[TinasJeepCherokee]

Thanks, forgot all about this one.
Refer to: FCA RAM Post #93 and several other Posts.
And this one: Remote start not working when really cold out 2020 Hawk
Search this Forum for "denso", there are several other Posts.
In the meantime charge your battery with a good AGM battery charger using the 10A setting.
It the battery won't take a charge it is definitely no good.

They just towed it. The dash said NO BUS. And the engine light was on. Its pretty crappy when i am now afraid to drive this dream car i have wanted for a long time

 

[Flybynightcru]

They just towed it. The dash said NO BUS. And the engine light was on. Its pretty crappy when i am now afraid to drive this dream car i have wanted for a long time

Don't lose the faith yet, they'll get it figured out. You should still be under warranty, correct??? I agree with @Mark_ about the relay, and would mention that to the service advisor, in fact I would replace all relays that were in the 2020's that were not the Denzo or Bosch relays that most of us have from the factory. This was a pretty big deal with the 2020's...😎

 

[UN4GTBL]

They just towed it. The dash said NO BUS. And the engine light was on. Its pretty crappy when i am now afraid to drive this dream car i have wanted for a long time

The "NO BUS" message should help them figure it out hopefully!

For the record, in the first 3 years I had my TH, I had the battery replaced twice. That 3rd battery is still going strong 3 years later, but I keep it on a trickle charger when I know I won't be driving much because of how I wired my dashcam.

If it helps give you any peace of mind, you could look at getting one of those portable booster packs to keep in your glovebox. I had an issue with my last vehicle where the battery terminals were bad and just all of a sudden stranded me at an appointment one day. After I figured out it was the terminals and I got that fixed, a year later I walked out to my car after work and it was dead, but thankfully I had the booster in my glovebox, and it started right up and I went to CT on my way home to buy a new battery, and then I had to use the booster again to get home from CT as the main battery tie down was corroded and not releasing, and that started what would become a 6 hour battery change on my Caliber

I would also keep an eye on your ESS message screen. It can be an early warning sign for a bad battery. (It's how I found my 2 bad batteries before I was stranded somewhere) If it's always on "Battery Charging" it might be time to start digging into your battery.

Also, a bad battery sensor or "IBS" could be an issue as well.

Don't you just love technology in vehicles?

 

[sanghill]

Tina,
This is a good link for Canadian batteries: Quick little Appreciation post Page 2.
Did you ever get your Jeep back? It has only been 2 days.
It took over 2 weeks to get my Oldsmobile fixed, so be patient. Slow seems to be the new 'normal'.

 

[1coopgt61]

Last winter I had to replace the K9 relay. Car was only 6.5 months old .

 

[TinasJeepCherokee]

Tina,
This is a good link for Canadian batteries: Quick little Appreciation post Page 2.
Did you ever get your Jeep back? It has only been 2 days.
It took over 2 weeks to get my Oldsmobile fixed, so be patient. Slow seems to be the new 'normal'.

Yes i got the jeep back. They said nothing is wrong with the battery. Installed the new battery that I bought from Canadian tire and charge me $90. Then they started to argue with me because I said they still need to provide me with a battery because my car is under warranty for seven years and they argued with me that they didn’t have to and I said yes you do give me a battery. I’m going to change dealerships once again the way they treated me was brutal. I’m uploading part of my receipt it doesn’t make any sense to me but it does say under warranty so what was wrong if anyone can tell me what all this means

 

[Mark_]

Yes i got the jeep back. They said nothing is wrong with the battery. Installed the new battery that I bought from Canadian tire and charge me $90. Then they started to argue with me because I said they still need to provide me with a battery because my car is under warranty for seven years and they argued with me that they didn’t have to and I said yes you do give me a battery. I’m going to change dealerships once again the way they treated me was brutal. I’m uploading part of my receipt it doesn’t make any sense to me but it does say under warranty so what was wrong if anyone can tell me what all this means

View attachment 222417

SIGH

Back to square one... We still don't know why your battery drains down like that...

Ok so for the battery : if it tested Bad on their GR8 machine (that's the dealer battery charger/diagnostics machine), they would have to honor the battery warranty. If it did test bad, they obviously decided to install your CT battery and justify the $90 labor saying you asked them to install it... so not a warranty job (twisted, I know..). $90 for a 10 minute job is infuriating.

The diagnostics for the NO BUS message / check engine light were covered under warranty, hence $0 charge.

 

[sanghill]

I didn't realize your battery was getting drained fairly quickly.
Check for a large parasitic draw, like the glove box light ON, dome light ON, trunk light ON, accessory ON all the time.
This is best done when it is dark so you can see around the glove box door edges and trunk with out opening them.
For the trunk roll back the shade so you can see in the back window.
There are only a few power and USB ports that are hot all the time. The 12V receptacle in the trunk can be always on if the fuse in the PDC is set to do so.
There can be a diode in the alternator that has become a resistor, not good, but it can happen.
The GR8 can probably check this if they do an alternator test.

 

[TinasJeepCherokee]

SIGH

Back to square one... We still don't know why your battery drains down like that...

Ok so for the battery : if it tested Bad on their GR8 machine (that's the dealer battery charger/diagnostics machine), they would have to honor the battery warranty. If it did test bad, they obviously decided to install your CT battery and justify the $90 labor saying you asked them to install it... so not a warranty job (twisted, I know..). $90 for a 10 minute job is infuriating.

The diagnostics for the NO BUS message / check engine light were covered under warranty, hence $0 charge.

I have no idea what is draining my battery. It lasted a whole year. And it happened to die on the coldest night of the year. Which happened the exact same time as the previous year from what they told me, they tested the battery and the battery was fine. It just needed to be charged. So all of this makes no sense to me how it can drain just because it’s cold out. I can’t imagine what people drive in colder places on earth than in Canada without their battery dying. My neighbour has a 10 year old car and his car starts every year without an issue. And here I am with a two year old jeep and this is happened twice that I needed a towed talk about embarrassing

they said they ran all checks on my jeep and there’s nothing draining the battery, so I guess we will see next year at this time with a brand new battery from Canadian tire if it goes dead and if it does, then I will know it’s my jeep that is doing something to drain the battery

 

[TinasJeepCherokee]

I didn't realize your battery was getting drained fairly quickly.
Check for a large parasitic draw, like the glove box light ON, dome light ON, trunk light ON, accessory ON all the time.
This is best done when it is dark so you can see around the glove box door edges and trunk with out opening them.
For the trunk roll back the shade so you can see in the back window.
There are only a few power and USB ports that are hot all the time. The 12V receptacle in the trunk can be always on if the fuse in the PDC is set to do so.
There can be a diode in the alternator that has become a resistor, not good, but it can happen.
The GR8 can probably check this if they do an alternator test.

they said they did all the testing and there’s nothing wrong with the battery. It just happened to be the coldest night of the year.
I don’t know why they don’t want to figure out what is going on because my vehicle is under warranty for seven years, so why would they care? I just don’t understand. And I just drove it the day before it died and for them to say there’s nothing wrong with the battery it’s total BS. If there wasn’t anything wrong with the battery, then why would the engine light come on? I am just so frustrated.

 

[Mark_]

I have no idea what is draining my battery. It lasted a whole year. And it happened to die on the coldest night of the year. Which happened the exact same time as the previous year from what they told me, they tested the battery and the battery was fine. It just needed to be charged. So all of this makes no sense to me how it can drain just because it’s cold out. I can’t imagine what people drive in colder places on earth than in Canada without their battery dying. My neighbour has a 10 year old car and his car starts every year without an issue. And here I am with a two year old jeep and this is happened twice that I needed a towed talk about embarrassing

they said they ran all checks on my jeep and there’s nothing draining the battery, so I guess we will see next year at this time with a brand new battery from Canadian tire if it goes dead and if it does, then I will know it’s my jeep that is doing something to drain the battery

How cold was it ? I'm in a somewhat cold spot, in NW Quebec, and cold does not kill our batteries. Matter of fact, batteries live longer in colder vs warmer weather.
The apparent problem with yours is not the cold, but the fact you can't seem to keep the battery fully charged ; a cold start just makes this more obvious. That can happen under different circumstances, like :

• Something draining the battery (dash cam hooked up on Live power), audio amp, etc...
• Jeep sits for days without moving (hence no charging)
• You only drive short distances. Battery can't fully charge and eventually gets drained.

There is one solution that would address all 3 possilities, but it's going to be extra work for you : hook up a smart charger at home, overnight, say once a week. Any decent small smart charger will do, you can get one for $50 or less (on special), like this one :

General PDP Template

www.canadiantire.ca

Costco (Canada) online for $35 : https://www.costco.ca/energizer-enc...charger-and-maintainer.product.100573480.html

Overnight, once a week, should give you a few years more on that battery. If the charger doesn't indicate a full charge in the morning, then you'll know you have a serious battery drain problem, and then find someone competent to find the culprit...

typo edits

 

[TinasJeepCherokee]

How cold was it ? I'm in a somewhat cold spot, in NW Quebec, and cold does not kill our batteries. Matter of fact, batteries live longer in colder vs warmer weather.
The apparent problem with yours is not the cold, but the fact you can't seem to keep the battery fully charged ; a cold start just makes this more obvious. That can happen under different circumstances, like :

• Something draining the battery (dash cam hooked up on Live power), audio amp, etc...
• Jeep sits for days without moving (hence no charging)
• You only drive short distances. Battery can't fully charge and eventually gets drained.

It was -27 but with the windchill it was -45. There was nothing on the dash to indicate that the battery was low. The only thing that appeared on my dash the day before this happened was the tire pressure was low because it was so cold. For what I can remember of the events that led up to this was.
Friday jan 27 I went to work I left work at 11 because I was feeling sick. I came home, park the Jeep, and went to bed.

Saturday jan 28 I was feeling horrible. I took a Covid test and it was negative so I thought I’m just coming down with a cold and stayed in bed all day. The Jeep was not started that day.

Sunday, January 29 I woke up and felt like I was really sick. I needed to go buy more Covid tests. I started the jeep without an issue, and this was the morning of the deep freeze, and it started without an issue. I drove to the grocery store and to the pharmacy and I made sure my gas tank was full. I drove home and we both took a test and they were positive 😱.

The next time I tried to start the Jeep was the following weekend I believe Friday or Saturday, I honestly cannot remember. I know my mother picked me up on Sunday to go and buy the battery and on Monday is when I called roadside assistance to have towed they were booked. They arrived tues afternoon and I got the Jeep back just 2 days ago on Wednesday

So it is possible that the jeep sat for a whole week without being started, because we were sick.

I have been sick before, and never had an issue starting the car when it’s not in a deep freeze

Should I be plugging in the jeep when it’s really cold out? Would all of this make a difference if I did that?

I think I already have that gadget that you gave me the link for I purchased that last year from Canadian tire. I have it in my closet. I will take a picture in the morning and show you.

thanks for all your help and suggestions to you and everyone else who has responded. I just want to find a solution, so this never happens again or any way I can prevent it.

 

[Mark_]

It was -27 but with the windchill it was -45. There was nothing on the dash to indicate that the battery was low. The only thing that appeared on my dash the day before this happened was the tire pressure was low because it was so cold. For what I can remember of the events that led up to this was.
Friday jan 27 I went to work I left work at 11 because I was feeling sick. I came home, park the Jeep, and went to bed.

Saturday jan 28 I was feeling horrible. I took a Covid test and it was negative so I thought I’m just coming down with a cold and stayed in bed all day. The Jeep was not started that day.

Sunday, January 29 I woke up and felt like I was really sick. I needed to go buy more Covid tests. I started the jeep without an issue, and this was the morning of the deep freeze, and it started without an issue. I drove to the grocery store and to the pharmacy and I made sure my gas tank was full. I drove home and we both took a test and they were positive 😱.

The next time I tried to start the Jeep was the following weekend I believe Friday or Saturday, I honestly cannot remember. I know my mother picked me up on Sunday to go and buy the battery and on Monday is when I called roadside assistance to have towed they were booked. They arrived tues afternoon and I got the Jeep back just 2 days ago on Wednesday

So it is possible that the jeep sat for a whole week without being started, because we were sick.

I have been sick before, and never had an issue starting the car when it’s not in a deep freeze

Should I be plugging in the jeep when it’s really cold out? Would all of this make a difference if I did that?

I think I already have that gadget that you gave me the link for I purchased that last year from Canadian tire. I have it in my closet. I will take a picture in the morning and show you.

thanks for all your help and suggestions to you and everyone else who has responded. I just want to find a solution, so this never happens again or any way I can prevent it.

Hey Tina,

I don't remember the 'gadget' from CT I may have suggested, so yeah a pic please (I went and re-read the entire thread here and couldn't find it). Pic or just a description. Thx.

So to answer your questions :

• Should you be plugging in the Jeep when it's really cold ? Yes, especially with your history with batteries. I start mine in -30C without plugging it in sometimes and it always starts, but yes a very cold start will drain more out of your battery so it'll take longer to recharge.
• Is one week without driving bad for the battery ? Yes. You have to remember that even when the Jeep is parked, there is a constant drain - though not significant - on the battery because of onboard electronics that need power all the time.

If you can, plug the Jeep's block heater when it's colder than -25C, for a quick smooth start and piece of mind. You can put it on a timer and only energize it for 2-3 hours before you leave.

So you live in Ottawa and work in Gatineau. How much of a drive is it to work ? Lots of stop-and-go traffic ? I used to live in Hull (Gatineau now) and worked about 30 minutes outside of Ottawa, so I had a decent drive time, very sufficient to keep a car battery charged up fully.
If you drive mostly in the city and don't have that long of a drive, it could be a factor. Not driving enough may drain your battery slowly. If a battery doesn't get fully charged regularly, it will die prematurely. My mom would go through car batteries in less than 2 years in her Mazda 3, when she only drove short distances, in town, for errands. We later got her a smart charger, hooked it up a few times a month, and that increased battery life quite a bit.

Stop/Start, is a good battery health monitor. When it quits working with a message of 'Battery charging', you know you need a new battery soon. But you don't use it (turn it off) so it won't help you, it won't give you that early warning.

You never answered me about the dash cam and the 12V outlet (cig lighter outlet) : it is connected to the one up front (ahead of the shifter) or the one under the center console (armrest) ?

 

[TinasJeepCherokee]

It takes me 35 to 40 minutes to drive to work and an hour home

it’s plugged in TV e cigarette lighter up front not in the console

these are the products I bought last year but have no idea what they are for lol

 

[Mark_]

That smart charger is a 7A unit which is very good. It's got a few settings to choose from, but in your case you only need one, and it is 7A - AGM (select this with the MODE button ; press once you get 1A Normal, twice you get 1A - AGM, 3 times you get 7A - Normal and 4 times you get the one you want : 7A - AGM). Do not use the maintenance modes (you need to hold the MODE button for more than 3 seconds to get to those)

Here's the owner's manual for the charger :

https://media-www.canadiantire.ca/manual/product/0111969/0111969p-en-ebd5b6ce-4de0-48d3-b120-96b8c45e0f69.pdf

The other one is a battery tester. They are not 100% reliable as far as accuracy, but they give you an idea (as you experimented last year) of how your battery is doing.

Now that you've found that beauty of a charger, it's time to start using it

Edit to add : gotcha on the front 12V outlet. It is not Live, so your dash cam should not be a factor in battery drainage.

 

[sanghill]

Mark answered my question.

 

[blackelite095]

This is my life right now 2020 6000km and after countless battery swaps, a voltage issue fix and then a rusted door wiring harness fix, relay change, When it gets -25 and lower the battery drains, I drive a work truck so usually use my jeep for around town driving couples times a week so the battery voltage will drop below 10v and freeze over with in a day or two of being cold. The last remedy was installing a Noco Battery maintainer suggested by the dealership and was working up till today as it got -25 with a wind chill of -35 for the last couple days which had the battery maintainer plugged in 24/7 and everytime it's parked. And Had to boost as it dropped to 10v and got it before it froze. Drop it off at the dealership and now waiting yet again. This is getting frustrating as I should be able to leave my vehicle sit for at least two weeks even with a little bit higher parasitic draw on the recommended threshold and no have issues. And the dealership can never recreate the issue because it always warms up and then will sit for a week without issue.
I hate this as I really do like my jeep but I'm stuck with a winter Lemon And have no clue as it only happen when it's cold and when I do my own parasitic drug testing can never recreate it and always comes up below the threshold.

 

[TinasJeepCherokee]

This is my life right now 2020 6000km and after countless battery swaps, a voltage issue fix and then a rusted door wiring harness fix, relay change, When it gets -25 and lower the battery drains, I drive a work truck so usually use my jeep for around town driving couples times a week so the battery voltage will drop below 10v and freeze over with in a day or two of being cold. The last remedy was installing a Noco Battery maintainer suggested by the dealership and was working up till today as it got -25 with a wind chill of -35 for the last couple days which had the battery maintainer plugged in 24/7 and everytime it's parked. And Had to boost as it dropped to 10v and got it before it froze. Drop it off at the dealership and now waiting yet again. This is getting frustrating as I should be able to leave my vehicle sit for at least two weeks even with a little bit higher parasitic draw on the recommended threshold and no have issues. And the dealership can never recreate the issue because it always warms up and then will sit for a week without issue.
I hate this as I really do like my jeep but I'm stuck with a winter Lemon And have no clue as it only happen when it's cold and when I do my own parasitic drug testing can never recreate it and always comes up below the threshold.

Oh wow! I would be so upset and i do understand. I owned a 2014 dodge dart rallye and never had issues with the battery. It would start no matter how cold it was. I traded the car in for the jeep so it freaked me out the first time the battery died.

i hope you do find the issue with your jeep. I am not working tomorrow and it’s supposed to be really cold out so I’m gonna cross my fingers when I go start my jeep tomorrow it will start 😳

 

[UN4GTBL]

I've left my Jeep for a week and a half+ in the winter without starting it and when I came home it always started right up the next day. (and this was back on the bad original battery) There is definitely something else going on with your Jeep.

 

[Mark_]

This is my life right now 2020 6000km and after countless battery swaps, a voltage issue fix and then a rusted door wiring harness fix, relay change, When it gets -25 and lower the battery drains, I drive a work truck so usually use my jeep for around town driving couples times a week so the battery voltage will drop below 10v and freeze over with in a day or two of being cold. The last remedy was installing a Noco Battery maintainer suggested by the dealership and was working up till today as it got -25 with a wind chill of -35 for the last couple days which had the battery maintainer plugged in 24/7 and everytime it's parked. And Had to boost as it dropped to 10v and got it before it froze. Drop it off at the dealership and now waiting yet again. This is getting frustrating as I should be able to leave my vehicle sit for at least two weeks even with a little bit higher parasitic draw on the recommended threshold and no have issues. And the dealership can never recreate the issue because it always warms up and then will sit for a week without issue.
I hate this as I really do like my jeep but I'm stuck with a winter Lemon And have no clue as it only happen when it's cold and when I do my own parasitic drug testing can never recreate it and always comes up below the threshold.

First off, welcome to the forum (I can't find your first post, this is #2, but it's Ok, haha).

There is a lot to digest in your post, and I have to ask a few questions :

1) When you say ''countless battery swaps''... what do you mean exactly ?
2) What was the ''voltage issue'' you had ? and how did they fix it ?
3) When you say ''even with a little bit higher parasitic draw''... what do you mean ? and what is causing this ?
4) The relay thing I get, I think, because you have a 2020 and many had a bad chinese relay from factory.

I start mine at -30C without a block heater. I do have a monster premium battery now, but it was good in the cold with my original battery too. Not driving the Jeep every week will kill batteries, unless you use a smart charger (like that NOCO). But if you started using it when the battery was already near death, then well it can't do miracles ; but it will make a good battery last a lot longer, especially in this Cherokee.