Tazer ESS Battery Testing

[WranglerMan]

Ok Gentlemen here we go,

Rather than try the remember all the places I have posted questions and comments on using a Zautomotive Tazer with my JL it’s much easier to start right here and post my testing results.

To sum things up my voltage spiked to over 14 and stayed there and ESS was inoperable as it stated battery was charging and after the battery was tested on a GR8 tester it failed and was replaced under warranty.

I can pinpoint my voltage jumping shortly after putting the Tazer in and using both vehicle and live features of the Tazer but cannot and will not say the Tazer caused it and it was maybe just a crappy factory battery.

For the next several weeks I will be reporting on my voltages now that my Tazer has been remarried to my JL and will slowly start using more and more of the Tazer features

After getting my JL back from service I left the Tazer in storage and ran all factory even though my speedo was not right due to larger tires, I have been running with it that way for almost a month and everything has operated normally with no error messages or erratic behavior and ESS has worked perfectly

My voltages have been very consistent with no Tazer and after getting it back I put it on a trickle charger so I knew I would be starting with a solid voltage and after pulling it off the charger the battery voltages at these three points were 13+ ( main, N1,N2 ) seeing above 13 is common coming off a charger and usually within a few hours it settles down and it did as voltage was 12.6-12.7 at these three points and idle running voltage was 12.6-12.8 in the EVIC and running down the road voltage would vary from 12.6-14 depending what i was doing and as I have said it only ramps up to over 14 when slowing down or braking and normal rolling down the highway it’s in the 12.6-12.9 range and as I mentioned in others posts when mentioning this to the service folks they advised that’s normal for smart charging

Well yesterday I put it on the tender again and got the same voltages right after coming off the tender and again an hour or so they were back down, I then married my Tazer and will document below what voltages are over the next several weeks runnig the Tazer

Test Info:

2018 Wrangler JLU Sahara
Auto trans
3.6
650 amp battery and standard alternator, all voltages are in the following order, Main batt, N1, N2, EVIC display
Tazer JL firmware 11.06
Klein MM400 multimeter for checking voltages
Deltran battery tender plus was used for the initial trickle charge to 100% charged.


Day 1

Tazer was married and tire size was set and TPMS limits were adjusted then Tazer was unplugged

After tender, resting voltage

13.09 main
13.08 N1
13.08 N2
12.7 running idle and no ramped voltage

About an hour or so coming off charger resting voltages are:

12.67
12.67
12.65
12.6 at idle
Voltage ramps to 14+ when slowing down or braking

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[WranglerMan]

Day 2

12.63
12.63
12.63
13.0

*** After ESS kicked in for the second or third time voltage ramped to 14+ and stayed there then after several start/stops as in shutting the Jeep off while sitting at a light the voltage magically dropped straight back down to 12.6-12.8 and all was normal again.

I have noticed since marrying the Tazer to my Jeep that on the first start whether it’s for the day or coming out of a store from running errands the ESS states it’s not ready but gives no reason why but after driving maybe a 1/2 mile it then says ready and works fine, I don’t think it did that with no Tazer married to the jl

 

[Jebiruph]

Day 2

12.63
12.63
12.63
13.0

*** After ESS kicked in for the second or third time voltage ramped to 14+ and stayed there then after several start/stops as in shutting the Jeep off while sitting at a light the voltage magically dropped straight back down to 12.6-12.8 and all was normal again.

I have noticed since marrying the Tazer to my Jeep that on the first start whether it’s for the day or coming out of a store from running errands the ESS states it’s not ready but gives no reason why but after driving maybe a 1/2 mile it then says ready and works fine, I don’t think it did that with no Tazer married to the jl

You have to go over 5 mph before ESS gets enabled.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

Just tested my ESS (I have Gen I Tazer). Voltage shows 14.4-14.5 while driving. When ESS kills the engine it goes to 12.6, which seems right since alternator is no longer sending a charge.

I doubt very much that Tazer will have any impact on battery if it isn’t plugged in. Changing tire size with Tazer is no different than the dealer doing it.

I do wonder if you guys with the issue all have automatics. Maybe it’s the “AP Kill” feature, which you all say doesn’t work reliably. I have a manual. Zero battery or Tazer issues since taking delivery in June. (2dr, 3.6, manual, tow package which means beefier alternator, 8.4”)

 

[WranglerMan]

You have to go over 5 mph before ESS gets enabled.

Brother I was going about 25-30 mph ...lol but ESS just displays not ready and no battery charging message or no other messages appear and once it says it’s ready it works perfectly.

This has only occurred right after starring, lots of times it says engine not up to temp or heating or cooling cabin but those messages are displayed after it’s been sitting all day or night but this occurs like say driving to the store, parking getting what I need and then restarting and rolling down the road it just says ESS not ready and I sure FCA has all sorts of crap ESS has got to see before it works and maybe some of that does not generate a message on the screen but after say maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile ( guessing on distance ) it shows ready

 

[Jebiruph]

The 5 mph requirement stumped me for awhile until I found it in the manual. If you haven't yet, check the owner's manual for the conditions required for ESS.

 

[WranglerMan]

@OldGuyNewJeep my JL is an automatic with the standard alterantor and battery with the 7” screen, you are correct you would think that not having the Tazer plugged in would have no affect on the battery as all I changed was tire size and TPMS limits then unplugged it and things like ESS and AP disable are live features and the Tazer has to be plugged in for those to work.

I have no idea why my voltage spiked to over 14+ then after a few starts and stops by both ESS and actually shutting off and restarting the Jeep it magically and very quickly dropped like a rock from the sky back down to the 12.6-12.8

I honestly would like to get an actual engineers take on this from FCA on how this system is suppose to operate as some say 14+ is normal and others say 12.7 is normal

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

@OldGuyNewJeep my JL is an automatic with the standard alterantor and battery with the 7” screen, you are correct you would think that not having the Tazer plugged in would have no affect on the battery as all I changed was tire size and TPMS limits then unplugged it and things like ESS and AP disable are live features and the Tazer has to be plugged in for those to work.

I have no idea why my voltage spiked to over 14+ then after a few starts and stops by both ESS and actually shutting off and restarting the Jeep it magically and very quickly dropped like a rock from the sky back down to the 12.6-12.8

I honestly would like to get an actual engineers take on this from FCA on how this system is suppose to operate as some say 14+ is normal and others say 12.7 is normal

Last time this was discussed, the consensus was “normal” - https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/battery-voltmeter-gauge.5345/

 

[WranglerMan]

@OldGuyNewJeep i think as you have said in the past it’s these kiddie engineers that have over engineered pretty much everything on the JL, I’m of the midset of the KISS principal.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

@OldGuyNewJeep i think as you have said in the past it’s these kiddie engineers that have over engineered pretty much everything on the JL, I’m of the midset of the KISS principal.

I agree. ESS sucks.

So, even though I’ve had zero issues, I just checked my battery with a multimeter. 12.44. That’s only about 50% charged. No good.

<sigh>

Unplugged my Tazer, but left it married. I’ll charge my battery with a tender and monitor. If it never dips under 12.6 I’ll be on board with you that Tazer has a bug. Hopefully @joe@zauto is on the case.

Anyway, we’re lucky that all we’ve got to complain about at Christmas is a minor annoyance with a toy, and so I’ll take this discovery with a grain of salt.

 

[WranglerMan]

@OldGuyNewJeep i am presently taking daily voltages but the Tazer is not installed as I only married it to my JL then changed just two things ( tire size and TPMS limits ) I then unplugged the Tazer so my thinking is it should not be an issue just using these two things, heck it should not be an issue changing any vehicle setting as they don’t require the Tazer to be plugged in to reap the benefits.

As you pointed out earlier changing what I did is no different than the dealer flashing my JL for tire size, I did have the one blip today where voltage spiked to over 14 and stayed there for several start stop cycles and even when I shut the JL down and restarted it still was there but then it magically dropped back down to the 12.6 right before my eyes and it did it very quickly so not sure what caused that as when I got home I checked the battery and it was 12.7 at all three points

Here is my voltage reference chart I use

 

[WranglerMan]

The 5 mph requirement stumped me for awhile until I found it in the manual. If you haven't yet, check the owner's manual for the conditions required for ESS.

Well there seems to be a ton of things that can affect ESS, again it’s way over engineered.

I actually had the Service ESS message in red show up less that a week again and after cursing the FCA Gods and kiddie engineers I found one of the hood latches latched but not latched properly on the driver side

 

[joe@zauto]

I’m watching to see what you post, but I’ll chime in with what I know and my observations:

My JLUR, which is never exhibited a ESS problem, does the exact same thing married or unmarried. Currently I have it unmarried and bypass removed.
Start Jeep and it’ll go as high as 14.6v, sometimes for 5 minutes or more, then start to come down. Quite often it’s over 14v. It’ll drop into the 13.x range then and walk all over as it’s driven. When the ESS kicks in (at a traffic light) the voltage will quickly walk down as expected, Ive seen as low as 11.7v. I haven’t sat long enough to see when it’ll auto-restart on its own. Starts up and goes back to 14+ for a couple minutes before settling back down.

Exact same thing with the Tazer in or out, married or unmarried, settings changed or not.

I do have some contacts at FCA - confirmed that this is totally normal operation and to be expected.

I’m not denying that there’s some sort of issue with the Tazer and dead batteries, and ESS warning in the morning (because the battery is low upon start-up). It’s not a problem that affects many, and seems to be mostly 11.0.7, perhaps some 11.0.6. Maybe even a hardware problem with some units and not software related, this is to be determined.

The ones with the battery drain seem to be that either the dash boot loops or the LED on the tazer blinks when the Jeep is asleep, something is waking it up. I’ll figure it out.

Just wanted to shed some light here - I spoke at length with one of the engineers there and he knows well what the tazer does and how it works, and how the ESS system works and concludes, as I would think, that there’s no setting that could be changed to mess it up, and that the voltage walk is exactly how the system is designed.
Parasitic draw - low battery overnight - that’s what I’m looking for.

 

[WranglerMan]

@joe@zauto thanks for chimeing in with the great info and I’m glad to hear that the FCA ppl say swinging voltage is normal so we can only assume that if it’s constantly stays at 14+ and advises battery charging that this is not normal behavior, currently I have mine married and tire size changed along with TPMS limits then I removed it, another member pointed out that by changing just those two settings and removing it is no different than the dealer flashing my tire tires size and pressure limits as since it’s removed there is no chance of it doing a parasitic draw.

 

[WranglerMan]

Day 3

12.60
12.60
12.61
13.2

All seems good today as ESS did it’s thing and voltage displayed after running a short errand dropped during idle from the 13.2 to 12.8 and of course it ramps up to over 14 when decelerating so I can only guess that the JL is somehow telling the alternator what to do and as the battery gets closer and closer to a full charge the idle voltage drops, in the past I have had it drop to the 12.6-12.8 range and stay there while driving and idle but if I let ESS kick in of course it does drop further.


So since all was going well with voltages I did some short testing and I let ESS kick in and just sat there with radio on but no AC or heat to cause ESS to disengage and right 5 mins ESS disengaged and the Jeep started and this is what it’s supposed to do according to the manual, voltage at restart was 12.2 on EVIC


After is started displayed voltage was 13.3-13.5 but I had several ESS stops so I figured again the JL was telling it to charge and after 5-6 mins of driving it dropped back to 12.9 and I believe if I had driven longer it would have gone back down to the 12.6 range

I figure I will do this testing for about a week or two so I have a good base and then plug the Tazer back in and see what happens, several have the Rubicon which has the upgraded 700 battery and beefier alterantor so maybe that’s why those folks don’t seem to have issues but my Sahara has the standar 650 battery and standard alaternator

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