""Seemingly Routine" snafu electrical gremlin Maintenance - (All lights/wipers/radio problem)

[NavalLacrosse]

This is the THIRD time in 4 years this has happened, so I'm considering it routine maintenance at this point.

Driving home- while towing my little camper. 

Battery light:

5 minutes - Radio turns off- but everything is working.

5 minutes - Airbag light

5 minutes - All lights on, then all lights off. (BRAKE, TPMS, SEATBELT, ect)
5 minutes - Center radio goes black

1 minutes - BRAKE light pulses every ten seconds, when it does the Speedo drops to zero.

1 minute later - "-40" outside temp.

transmission is now it safety mode. 2nd gear locked,
Pull into the driveway and the engine is surging/dying
I turn it off before it dies. will not start. no locks, 'low fob battery, wipers start going unprompted, all exterior lights flickering.

Hypothesis:
Dead/dying Battery need replacement. 

 

Proposed Solution:

Remove LH wheel, Wheel Liner, battery 'strap' (15 zip ties), disconnect the thermal circuit, replace battery, and put it all back together. 

 

Will report back in a few days if simply changing the battery solves the issue.

I'm a BIG advocate of telling all the new DJ owners out there, if you start having hella awful electrical gremlins, just  change the battery.

Time to put my money where my mouth is! 
 

Edited September 21, 2020 by NavalLacrosse

[5rebel9]

So just how long has the battery been in it's "dungeon"  that prompts you to reach your hypothesis of just changing it out? When you do the chore, make sure you clean the cable ends well or replace them if they look "ratty" and use some dielectric grease on the connections to help prevent corrosion on them.

    Just from this posting, I have to wonder if a ground problem is happening with the trailer light wiring is causing this...IF only when you're using the trailer.

[John/Horace]

I had same routine when my wife’s alternator died a few months ago, I posted about it. It was an oem Denso brand , one of the better manufacturers. Around 100k miles on unit.

 

Trying putting battery on charger for 2 hours, see if car will start back up. Then do a load test with a multi meter and car running, turn on high load stuff like electric seats, hvac fan on full. Should be 14-14.3 under load. Sometimes they don’t just fail, but get weak.

The sequence was car seeing battery losing charge, shutting off accessories, trying to keep critical stuff going, limp mode on tranny being last resort. Cooling fan would still have been left functional to protect engine.

 

I like trailer short idea as well, something is dragging battery down. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by John/Horace

[NavalLacrosse]

The difference between this and the last few times it happened is: The first time the issue surprises me when it's -30f and i'm at the Detroit Airport parking lot. 

 

The second time happened 3 months later when the Walmart Battery I bought took a sh*t. 

 

this third time the battery has been down for 1yr 11months.

 

The first two times, both of the other times the car was running, then the next day it was dead. The shops' said the alternator was fine, but the battery crapped out. 

This time, I'm thinking it might be alternator- As i actually saw the car go from alive to dead over the period of 40 minutes.

I'm at 89kmiles, so I might be due for an alternator.  And because I let it run all the way down, the battery is shot regardless of it was the cause or not.

As far as the trailer wiring being at fault... MAYBE... Although there is fuses to prevent shorts. I've driven 1 hr around town with the trailer in tow. then, I dove 1 hr to get to the campsite, and the last 30 minutes of the return was when the problems happened... Not sure if the wires got melted on something in the meanwhile, but the brake lights still work on the camper. We'll see if the issue persists.

Edited September 21, 2020 by NavalLacrosse

[John/Horace]

Running a battery flat once won’t necessarily kill it. Put it on a charger for a few hours.

Then start up car and see if alternator is putting  out enough charge. 
Leave the fuse out of trailer harness until you have things sorted out.

Its not a short agreed,but it could be a constant power draw from harness.

 

I went with a dealer reman alternator,  best deal I found.

[NavalLacrosse]

So- I changed the battery (the current one is at 0.1 volts. Oof!)

And- I get 14+ volts for the first 10 seconds after ignition, but then the car enters battery saver mode, and the volts go to 11.4v

89% sure the alternator is kaput.

side note; 
FCA! Why did you literally make the alternator the easiest thing in the world to change (3x13mm bolts) but then stick the darn thing under the radiator hose!!! 

[OhareFred]

Did you charge the battery with a charger, then check the alternator?  

[NavalLacrosse]

I did not charge the old battery- but I did check the alternator after the new battery was installed, and it appears to be an alternator issues.

 

I don't think the old battery survived the discharge onslaught I put it through (drove 40 minutes home from camping without the alternator, among other things) testing the old battery after i removed it shows a 0.4v charge. dead as a doorknob. The car did not run without the lithium jump pack attached.

[John/Horace]

My battery went down to 4 ish volts and seemed to come back.  It’s still in there now and over night voltage is close to a new battery.  Lithium also wouldn’t restart car,  smart charger ran 4 hrs to revive battery.   A fairly new battery sometimes can be revived, although no longer with 9 lives. New is safer bet. I’m just cheap.

 

Sounds like voltage regulator in alternator shot, tries for a minute then craps out, also like mine did. Might be slight electrical burned smell from alternator.

 

It looks like Denso is the factory unit, one of the best on the market normally; even said made in Japan on it. The dealer reman came with a new plastic guard and two new longer studs, instructions and torque specs ! Pricing was also better than local parts guys and they had it in stock; that’s how you get my business. Accepted old unit for recore as well. Had to drop glycol out with the hose in the way; not a terrible job really. Also changed out loud idler pulley, tensioner pulley was already done when belt was last year.

Edited September 23, 2020 by John/Horace

[NavalLacrosse]

I did the alternator myself. Went with a rebuilt one from autozone.

Probably should have done as you said, and gotten the Denso Remanufactured unit. 

Took about 30 minutes to get the belt off, the bolts off, the hose disconnected, and wiring harness off... then 1 hr to ''birth' the alternator out of the engine from the top. and 3 hours to reinstall. Wow slippery tools are the worst. the belt alone (replaced at the same time) was about an hour's worth of massaging the larger idler pully, and another hour was wasted with the engine-side radiator hose clamp- my vice grip was a hair too small to open it wide enough to get it over the plastic nipple. 
 

[OhareFred]

Was the alternator the cause of your issues?  How’s the rebuilt working,fine?

[NavalLacrosse]

3 hours ago, OhareFred said:

Was the alternator the cause of your issues?  How’s the rebuilt working,fine?

Yes, the alternator was the culprit.

The new one's working great so far. took about 10 minutes of driving to make the belt chirp stop- but now all is good, no issues.
 

Edited September 25, 2020 by NavalLacrosse

[John/Horace]

Yeah the glycol on the pulleys can chirp. Brake cleaner on pulleys to degrease sometimes helps.

 

Alternators on V6 engines are never easy, starters in the same category. Glad you got it done.