Dead battery.....starter thoughts?

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:46 pm

Ok, so all hell broke loose this morning.

Backstory, alternator bearings making noise, replace alternator.

Original crap Optima crapping out. We suck the last legs out of it and then I replace it with the other Optima from the parts Jeep. Everything is fine and dandy, battery holds a charge and turns the Jeep over much faster.

Once after that the battery is dead, requires jump start from AAA(mom has the Jeep 2.5 hours away).

This morning she leaves the hotel, drives to Costco, comes back out and the Jeep won't start. Calls AAA again, cannot get it jump started, requires a tow.
AAA says he has towed a good number of these diesels with the same problem. He also says a friend who works at a Jeep dealer said it was a problem in the starter "......there is a spring in the starter that breaks and then when you turn the key off it drains the battery. The spring breaks in the on or off position......."

Not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds like some kind of indication of a solenoid problem.

Now, that is a reasonible guess about what would be draining the battery in such a short time(and this is on an otherwise heathy Optima battery), I'm not sure what could drain enough current from a battery in a matter of a few minutes with the exception of such a large "short-circuit".

Anyone have any thoughts on that? I have not heard anyone here report the same thing, and seems as though we have had a large enough sample of dissatisfied owners that I think I would have heard someone else report the same thing. I'm still not convinced its not a defective battery, I don't trust optimas and have a very low opinion of them. But I do admit it seemed to be an otherwise good battery.

Neal · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:19 pm

charge up the battery pull off one of the battery cables and put an ammeter or lite bulb in series.
see if you have current flow when key is turned off.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:23 pm

Neal wrote:

charge up the battery pull off one of the battery cables and put an ammeter or lite bulb in series.
see if you have current flow when key is turned off.

While this is one of the things I will do when I have the vehicle here(its 2.5 hours away right now) if it is an intermittent failure this may not reveal it.

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:52 pm

Boy, it seems as if a drain that large would burn up the starter. I think that you are right on the money with the bad battery idea, especially if it is the factory, under-speced one. When my factory Red Top failed, it was with exactly the same symptoms that you describe. I bought another Red Top from Autozone and it has been a MUCH better battery.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:41 pm

I had a bad Alternator that killed a brand new battery. It was pulling 12 volts immediately and draining the battery...

BlackLibertyCRD · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:47 pm

Once the Optima battery is dead, it needs to be slowed charged overnight to bring back to normal. AAA jumped it and sent her or her way which is wrong move.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:39 am

DarbyWalters wrote:

I had a bad Alternator that killed a brand new battery. It was pulling 12 volts immediately and draining the battery...

Alternator tests out fine. Was that the case with yours?

BlackLibertyCRD wrote:

Once the Optima battery is dead, it needs to be slowed charged overnight to bring back to normal. AAA jumped it and sent her or her way which is wrong move.

Yes thats true but that incident was several weeks removed from this. While it was not proper procedure I do not think it was the cause of this problem.

Magnum · **Posted:** Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:06 pm

There is a specific alternator for the crd since diesels tend to run at lower rpm did you get the right one?

Pablo · **Joined:** Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:06 pm **Posts:** 1201

Has the BCM flash been done that fixes the power drain issue? I know you got yours after the wreck, so maybe it is behind on the flashes. I don't think that is it, but might as well check and make sure.

dgeist · **Posted:** Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:36 am

BlackLibertyCRD wrote:

Once the Optima battery is dead, it needs to be slowed charged overnight to bring back to normal. AAA jumped it and sent her or her way which is wrong move.

My original battery (installed in early 2006) is choking as of yesterday (not holding a charge, EVIC loosing MPG settings overnight, etc). I'm going to get it tested, but assuming it's bad, I'm looking at an Optima Group Number: 34 (9002-002). Is that the one others have used in the CRDs?

Thanks.
Dan

<Edit> Answered my own question. A 34R fits perfect. Just had to bend the elbow on the chassis ground lead as the Optima post is a little farther inboard than the factory unit.

Dead battery.....starter thoughts?

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