I had the alternator replaced 1 yr ago +/- a month or two ago and the battery replaced 2 or 3 months after that(optima 1000cca red top battery). Did normal driving all weekend long for my normal errands. On my way home from my girlfriends parents house last night i noticed a very very faint dim and un dim situation on my dash cluster lighting, i didnt think anything of it. Come this morning i started my jeep just to warm it up a tad and turned my headlights and foglights on, walked back inside to make my coffee and wait for my girlfriend to get ready. We then both walked back outside to leave some 15 mins later and the headlights and foglights were no longer on and every sensor light on the dash was on minus the cluster lighting for the speedo, rpm etc. I turned it off to try and restart it and i got the wild click noise. I plan on trickle charging it for a few hours when i get home and checking the battery with a volt meter. Hopefully its a battery which i have a 5 year warranty on and its nothing major. Anyone know whats going? WTF man, not a good way to start the week.

Have battery load tested and alternator output tested. I suspect one or both are bad.

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What papa said.

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George Reiswig
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD
Suncoast, SEGR, lift, InMotion tune, homebrew B100
At 138k, new head & gasket, timing belt, rockers and swearing vocabulary

Dead to this community is major engine failure resulting in a $6K+ repair bill.

If there's no unusual noises or screeching, no excessive smoke, no overheating and no oil or other fluids on your driveway under the vehicle then the good news is it's probably not really dead.

The advice already given is good but since the power was failing with the engine running I'd suggest the alternator/charging system rather than the battery itself.

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I put in on 12v/10a trickle charge for two hours. I'm On my way home now so I'll remeasure and check the battery again. I checked it real quick post to post and it was at 11.78 volts which isn't too bad no?

That's what it measured before I put it on charge and left

Bad for a optima but a common thing for them to just die suddenly after about 1 year in service.A fully charged optima must be at 12.8 volts.

Hmmmm never heard that before, I know for a fact it's still under warranty and the volt is right back up 12.8 after the charge, I'll try driving it for a while and post back Ina week unless something goes wrong before then. Thanks again

Good luck with the warranty,plan on it dying again less then a year from now again.

Oh and you must wait 12 hours before testing the battery(and voltage) again after charging so the battery is at it's "rest" state.You also must use a battery charger designed for AGM batteries,your normal battery chargers will not charge a AGM battery correctly and can do damage.


My Odyessy PC1500(Diehard Platinum P4) will read 13.9 volts right after being fully charged but drops down to 12.8 volts when it reaches it "rest" state.

Just because the alternator was replaced last year also doesn't mean that it is any good OR that the pulley they used was the correct one. If the pulley doesn't have a cap over it and can "free wheel" in one direction and "catch" in the other direction - then it isn't a clutched pulley (or has failed) and that will also cause your electrical system to "pulse" as you are looking at the lights, as the alternator is switching on/off very rapidly as the pulley catches and releases instead of holding against the incoming power.

You also don't need the AGM battery if you don't want to spend that money. Any Group 34 battery or Group 34R (reversed posts) will work, but fitting the regular one might require some slight adjustment of the negative cable to fit. That is why they chose the much-more-rare and more expensive 34R group... Because making the negative cable 3/4 of an inch longer would cost CHRYSLER money, instead of just letting the owner have to pay twice the cost of a normal battery.

Be glad this is an easy fix, and your CRD isn't actually "dead" like you posted. You are having a vehicle problem, not a CRD problem.

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Over 225 CRDs currently driving with my valves, timing belt, rockers, or ARP Studs.
Bad noises = REALLY bad things.

Thanks, now that I know my title for this post isn't being taken lightly I'll choose my words wisely next time. Thanks again guys, I'll post back soon but hopefully not too soon.

so i had a different problem this morning and it explains why everything else happened, my alternator decoupler is probably about 75% gone so it engages and free wheels when it wants to and it makes the famous wining noise only at 1/4-1/2 throttle. i did a voltage drop test on the alternator also and everything came back solid! Ill be ordering the decoupler asap!

So what's the deal here? Is a little bit of current from the alternator now and again sufficient to keep the charge light off? I would have thought that the ECM would have been integrating it over time to discover a net drain on the battery.

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What happened yesterday morning was the alternator decoupler didn't engage at all and it free wheeled the entire time it was on (20 mins) and my headlights and foglights were on that whole time or until the voltage from the battery fell under threshold and caused the charging system and battery lights to come on. I drove it this morning and only got 5 mins away from home and it was engaged for a little bit and stayed locked for a bit and then free wheeled and did it repeatedly under only 1/4-1/2 throttle and made a fainter version of the noise it would make idi was fully seized so I turned right around and my gf and I carpooled in her crv instead. I'm happy to say ive isolated the problem. This is my first diesel vehicle and and also my first vehicle with a decoupler equipped alternator pulley. It makes sense for diesels to have it as I did some researching and they purpose is to save the belt tensioners and the alternator from sudden slow down jolts which either come from downshifts or engine shutoffs. Hence why our diesels don't chirp when we shut them off. It's a cool design actually now that I have educated myself on it. Thanks again everyone for the input and the advice!

Update. I did further testing and found out the entire alternator was bad so I replaced it today, acceleration has improved still a little sluggish, yesterday I cleaned the whole intake tract, including recharging my drop in panel kn and I degunked the map sensor. I did want the new alternator to have the heavy duty of bringing the battery back up to full charge so right now she's sitting on an Agm charger on trickle for a few hours and no dash lights have come back on during the momentary test drive around the block but hopefully the bAttery at full capacity will fix that issue. I'll see how she does tomorrow on the ride to work. I will post back soon

Eww. Get rid of that K&N filter.
I know all the hot rodders love K&N air filters but they are not so good turbo diesel engines.
Traditional paper filters do a better job and with a turbocharger, there is no performace to be gained by using a K&N or similar filter.

Save the turbo, save your engine.

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U.S. Army Retired

okay so there is very faint soot spec stains on the front of my coolant reservoir and on the cold side of the turbo. still sluggish and still an obscene amount of black smoke. the soot is all over the cold side (turbine side) of the turbo and probably the first 1-2' of the cac pipe going from the turbo to the intercooler. ive read people say on here its the hoses leaking or its a vacuum modulator. i need some help, this is soo frustrating!

im ready to order parts at a moments notice but it depends on if its the modulator or the hoses. biiiiig price difference there.

ive also already done the vacuum solenoid last year

Soot on the outside of the turbo?
That doesn't make sense. Unless there is an exhaust leak at the turbine housing.
You should be able the hear the exhaust leak if that is the case.
Can you post pictures?

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U.S. Army Retired