[nbb350]

Story Time!

So, everything was going fine today. We went out for coffee, went to the park, stopped at Lowes, stopped at Fleet Farm. The Wife and Dog sat in the Jeep listening to the radio while I shopped inside FF for about 30 minutes. I came out and the Jeep wouldn't start - wouldn't even turn over. WTH? The X-2 battery is only 14 months old! So I opened/closed the driver's door, locked/unlocked with the fob, and waited 10 minutes...tried again. Vrrr...vrrrr...click. Okay...repeat and wait 20 minutes. Vrrr.Vrrr.Vrrr..Vroom! OK, let's go to Batteries Plus for a warranty exchange!

But wait...the engine won't rev over 2000rpm. It shifts from 1st to 2nd around 1500 rpm, then maxs out at 20mph at 2000rpm in 2nd gear. Crap - maybe not the battery. NO idiot lights on the dash at all. Nothing. All the gauges look fine too. Strange...

I limp it another 1/4 mile into the Home Depot parking lot (thinking a flatbed tow can maneuver better in that big lot) and park it (engine still running). But it's only 6 miles to the local Jeep dealer on side roads...I can do that at 20mph max! Nope, they close at 2pm - clock says 1:55pm. Damn. Wait - the other Jeep delaer is 12 miles away and open until 4pm! Okay...limp it there.

Huh...2000rpm max and it won't upshift when I get there, BUT, if I lift off the gas slightly at 2000rpm so the rpms come down, it WILL upshift. So I can get up to highway speeds! (Side note: I swung by home and had the Wife get her Jeep to follow me in case I had to leave my Jeep at the dealer. I still haven't turned off my engine since I got it started at FF parking lot.)

Get to Jeep, pull up to Service and shut off the engine...they say "sounds like a battery issue - we can pull it in and check it Monday." Um...its 2:30 Saturday. So I restart it and drive 2 miles to Batteries Plus to have them check the battery - at normal rpm! Seems like the electrical gremlin has reset itself. Maybe the 45+ minutes it ran from FF to Jeep dealer charged the battery back up?
Well, the battery tests at 60% charge (after being charged for 45+ minutes) - 50% is cutoff for warrranty claim. Alternator "tests good too". "Come back if it gets worse" WTF...30 minutes of radio listening shouldn't kill a 14 month old battery. So I drive home normally with no issues. I guess I'll just have to wait for the battery to die another 15% in order to get a warranty exchange. That'll be a fun surprise when it happens...

 

[Gary Kline]

Welcome to your weekend from hell

Good luck, hope it doesn't come back (or if it does, it comes back enough to get that warranty replacement!)

 

[Mark_]

Story Time!

So, everything was going fine today. We went out for coffee, went to the park, stopped at Lowes, stopped at Fleet Farm. The Wife and Dog sat in the Jeep listening to the radio while I shopped inside FF for about 30 minutes. I came out and the Jeep wouldn't start - wouldn't even turn over. WTH? The X-2 battery is only 14 months old! So I opened/closed the driver's door, locked/unlocked with the fob, and waited 10 minutes...tried again. Vrrr...vrrrr...click. Okay...repeat and wait 20 minutes. Vrrr.Vrrr.Vrrr..Vroom! OK, let's go to Batteries Plus for a warranty exchange!

But wait...the engine won't rev over 2000rpm. It shifts from 1st to 2nd around 1500 rpm, then maxs out at 20mph at 2000rpm in 2nd gear. Crap - maybe not the battery. NO idiot lights on the dash at all. Nothing. All the gauges look fine too. Strange...

I limp it another 1/4 mile into the Home Depot parking lot (thinking a flatbed tow can maneuver better in that big lot) and park it (engine still running). But it's only 6 miles to the local Jeep dealer on side roads...I can do that at 20mph max! Nope, they close at 2pm - clock says 1:55pm. Damn. Wait - the other Jeep delaer is 12 miles away and open until 4pm! Okay...limp it there.

Huh...2000rpm max and it won't upshift when I get there, BUT, if I lift off the gas slightly at 2000rpm so the rpms come down, it WILL upshift. So I can get up to highway speeds! (Side note: I swung by home and had the Wife get her Jeep to follow me in case I had to leave my Jeep at the dealer. I still haven't turned off my engine since I got it started at FF parking lot.)

Get to Jeep, pull up to Service and shut off the engine...they say "sounds like a battery issue - we can pull it in and check it Monday." Um...its 2:30 Saturday. So I restart it and drive 2 miles to Batteries Plus to have them check the battery - at normal rpm! Seems like the electrical gremlin has reset itself. Maybe the 45+ minutes it ran from FF to Jeep dealer charged the battery back up?
Well, the battery tests at 60% charge (after being charged for 45+ minutes) - 50% is cutoff for warrranty claim. Alternator "tests good too". "Come back if it gets worse" WTF...30 minutes of radio listening shouldn't kill a 14 month old battery. So I drive home normally with no issues. I guess I'll just have to wait for the battery to die another 15% in order to get a warranty exchange. That'll be a fun surprise when it happens...

That is a first for me on this forum.

From the Batteries+ test, it was definitely severly depleted. But why ? Not from 20 minutes of radio.. Just a wild guess here : did you ask your wife if she did anything else other than listen to the radio ? Something that could've drawn power? Ignition on Run instead of Acc ?

My advice, for now, is get that X2 Power charged up to 100%, and take it from there...

 

[Gary Kline]

That is a first for me on this forum.

From the Batteries+ test, it was definitely severly depleted. But why ? Not from 20 minutes of radio.. Just a wild guess here : did you ask your wife if she did anything else other than listen to the radio ? Something that could've drawn power? Ignition on Run instead of Acc ?

My advice, for now, is get that X2 Power charged up to 100%, and take it from there...

Hey @Mark_ , "ask your wife if she did anything else other than listen to the radio ? " Like use the power inverter in the back seat to power a hair dryer? My wife asked that once.... LoL! 😳

 

[Lindy]

Sounds like yet another X2 ready to fail early in its lifetime. But yeah, it definitely needs to be charged fully on a battery charger. Good luck.

And personally I would never listen to the radio for 30 minutes in any modern vehicle when the engine is off. It's not like the old days where you are just listening to the 'radio'. You basically have a computer running with multiple systems requiring voltage and if you have the 9 speaker system in your Jeep you also have a separate, more power hungry amp pulling juice. Just my 2 cents....

 

[sanghill]

When you go back to Batteries Plus Bulbs ask them for the "WARRANTY COVERAGE POLICY". Read the fine print on page 2.
Basically they fully charge the battery, take the battery out of the Jeep, test the battery with a carbon pile meter.
The battery must be below 80% of the original rated capacity in order to be replaced under Warranty.
My X2 Power battery is 54 months old and still tests 835 CCA using their tester. MIDTRONICS MDX-P300.
It is also very well insulated to protect it from excessive hot and cold. Weather here is mild.
I have a 2014 V6 TH so it does not have ESS which helps. I also regularly charge it with an AGM smart charger.
Let me know what you find, I am still learning about X2 Power.

 

[nbb350]

As for the Wife touching the key, I doubt it. I'm the one who was driving and turned the engine off (so from Run to Acc) so she could listen to the radio (and play with her phone).
Basic 6 speaker system in my Jeep, so no big amp or subwoofer. Nor was it cranked up - just background music.
Battery is charging up with a Schumacher AGM charger today...6+ hours now and the little Charging light is still lit.
We had a few days here last week where the temp never got above 0F, but the Jeep sits in an attached garage that rarely gets below freezing. And yesterday when this happened the temps were in the high 20s - a nice winter day!
Oh, and the guy at Batteries Plus didn't really want to do much of anything...just clock watching and waiting for beer-thirty.

Maybe it was just a one time glitch, maybe not. I'm sure I'll find out the hard way when I least expect it!

 

[Mark_]

As for the Wife touching the key, I doubt it. I'm the one who was driving and turned the engine off (so from Run to Acc) so she could listen to the radio (and play with her phone).
Basic 6 speaker system in my Jeep, so no big amp or subwoofer. Nor was it cranked up - just background music.
Battery is charging up with a Schumacher AGM charger today...6+ hours now and the little Charging light is still lit.
We had a few days here last week where the temp never got above 0F, but the Jeep sits in an attached garage that rarely gets below freezing. And yesterday when this happened the temps were in the high 20s - a nice winter day!
Oh, and the guy at Batteries Plus didn't really want to do much of anything...just clock watching and waiting for beer-thirty.

Maybe it was just a one time glitch, maybe not. I'm sure I'll find out the hard way when I least expect it!

Thanks. Hmmmm. Something is not right. Maybe it is a defective battery and , if so, you'll find out sooner than later.

If your Schumacher charger is low Amp output (like 1 or 2 Amps), you can expect a full day's worth of charging, give or take.

Temps at or below 0F are not a problem for these batteries, unless state of charge is low, then they can freeze/bulge and it's permament damage. But even semi charged batteries won't freeze at 0F. 0F is kinda daytime high average for us in January-February (even colder) we don't see that many frozen batteries.

 

[nbb350]

Well, almost 3 days on the charger and the little light is still ON. I checked the maintainer specs and it's only 800 mAH, so not too surprised it's still running.

This is the same maintainer I use on the bench to maintain a general purpose tractor battery (used for 12v trouble shooting of other stuff) and the factory Jeep battery (Batteries Plus didn't want it and they didn't charge me a core charge and it was still working...so I kept it!). The little light WILL turn off after the battery is charged up and back ON every so often, so I'm confident that the maintainer is working as it should. The box said it was rated for AGM batteries, but my bigger, older 1-50 amp charger/starter says no such thing, so I'm hesitant to leave that connected to the AGM battery for too long.

 

[Mark_]

Well, almost 3 days on the charger and the little light is still ON. I checked the maintainer specs and it's only 800 mAH, so not too surprised it's still running.

This is the same maintainer I use on the bench to maintain a general purpose tractor battery (used for 12v trouble shooting of other stuff) and the factory Jeep battery (Batteries Plus didn't want it and they didn't charge me a core charge and it was still working...so I kept it!). The little light WILL turn off after the battery is charged up and back ON every so often, so I'm confident that the maintainer is working as it should. The box said it was rated for AGM batteries, but my bigger, older 1-50 amp charger/starter says no such thing, so I'm hesitant to leave that connected to the AGM battery for too long.

You could have used the old charger for a couple hours of bulk charge at higher Amps, but I'm not a big fan either and you cannot leave them On too long or they will cause damage from overcharging. But for now, in your case, it's too late because of the charge already given.

Yeah, a few days on a 800mA charger is not surprising, yet it tells on how depleted the battery was. I only had small maintainers like that before, tehn decided to buy a cheap 10 Amp Schumacher a couple years ago, for more depleted batteries, and also because my 27F battery is so 'big'...

 

[N3GXQ]

Sounds like it went into limp-mode, hopefully caused by nothing more than a weak battery. That would make sense as there are so many power-consuming items on modern engines, and if not operating properly, could damage the engine/driveline. And I would agree with Lindy as to using accessories without engine running for any length of time. So much more draw than just the radio. And these critters are very sensitive to power - my 2020 Cherokee LP heated seats and steering wheel was set to turn on with every start. But it didn’t. Then, one day, the display was dark when I started and didn’t come on for almost a mile. Replaced the battery (original) and all is well!

 

[nbb350]

Since I work from home and it's Winter outside, I don't have to leave the house too often this time of year. Today was one of the rare days I had an appointment, so I finally took the little charger off the battery - after almost Five Days of charging. Nope, the little light on the charger never did turn off - the battery never did attain a "full charge". BUT, the engine sure did start in a "positive" manner - I can't remember the last time the starter spun that quickly! Not only that, but it sounded good after all 5 of my errand stops - and it's a balmy 25F here today. AND my Auto-Stop worked! It hasn't worked in at least 6+ months - not that I've missed it. Since it hadn't been working, I'd gotten out of the habit of hitting the Cancel Auto-Stop button on the dash.

This may not be the end of the story - the battery could still spontaneously die on me - but it does tell me that putting a charger on the battery every so often may not be a bad idea. I use that charger on my truck quite often when it sits in the shop unused for 1-2 months. maybe I should start putting it on the Jeep too when I know it's going to be sitting for a while...

 

[Mark_]

Since I work from home and it's Winter outside, I don't have to leave the house too often this time of year. Today was one of the rare days I had an appointment, so I finally took the little charger off the battery - after almost Five Days of charging. Nope, the little light on the charger never did turn off - the battery never did attain a "full charge". BUT, the engine sure did start in a "positive" manner - I can't remember the last time the starter spun that quickly! Not only that, but it sounded good after all 5 of my errand stops - and it's a balmy 25F here today. AND my Auto-Stop worked! It hasn't worked in at least 6+ months - not that I've missed it. Since it hadn't been working, I'd gotten out of the habit of hitting the Cancel Auto-Stop button on the dash.

This may not be the end of the story - the battery could still spontaneously die on me - but it does tell me that putting a charger on the battery every so often may not be a bad idea. I use that charger on my truck quite often when it sits in the shop unused for 1-2 months. maybe I should start putting it on the Jeep too when I know it's going to be sitting for a while...

Absolutely a good idea.

If you can, look for a more capable smart charger, something like 5 or 10 Amps, for times when the battery is depleted...

 

[N3GXQ]

Since I work from home and it's Winter outside, I don't have to leave the house too often this time of year. Today was one of the rare days I had an appointment, so I finally took the little charger off the battery - after almost Five Days of charging. Nope, the little light on the charger never did turn off - the battery never did attain a "full charge". BUT, the engine sure did start in a "positive" manner - I can't remember the last time the starter spun that quickly! Not only that, but it sounded good after all 5 of my errand stops - and it's a balmy 25F here today. AND my Auto-Stop worked! It hasn't worked in at least 6+ months - not that I've missed it. Since it hadn't been working, I'd gotten out of the habit of hitting the Cancel Auto-Stop button on the dash.

This may not be the end of the story - the battery could still spontaneously die on me - but it does tell me that putting a charger on the battery every so often may not be a bad idea. I use that charger on my truck quite often when it sits in the shop unused for 1-2 months. maybe I should start putting it on the Jeep too when I know it's going to be sitting for a while...

 

[N3GXQ]

We use small, 4 amp maintainers on almost every battery we own - if it sits unused for any time at all. We have various farm equipment, some with 2 or 3 batteries each, and sit unused most of the winter. Some with on-board electronics that can drain the battery. Some, like our combine, sit for almost 10 months. A maintainer is a must! I have a 2007 Ford 500 ( back when Ford made a quality ride) with 62k miles. It obviously sits a lot. Keep a maintainer on it at all times. Backed it out last Sunday, washed it, went to pull it in and nothing. Had 5.1 no-load volts. The 5-year battery, bought 5 years ago, expired. So even a maintained battery can fail, but the maintainer sure helps!

 

[Lindy]

I have a 2007 Ford 500 ( back when Ford made a quality ride) with 62k miles. It obviously sits a lot. Keep a maintainer on it at all times. Backed it out last Sunday, washed it, went to pull it in and nothing. Had 5.1 no-load volts. The 5-year battery, bought 5 years ago, expired. So even a maintained battery can fail, but the maintainer sure helps!

It's also possible the battery maintainer isn't working anymore as I had one fail on me in the past.

But yeah, battery maintainers are the way to go. I use them all the time and they do wonders in prolonging the life of batteries!