2018 Compass Latitude w/Romik Runningboards.

The dealer got back to me and they said it looks like the radio has been staying on resulting in the battery drain! The Jeep was then sold to a second party, who didn’t realize the complexities involved with solving this battery drain problem. What a joke...OEM battery carries a warranty for just a year and new battery 6 years!

It’s also important to note that when most people talk about a battery dying repeatedly, they are talking about a situation where the vehicle won’t start after it has been parked for any length of time.

Come join the discussion about reviews, performance, trail riding, gear, suspension, tires, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, for all JL, JT, JK, TJ, YJ, and CJ models! If you test the battery, and it checks out fine, and the connections are tight and clean, then the weather shouldn’t cause it to die repeatedly.

There may not be a lot you can do to avoid other issues, like a sudden parasitic drain, but dealing with that type of problem in a timely manner can also help prolong the life of your battery.

It had one bad cell. The easiest way to go about this type of diagnostic is to leave your multimeter or test light connected and remove individual fuses until the drain disappears. Some of these problems are enough to kill a battery on their own, while others are usually coupled with a battery that is already weak or on its last legs. At this point, I recommended to the shop owner that they replace the burned alternator wiring and determine why the brake light switch B+ wire was drawing 250 mA. Charging system problems can also cause a battery to die repeatedly, although you will usually notice some level of drivability problems as well. That means if anything is left on after the engine is shut off, the battery will almost certainly die.

This discrepancy, along with an error in the component location chart, temporarily led me to suspect bad CAB module. 2019 Jeep Compass Latitude AWD 2.4 9-spd A/T.

In this situation, the harness must be removed, opened, and repaired, which is a labor-intensive job that might exceed the vehicle’s market value. However, it is vitally important to avoid getting any baking soda inside the battery cells. None of these gauges would work with the alternator field connected. *Left jeep overnight, battery drain within 8 hours; can't start; clicks; Had to jump start it from other vehicle to turn ON *Looked for parasitic draw on battery, couldn't find anything right away *Took out the #21, 10 Amp fuse from inside the vehicle for the radio, battery drain …

Apparent logic leads to a diagnostic scenario in which the alternator field circuit amperage increased to far more than needed for normal electrical loads (shorted rotor?). I mean dead to the point the doors won't even unlock. I got it to finally turn off after hitting the on off button like 8 times.

When your car battery dies once, it may be tempting to just write it off as a fluke. My dealer found a bad spot in the wiring harness directly below the battery. JavaScript is disabled. So, I was surprised to find the battery at 11v following a sub-freezing blizzard sitting just 1 day. So if you're dealing with a battery that goes dead over and over again, it's worth checking it out at night when it's dark out when a faint or dimmed dome light will be easier to see.

If you charged it, or just parked it, it would show about 12.4 volts. Since an active relay is warm to the touch, my first step was to check each relay for warmth.

But these were no-code pattern failures and easily solved by replacing the body control module. While measuring the voltage drop across each of the interior “junction block” mini-fuses, I located a voltage drop across mini-fuse #23. Leaving the headlights on can kill a weak battery in the amount of time it takes you run a short errand like shopping for groceries, but even a small interior dome light can drain a battery dead overnight.

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For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Let’s look at a brief diagnostic history of a module draining the battery on our second case study, which again is a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee that happens to be owned by the same person as our first case study. A lot of battery problems can be headed off with basic maintenance, and a poorly maintained battery won't hold a charge like it did when it was new.

Because the PCI and “Gen Source” circuits are in close proximity to each other at connector #2, it’s reasonable to suggest that an overheated B+ alternator field driver would short the PCI circuit to voltage or ground inside the PCM when the alternator field was connected. But when your car battery keeps dying over and over again, it’s a pretty safe bet that there’s an underlying problem that needs to be dealt with before you end up stranded somewhere. The shop also left the hood up, front windows rolled down, and the ignition key on the front seat as requested, which avoids the issue of wasting even more diagnostic time by waiting for the on-board modules to time out. “Old School” testing methods are counter-productive to accurately measuring, estimating, and locating battery drains on modern vehicles. He is also a systems administrator for an IT firm in Texas serving small businesses.

The 200-300 mA-range far exceeds the permissible 30-50 mA range and appears frequently when an aftermarket accessory is involved. The easiest way to check for a drain is to disconnect a battery cable and check for current flow. Headlights, or even a very dim dome light, will drain a battery dead overnight. Make sure to check for any interior lights when it's dark outside.

However, there are actually several reasons that a car’s electrical system might cut out when driving, and even more reasons for an engine to simply die.

If the belt seems loose, it may actually prevent the alternator from generating enough power to charge the battery in addition to running everything else. Waiting on a replacement!

Power Announces Best Resale Value Awards, News: Pep Boys To Again Sponsor Nationwide Toys For Tots Campaign, Iridium Aftermarket Spark Plugs Offer OE-Level Performance. This allows all modules to time out and remain “asleep.” So let’s solve this month’s Diagnostic Dilemma by working through a more advanced level of parasitic battery drain diagnosis on two case-study vehicles, a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a battery drain and a similar 1998 Grand Cherokee with a module drain.