Battery wont hold a charge

curtis · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:08 pm

Well I'm heading to the dealer in the morning to get a new battery. After 14 months and 27,000 miles of use, Mine has died. The alt is still working great but the Battery wont start the CRD after a couple of hours of sitting. It started out a couple of days ago not starting after sitting overnight and progressed to only a few hours.

FYI the battery is covered 100% under the 3 year 36,000 mile warrenty and then the remaining 72 month part is pro-rated after that. I'm not sure what caused the failure, Maybe just a bad battery?

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:12 pm

I am not please with the failure rate of the optima batteries.

curtis · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:25 pm

Sir Sam wrote:

I am not please with the failure rate of the optima batteries.

How many do you figure have died?

AZScout · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:45 pm

Mine died and was replaced under warranty. The Mopar (non-Optima) died last month after a year and I had to get that on my own. $120 for a gel battery. Two 1/2 years and two batteries. Not looking good... I am figuring there must be a short somewhere but I don't want to look for it and I can't go without a vehicle if I bring it to the dealer. At least the new battery has a warranty.

You can try and charge it on a "trickle" setting and let it set overnight. I heard some Optima's are accepting the charge that way. This method did not work with the non-Optima relacement.

Cowcatcher · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:49 pm

Mine is doing just fine. I would take it to an Optima dealer not the Jeep folks as they will stick in a MOPAR with a more limited warranty.

If you are having battery issues have you had the BCM reprogram do for the programming error that caused intermittent battery draw down overnight? Maybe you have electrical issues and it isn't the battery that is at fault.

curtis · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:56 pm

I already set it up ahead of time with the dealer to make sure I get the exact type of battery (no Substitutes for me). Trickle charging won't work in my case, The battery won't pass a load test, It must have a dead cell.

I'm sticking with the Optima batteries, I don't think a lead plate battery will hold up to the heat and vibrations of a Diesel.

If I lose another battery next year, I'm going to a larger capacity instead of the 700 amp that comes with it. With all the current draw trying to start a diesel, It's no wonder the batteries are wearing out.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:04 pm

Bovie · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:21 pm

Sorry to hear about your dead optima.

I few years back I swiched from a lead acid to an optima in my Mercedes 240D. Honeslty I'll never go back, nothing starts in cold weather like an optima.

When I bought my jeep I was happy to see an optima under the hood stock. I'd be pissed if it died and the dealership replaced it with a mopar lead acid. That would be like your $2000 Samsung TV dieing and a Bestbuy trying to replace it $800 Vizio.

Goglio704 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:27 pm

Mine had a Mopar in it when I bought it new, but it is an Optima type, not a lead acid. It was a leftover 05, maybe the battery I bought it with was not the one it was built with. It's been a good battery so far...

AZScout · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:02 am

The Mopar replacement I received was a gel-type as well. Just not an Optima.

skywarn · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:20 am

is anyone doing the batt/alt test before they get a new batt??

start car remove + side of batt. if car dies then Alt is bad, if car stays running then batt is bad...

ive had a few alt replaced (not on my CRD) but always did that check before i replaced the batt. (its just a good piece of mind for me.)

Cowcatcher · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:35 am

skywarn wrote:

is anyone doing the batt/alt test before they get a new batt??

start car remove + side of batt. if car dies then Alt is bad, if car stays running then batt is bad...

ive had a few alt replaced (not on my CRD) but always did that check before i replaced the batt. (its just a good piece of mind for me.)

Not sure if that would work on a diesel since a diesel does not rely on spark for ignition.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:06 pm

Cowcatcher wrote:

skywarn wrote:

is anyone doing the batt/alt test before they get a new batt??

start car remove + side of batt. if car dies then Alt is bad, if car stays running then batt is bad...

ive had a few alt replaced (not on my CRD) but always did that check before i replaced the batt. (its just a good piece of mind for me.)

Not sure if that would work on a diesel since a diesel does not rely on spark for ignition.

But it does rely on electric EFI system to inject the fuel.

Now an old fashioned diesel with a distribution manifold, true.

Goglio704 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:11 pm

Disconnecting the plus terminal from the battery is a not good for the alternator. Buy a cheap voltmeter if you don't have one. A simple voltage test will tell you most of what you need to know.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:16 pm

Goglio704 wrote:

Disconnecting the plus terminal from the battery is a not good for the alternator. Buy a cheap voltmeter if you don't have one. A simple voltage test will tell you most of what you need to know.

Agreed, never liked the idea of disconnecting the battery, no telling what kinda surges could go on without it, would stink you burn our you PCM all over a $50 battery wouldnt it?

Kniggit · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:16 pm

Now i didn't catch anyone mentioning the TSB about the BCM draining the battery in this thread, might want to find out if that was done.

K

Cowcatcher · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:44 pm

Kniggit wrote:

Now i didn't catch anyone mentioning the TSB about the BCM draining the battery in this thread, might want to find out if that was done.

K

I think it was issued before yours was born so I would think that you would not have the problem.

alclubb · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:32 pm

Could you give the TSB number for the "BCM draining the battery"? I have a 2005 CRD and I haven't heard about that TSB. thanks.

curtis · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:50 pm

Well I was in and out in about 20 minutes with a new battery. The replacement is not an Optima but a Mopar Battery. So I went in to engage in a battle over this matter. The service manager explained to me that the Battery I have is a Gell type battery like the Optima, But is a much larger version. My old Battery was rated 700 cranking amps, And the new battery is rated at 950 cranking amps. He told me they have been replacing the smaller batteries with the larger ones on all the Crd's that they see with Battery problems. He told me most of the Opitma's have only lasted about 1 year and they have replaced almost all the one's in the CRD's that they sold with the new larger one. He feels the failures are do to the Battery being to small for the aplication, I do agree with that as well so I decided to give this one a shot and see how it works.

The Warrenty is 72 months on the new Battery, And I noticed how much faster the motor turns over, And it starts in about 1/2 to 1 revolution instead of 2 to 4 rev's.

I geuss I see how it go's

Cowcatcher · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:00 pm

alclubb wrote:

Could you give the TSB number for the "BCM draining the battery"? I have a 2005 CRD and I haven't heard about that TSB. thanks.

Here is a link: http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... php?t=8937

Battery wont hold a charge

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