battery drain

[White Cloud]

Hi Bacamick

sorry to hear you are still having problems.. Since you are in a small town - the best person to fix it is probably you.

so - if there is something still draining your battery - you will have to disconnect it each time you use the vehicle and intend for it to stand for two days or more - until this is resolved - otherwise you will be buying another battery!

Are you absolutely certain there is nothing been left on? Are you able to check the fault codes? Have you measured the charge voltage whilst the engine is running?

check 1
Do you have a volt meter? Are you able to measure the battery voltage when it is connected to the jeep and when it isnt? A fully charged quality lead acid battery should hold its charge at 12.66 V D.C. for several weeks when disconnected - or "on the shelf". When you reconnect the jeep with nothing turned on, the voltage on the battery should dip a bit for 10 minutes or so then return to 12.66 V D.C. If there is a battery drain problem then this standing voltage of 12.66 V D.C. will gradually drop as you measure it each couple of hours.

check 2
To keep all your IT memory of/in the jeep - connect a 12V DC quick start pack to the jeep battery leads - then lift the jeep leads from the main battery - keep on eye on the charge of the quick start pack - if it goes flat as well - caused by the same problem that's flattening your main battery.

These measurements will indicate if there is a discharge issue of your main battery caused by the vehicle. If so - unless you can isolate it (the faulty circuit) yourself by connect/disconnect of circuits - then its off to a specialist.

Hope this procedure helps

Happy trails

[Clarky]

This isn't a fix but it may help. The manual says (page 144) that if vehicle is not used for 21 days or more you should pull fuse #27 (IOD#1) in the IPM (fuse box closest to the front under the bonnet).

Another thing you could try is pulling IOD fuse #28, it is for the radio. Grands have an amp for the radio & an amp for the radio antenna, if for some reason these aren't turning off it may be the problem.

Do you have an after market stereo or the factory one? The power for the amp is switched through the factory radio.

[BACAMICK]

na just a stock stereo , ive put a trickle/solar charger in the rear side window n plugged it into the cig lighter socket which is always live in the rear ,, see how this goes

[Siruke]

If I leave the key in the ignition (in OFF position) the battery will go flat overnight

[roscoea26]

My understanding is that when the key if off there is still some current drain albeit small but over a period of time it will flatten a battery thanks to the clock and the internal memory of engine computers, body-control modules and radio presets. Altogether, each may draw a very small amount of current but over a period of time it will flatten a battery.

I was told by an auto electrician to lock the vehicle as this should shut down any current draw. I've been following this procedure but I'm not so convinced that this works over a few months when our 2nd vehicle is left in the garage as the last time we were away for longer than usual the battery was flat as to the degree it had to be replaced.

The next time I'm going to hook up a solar panel to trickle charge it. I would image your idea of hooking up a solar charging system should work.

Have you tried simply locking the car to see what happens.

If we're only away for say a month I haven't had issues by simply locking the vehicle.