2000rpm Max - Another Battery Gremlin

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...