system. Problems like you are experiencing makes me second guess keeping my Jeep outside of warranty.

 

[vmdirt]

Late to the party on this one. I picked up my first Jeep (2019 Rubicon with the Etorq 2.0, stock 33s, 2" Mopar lift, Tazer JL) a couple of months ago and just did my first trip to Colorado with it over the last week. I did several passes (Black Bear, Imogene, Engineer, Cinnamon, Ophir, etc) and my Jeep died on me probably a half dozen times when at high altitude in low range, low RPM. It felt to me like when having to slow down to navigate a tight spot on a climb the RPMs would get down below the turbo and then there just wasn't enough power left in that 2.0 in that thin air to keep going. I don't recall ever seeing any voltage issues.

So with that thought in mind I started using the manual (M) shift mode so I could keep it in a low enough gear to keep the RPMs up to where the turbo would be able to continue to provide boost. I tried to keep it up over 2500 RPM or so and I don't think it ever died on me again when driving like that. But it does suck that you can't just leave it in D and have the Jeep be smart enough to figure that out all on its own. Maybe there is some sort of deeper issue like mentioned earlier in this thread but I wouldn't expect a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated engine (no turbo) to be very useful above 10,000 feet. I used to ride dirt bikes out there and would lose "significant" power above 10k. If there is a fix that would be great.

I do have a Tazer JL in mine but I don't think it does anything to address this issue. I skimmed this thread and I did see mention of other chips that may. Now on to reading through it more thoroughly.

Well, I just got back from another 3 week trip out West (South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado) and I again had a few issues, and all of them did appear to have the voltage drop issue. I now believe that my previous issues probably also had an associated voltage drop. Here is an account of the worst event of the trip:

We were planning on working our way to Lake City from Ouray and the Jeep (JLUR 2.0 E-torque) started acting up up on California pass so I limped it down to a little past Animus Forks and that's as far as it would go. Initial oddity was a little clunk in the transmission followed by a service transmission light. I shut it off for a bit, started it back up and then continued on as it seemed to be driving okay. Then it died (4-low very slow speed) at the top of California pass like it has done a few times before when up over 10 or 12k feet so I didn't think too much of it.

I restarted it and started coming back down the mountain and I noticed a battery voltage warning. Voltage kept dropping so I figured something with the charging system. I didn't want to get stranded that high up on the pass so unplugged and turned off everything that would use power and tried to make a B-line toward Silverton. I got past Animus Forks and the voltage was almost down to 8 volts. I pulled over to let a side by side pass and the Jeep put itself into park and wouldn't let me go anymore.

I didn't want to shut the engine off but it wasn't doing any good if the transmission wouldn't go into gear so went ahead and shut it off. The ignition didn't de-energize so I disconnected and reconnected the battery which solved that issue. A few minutes later a couple in their side by side stopped and we hooked up some jumper cables to try and get enough juice back in my battery to get me the rest of the way to Silverton. Got it to charge up to about 11.8 and I started it back up and we started heading toward Silverton. On the way I noticed the charging system appeared to start working again and the battery was back up to 13.8 by the time we got here to Silverton.

I have a feeling the transmission issue and the Jeep dying was related to the electrical issue. I also think if I had stopped and shut the Jeep off as soon as I got the warning something may have reset and fixed itself and I wouldn't have had to get a jump because I did have the voltage warning again a few days later in the trip and I stopped and restarted the Jeep and it seemed to correct itself.

For me the issue seems to always start happening when in 4-lo at high altitude going up hill slowly. I should have pulled the TazerJL out after the first time to see if that had any bearing on the issue.

 

[Heimkehr]

@vmdirt
If you don't already carry a jump pack, it might be time to consider doing so. I use and recommend the AntiGravity brand, but there's any number of brands and packs to choose from.

 

[vmdirt]

@vmdirt
If you don't already carry a jump pack, it might be time to consider doing so. I use and recommend the AntiGravity brand, but there's any number of brands and packs to choose from.

I was carrying a jump pack but it wouldn't work. I'm not sure if it was because of the very low voltage or what but I did pick up a (hopefully) better one that day just in case.

 

[oldcjguy]

You might want to consider trying a Superchips tuner. A few people have reported not having the issue anymore since applying the tune. Would be nice if Jeep could figure it out, but......

 

[N00B]

Can anyone having this issue confirm that their Jeep can do a start/stop?

I haven't experienced the low voltage issue myself, but I do know that my start/stop no longer functions due to the 48V battery constantly in a "not ready" state... what I'm guessing is that it won't hold a large enough charge or the (48V battery) voltage is too low. If I'm remembering correctly it used to do a start/stop even while in 4-low.

Basically I'm wondering if the low voltage issues on the 12V side could be caused by a failing 48V battery. Hopefully not, but at least the fix should be free (until year 8).

I haven't posted anything about my experiences, yet. Will create a more thorough post in the next couple of days.

I have a 2019 JLUR and I have experienced this problem a couple of times while on Poughkeepsie Gulch near Ouray CO. Once the Jeep returns to "normal" my ESS works fine.

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