Low Voltage Issue on the 2.0L - Turbo Boost Lag

[Overland Productions]

I have the etorque 2.0....went to CO...did about 6 hours of pretty intense crawling, slow, steep, and some technical. No problems. My altitude was between 9,000 and 11,000 feet. Is there a correlation to altitude? Really strange problem...and apparently fairly rare. Buyback time.

Same, climbed all over colorado mountains. No issues except for my anxiety after reading too many of these posts just waiting to get stuck on a forest road at 11k feet. Nothing ever happened. Ran like a scalded ape.

Sponsored

 

[Zandcwhite]

Experienced the dreaded low voltage issue on Thursday, our first day wheeling in Moab. Ran fins &things and hell’s revenge back to back. It was about 104° outside, hours of low speed crawling with the AC on, radio playing, 2 phones charging. Just passed escalator on the way out, engine dies and voltage warning pops up at 9V. Turned off AC and radio, voltage slowly coming back up. As we worked our way out engine would stall and voltage would dip. Made it to the road and it drove fine. Voltage stayed at 13.5v. Drove back up to Werner lake where we were camped. Next morning all was good. Voltage stayed between 14 and 14.4v all the way over to Top of the world trail head. Back to low speed and voltage worked its way down to 13.5V and stayed there all day. 2 more days of wheeling, poison spider, golden spike,and gold bar with voltage anxiety, never dipped below 13.3V while running. After reading all these threads and experiencing it first hand, I feel it is 100% a cooling issue where heat soak is either restricting the bsg from producing enough amperage or the dc to dc converter is overheating and not charging the 12v system properly. I’d take it in to the dealer, but they’ll say “it’s functioning properly now” or blame the lift and 37’s. Something in this charging system is either under sized or insufficiently cooled. It would be nice if FCA would admit that and develop a real fix. Aside from the one incident, this thing is amazing. Plenty of power, walks up anything you point it at including double whammy and the waterfall on gold bar. Couldn’t be more impressed and disappointed at the same time. Thinking of installing the Valkyrie off road hood vents for additional cooling, and maybe a dual battery for additional 12v capacity, but we shouldn’t have to fix Jeeps engineering failure.

 

[Overland Productions]

Experienced the dreaded low voltage issue on Thursday, our first day wheeling in Moab. Ran fins &things and hell’s revenge back to back. It was about 104° outside, hours of low speed crawling with the AC on, radio playing, 2 phones charging. Just passed escalator on the way out, engine dies and voltage warning pops up at 9V. Turned off AC and radio, voltage slowly coming back up. As we worked our way out engine would stall and voltage would dip. Made it to the road and it drove fine. Voltage stayed at 13.5v. Drove back up to Werner lake where we were camped. Next morning all was good. Voltage stayed between 14 and 14.4v all the way over to Top of the world trail head. Back to low speed and voltage worked its way down to 13.5V and stayed there all day. 2 more days of wheeling, poison spider, golden spike,and gold bar with voltage anxiety, never dipped below 13.3V while running. After reading all these threads and experiencing it first hand, I feel it is 100% a cooling issue where heat soak is either restricting the bsg from producing enough amperage or the dc to dc converter is overheating and not charging the 12v system properly. I’d take it in to the dealer, but they’ll say “it’s functioning properly now” or blame the lift and 37’s. Something in this charging system is either under sized or insufficiently cooled. It would be nice if FCA would admit that and develop a real fix. Aside from the one incident, this thing is amazing. Plenty of power, walks up anything you point it at including double whammy and the waterfall on gold bar. Couldn’t be more impressed and disappointed at the same time. Thinking of installing the Valkyrie off road hood vents for additional cooling, and maybe a dual battery for additional 12v capacity, but we shouldn’t have to fix Jeeps engineering failure.

Great description. Which engine do you have in the 19 JLUR? Does it have e-torque? (48v lithium).

 

[Zandcwhite]

Great description. Which engine do you have in the 19 JLUR? Does it have e-torque? (48v lithium).

2.0t with e-torque, clearly the 48v battery still had plenty of juice as the engine fired right up with the gauge reading 9V. Maybe the aftermarket will step in with a solution, but I’m not holding my breath. If it ever happens again, I’ll put the Tazer in winch mode so it idles at 2k rpms, park it in the shade, and open the hood in an attempt to prove my heat soak theory.

 

[Overland Productions]

2.0t with e-torque, clearly the 48v battery still had plenty of juice as the engine fired right up with the gauge reading 9V. Maybe the aftermarket will step in with a solution, but I’m not holding my breath. If it ever happens again, I’ll put the Tazer in winch mode so it idles at 2k rpms, park it in the shade, and open the hood in an attempt to prove my heat soak theory.

I know your feelings about visiting the dealer. The system should have stored some low voltage codes. If you have service coming up soon maybe consider asking them to check history and see if a TSB applies. A lot of previous posts mention both the starter and 48v lithium getting replaced to fix these concerns.

 

[YYCSahara]

I wonder if the 3.6 E-Torque design is different? They are putting them in all the 3.6s now so they must be confident it will work well.

 

[AnnDee4444]

Experienced the dreaded low voltage issue on Thursday, our first day wheeling in Moab. Ran fins &things and hell’s revenge back to back. It was about 104° outside, hours of low speed crawling with the AC on, radio playing, 2 phones charging. Just passed escalator on the way out, engine dies and voltage warning pops up at 9V. Turned off AC and radio, voltage slowly coming back up. As we worked our way out engine would stall and voltage would dip. Made it to the road and it drove fine. Voltage stayed at 13.5v. Drove back up to Werner lake where we were camped. Next morning all was good. Voltage stayed between 14 and 14.4v all the way over to Top of the world trail head. Back to low speed and voltage worked its way down to 13.5V and stayed there all day. 2 more days of wheeling, poison spider, golden spike,and gold bar with voltage anxiety, never dipped below 13.3V while running. After reading all these threads and experiencing it first hand, I feel it is 100% a cooling issue where heat soak is either restricting the bsg from producing enough amperage or the dc to dc converter is overheating and not charging the 12v system properly. I’d take it in to the dealer, but they’ll say “it’s functioning properly now” or blame the lift and 37’s. Something in this charging system is either under sized or insufficiently cooled. It would be nice if FCA would admit that and develop a real fix. Aside from the one incident, this thing is amazing. Plenty of power, walks up anything you point it at including double whammy and the waterfall on gold bar. Couldn’t be more impressed and disappointed at the same time. Thinking of installing the Valkyrie off road hood vents for additional cooling, and maybe a dual battery for additional 12v capacity, but we shouldn’t have to fix Jeeps engineering failure.

2.0t with e-torque, clearly the 48v battery still had plenty of juice as the engine fired right up with the gauge reading 9V. Maybe the aftermarket will step in with a solution, but I’m not holding my breath. If it ever happens again, I’ll put the Tazer in winch mode so it idles at 2k rpms, park it in the shade, and open the hood in an attempt to prove my heat soak theory.

Awesome description. To me it sounds like the inverter is at fault, since the 48V battery would likely not be charged if it was a BSG issue.

Did the voltage change at all if the engine was revved up?

 

[Zandcwhite]

Awesome description. To me it sounds like the inverter is at fault, since the 48V battery would likely not be charged if it was a BSG issue.

Did the voltage change at all if the engine was revved up?

It seemed as though revving helped, but stopped in the middle of the trail, in the sun, in 104° weather, with the AC off, I wasn’t exactly patient. It hovered around 12v as we worked our way down the hill. It did feel like it was stalling a couple times, but I was in a hurry to get off the trail at that point. Figured I diagnose it and research it in town. Of course all symptoms are gone when you hit pavement and drive in 2wd at any speed, so now I just have after the fact theories of what may help and a maniacal focus on the voltage gauge.

 

[Engmoreau]

The battery pack has a separate cooling system. Maybe that was overdrawing the power that made it run low because it was so hot it had to run for long periods of time

 

[Overland Productions]

Awesome description. To me it sounds like the inverter is at fault, since the 48V battery would likely not be charged if it was a BSG issue.

Did the voltage change at all if the engine was revved up?

With a smart alternator the voltage would actually go down if a heavy load is placed on the engine. We can drive ourselves crazy trying to make sense of the voltage readout on late model vehicles.

 

[Blackjeepjlu]

Has anyone actually managed to find a fix for this issue?
We are currently in Silverton and had this same electrical issue happen to us on our first full day of trail riding. 2019 JLUR with the 2.0 and 16,600 miles . Altitude of 12,600 and the the volts started dropping and eventually just died, tried jumping with a vehicle and jump box and neither worked. We did manage to leave the jump box on to move the Jeep to a slightly better location but the minute the jump box was removed it died. We ended up having to leave it where it was after working on it 2-3 hours as we didn't want to be stuck there after dark. Went back next morning and it started and now the voltage varies from 13.8 to 14.1 with nothing on, no a/c, no radio, ESS turned off. Haven't turned on lights yet but we're trying that today to see what happens. Called the dealer in Durango and they said they'd need it for at least 3 days to see if they could figure out whats going on but they don't have any loaner vehicles so we'd be stranded. So we're going out again today and see if it happens again but we're going to stay more local and not do the passes we really wanted to do for fear of it happening again and being stranded on high mountain passes with bad weather due in later today. We've done way worse than what we did on Sunday with no issues.

 

[Zandcwhite]

We had the issue on hell's revenge, after getting off the trail all was normal. Wheeled multiple other trails the next 2 days, which were cooler days, without ac on. Issue never returned. I would guess from my experience and others that it's an overheated dc to dc converter and that letting it cool off with the engine off is probably the "solution". I know it's not much of a solution if you are trying to get somewhere, but it may be the best we've got.

 

[Philip]

Has anyone actually managed to find a fix for this issue?
We are currently in Silverton and had this same electrical issue happen to us on our first full day of trail riding. 2019 JLUR with the 2.0 and 16,600 miles . Altitude of 12,600 and the the volts started dropping and eventually just died, tried jumping with a vehicle and jump box and neither worked. We did manage to leave the jump box on to move the Jeep to a slightly better location but the minute the jump box was removed it died. We ended up having to leave it where it was after working on it 2-3 hours as we didn't want to be stuck there after dark. Went back next morning and it started and now the voltage varies from 13.8 to 14.1 with nothing on, no a/c, no radio, ESS turned off. Haven't turned on lights yet but we're trying that today to see what happens. Called the dealer in Durango and they said they'd need it for at least 3 days to see if they could figure out whats going on but they don't have any loaner vehicles so we'd be stranded. So we're going out again today and see if it happens again but we're going to stay more local and not do the passes we really wanted to do for fear of it happening again and being stranded on high mountain passes with bad weather due in later today. We've done way worse than what we did on Sunday with no issues.

I live in Colorado and have the exact same vehicle, 10,000+ miles, and it has happened to me over the last 3 weekends. I'm working through my jeep dealership, AutoNation Crysler Jeep Arapahoe, and they have had it twice over the last three weeks. I'll post the saga.

 

[Philip]

Saturday, 8/22

Dumont, CO: Red Elephant - +11,000 feet
• Jeep initially stalled
• Immediately restarted the vehicle and continued on the trail
○ Check engine light came on
○ Voltage began dropping (~13.5… 12, 11, 10, 9…)
○ Low battery warning
§ About every warning light on the jeep came on
§ Placed in park
□ Would not go back into gear (flashing park before selecting gear)
□ Had to turn off.
® Spent 2 hours trying to get a tow-truck… but I was approximately 2.5 miles into a difficult off-road trail
® Finally decided to hike up to the next trail intersection because no one was on the trail… Prior to starting my hike, I decided to try to start the jeep… and it started.
◊ The battery was back over 13v… but warning lights were still all on
◊ Put jeep in drive and began limping up the hill.
} Gas petal was intermittently unresponsive and I would have to place the vehicle in park, then drive, to get it to move forward. Repeated this process multiple times over the next few miles.
} Goal was to get to Empire trail, where more people would be around to assist.
◊ Made it to the Empire trail and began our descent.
} Battery started dropping again, warning lights all came on, and the vehicle overheated and stalled.
} ~5 minutes later, another Jeep came by and stopped to assist.
} Jeep was jumpstarted after the engine cooled and followed us down the mountain.
◊ Stopped to air-up
} Restarted and Gas petal was intermittently unresponsive… but the battery reading was ~13.5v.
} Used Superchips "Flash Cal" to reset warnings. Turned vehicle off and restarted
} Jeep was drivable and we made it back to Empire, without issue, and decided to try to Drive home (~1.25 hours of highway, via I70).
◊ Made the next available appointment at the Jeep Dealership.

 

[Philip]

Tuesday, 8/25

Jeep Dealership
• Was told the issue was due to the aftermarket (Superchips) tuner that was used to adjust for aftermarket tire size.
• I questioned the service rep, because the aftermarket unit had been installed for months and this issue was new.
○ The dealer insisted the Superchips flash-cal was the issue so I had them remove it and reprogram for my jeep the correct tire size. Charged ~$240.00
§ Went out and purchased a trickle charger
§ Disconnected Warn Xenon 10s Winch from the battery so it could be excluded as the next-source
§ Charged up my portable jump starter

Sponsored