I think it is a combination of a weak battery and my wife going in
spurts of taking lots of short trips in the cold. The voltage at the
battery when the engine is idling is just over 14V, so it should be
charging.
Ted
On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Rick Barnes <rsb7424@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What is going on with the battery that it is getting low? Does this
> happen often? I saw this one time on a mustang so take it for what
> its worth..(not very much), turned out it was the diode bridge in the
> alternator. Maybe its worth checking the charging system,
> specifically the alternator. If the charge on the battery is bleeding
> down, this could be a sympton. Just a SWAG. Good luck, keep us up to
> date, that one is really weird.
>
> Rascal
>
> On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 12:27 AM, Dustin Williams
> <dustinewilliams@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> This is on my wife's 97 Grand Cherokee but I hope someone may have
>>> some insight since there seems to be a lot of overlap here.
>>>
>>> When the battery voltage gets low, the vehicle turns on by itself.
>>> The lights come on, the HVAC, the center console, everything is just
>>> like the key was in and it was turned on. I can put the key in and
>>> try to start it, but there isn't enough juice, when I remove the key
>>> everything will stay on. This is a wonderful feature that completely
>>> drains your already low battery. Once the battery gets a good charge
>>> everything is fine. It has done this twice in the last year. Any
>>> thoughts?
>>>
>> First thought that comes to mind is the fact that intermittent
>> electrical issues are the hardest to troubleshoot. Unless you
>> intentionally drained your battery, which will shorten it's useful
>> life, it could take 5 years of trouble shooting to find the problem. A
>> short in the ignition switch or it's wiring would seem to be the most
>> logical, of course it seems really odd due to the fact that it's when
>> your battery doesn't even have the amps to crank the starter. I'd
>> start with checking for compromised wires somewhere between the
>> ignition switch and battery, of course odds are that it would be in
>> some ungodly difficult location to find and work in.
>>
>>
>
>
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