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battery help a.s.a.p. please

W

whosyourdaddy?

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Cincinnati
So my wife is having contractions five minutes apart and I go to get the Jeep packed and warm to get to the hospital. Dead battery. I have a 00' xj that is stock except suspension and radio. Radio has never been a source of trouble and it's been modified for a year minimum. I have a Optima red top that is brand new 3months old. Jeep has always stayed at a very steady 14+ volts on the gauge cluster.

I did jump start my buddies jeep 2 days before this but my jeep hasnt had a problem for two days after that til now.

After finally getting it jumped with wifes car, it seemed to charge, took it to get gas, let it run for 1/2 hour, turned it off and went inside for about 1/2 hour. Came out and it was dead. Still had a little charge but lights dim and wouldn't even turn over.

Jumped it again and drove to drop off my son and the voltmeter shows 13 volts and doesnt really seem to be charging.

I will be leaving for the hospital soon and have the - cable disconnected for now.
 
Read another post about disconnecting the - cable while running to check the alternator. Any thoughts on this? Don't have a manual. Would take the wifes car but its snowing buckets.
 
I think I'd get a reading across the posts while it's running first to see exactly what your getting. Stock guages are more indicators than what a real aftermarket guage is. To kill an Optima Red Top though does take some doing. My stock guage reads real close to 14 with nothing on. Turn on a bunch of accessories and it drops. If your's reads high and all you're seeing is 13 on it, then it may be only a little over 12 which isn't enough. Take that reading with a volt meter across the terminals, you may have fried the alternator and the power of the Optima has just been getting you by till now.
 
Hopefully I'm gonna solve my own problem. Disconnected the - cable while running and the lights actually became brighter. Connect the cable back and rpms drop and lights dim. Obviously more power being sucked into battery. I did try to start it with a battery charger switched to 100 amp start and the battery was to dead to accept the voltage.. After that I set the charger to 15amp charge and it wouldnt come off the "check" setting. Think the 100 amp quick jump would kill the battery? It still wouldnt explain why the battery was dead in the first place but at least I know the alternator is charging now. Guess I killed the battery with the charger?
 
if there is enough moisture in the air and the cables are the slightest bit loose it can cause a bad connection. make sure the terminals are perfectly clean and tight. i have seen that a lot. there is also a channce you did get a defective battery. that can make the gauge read low.
 
On these new systems I would never jump or allow someone I'm jumping to start their engine while my electronics are inline with theirs. All it takes is one good spike and your electrical system is toast. When I jump someone I use my running engine to charge their battery for about 15-25 min then disconnect before they even touch the key on theirs. Too much chance of damage.
I'd take it back to where you bought it and get a replacement, don't mention that you jumped someone or did anything out of the ordinary, give them no excuse to turn down the warranty.
Good luck and don't forget the cigars...
 
Thanks all. Gonna just get this baby out and then work on the battery later! Wife is still hangin in there and we won't leave for the hospital for another hour of two. Thanks again for all your help!
 
thats what i would think as well. i'm guessing i killed it with the battery charger at 100 amp start somehow when i tried to jump it tonite.
 
RichP said:
On these new systems I would never jump or allow someone I'm jumping to start their engine while my electronics are inline with theirs. All it takes is one good spike and your electrical system is toast. When I jump someone I use my running engine to charge their battery for about 15-25 min then disconnect before they even touch the key on theirs. Too much chance of damage.
I'd take it back to where you bought it and get a replacement, don't mention that you jumped someone or did anything out of the ordinary, give them no excuse to turn down the warranty.
Good luck and don't forget the cigars...
Click to expand...

I'm interested in this. My '96 prob. doesn't have the "new systems" you're talking about (?), but are there precautions I should take when getting a jump start or jump starting someone else? It's a common winter occurence here in the tundra. Just last week the car parked by mine in the shopping center parking lot needed a jump and I didn't have my cables with me.

Whosyourdaddy, keep us posted about the baby. :angel:
 
whosyourdaddy? said:
thats what i would think as well. i'm guessing i killed it with the battery charger at 100 amp start somehow when i tried to jump it tonite.
Click to expand...

On another recent thread, a kind soul "more knowlegable than I" warned that 'boost' charging can kill an Optima or similar battery. That 100 amps of loving you gave yours might have made it unhappy?
 
RichP said:
On these new systems I would never jump or allow someone I'm jumping to start their engine while my electronics are inline with theirs. All it takes is one good spike and your electrical system is toast. When I jump someone I use my running engine to charge their battery for about 15-25 min then disconnect before they even touch the key on theirs. Too much chance of damage.
I'd take it back to where you bought it and get a replacement, don't mention that you jumped someone or did anything out of the ordinary, give them no excuse to turn down the warranty.
Good luck and don't forget the cigars...
Click to expand...


Thats a new one for me. I've always hooked both cables up while both engines are off, started the one with the good battery, let it run a minute or so, then start the one with the bad battery. Haven't had any problems. Jumped people with the KJ several times and no problems.

A friend of mine swears you should jump start a car by leaving the one with the good battery RUNNING while hook up the cables to that battery and the dead one. Then try to start the dead one. Wouldn't you think that you pretty much have a 100% chance of getting the electrical shock of your life, and could cause other very serious injuries by doing it that way?
 
Being an electronics and computer kind of person I tend to be very conservative. What happens if the car you are jumping has a dead short battery and you hook your electrical system up to ?
What happens if the car you are trying to jump has a bad bridge half waving in the alternator and instead of putting out 12DC is pumping out 24V AC or whatever the failed bridge is allowing.
What happens if you are not paying attention and you hook your running engine up to one of the older foreign cars with a reversed polarity electrical system. Too many things can go wrong other than just an old dead battery that the owner left their lights on or something.
With the cost of an ECU in the hundreds of dollars I stay on the cautious side.
The best jumper I ever saw for this was simple and was made of two cig lighter adapters and some lamp cord with a fuse in the adapter. The jumper car would just plug in the lighter adapter to the cig lighter, pass the other end to the jumperee and she would plug it in to her/his lighter and sit there for 20 min while it charged.
For a lone woman in certain situations this is a good thing to carry, then they don't have to risk getting out in a dark parking lot.
If I had the extra sheckles I'd have a second battery just used for this. I notice that alot of tow trucks have this kind of setup, I know that that gas station I worked at as a teenager that was owned by my neighbor did. Thats where I learned. In the service I had seen several disasters when jumping tracks that had sat for weeks or months, we drew them from the motor pool and spent several hours jumping them, occasionally they would 'jump back' and cook the jumping vehicles electrical system.
JMO....

If I remember correctly the owners manual has the correct jumping procedure in there...
 
Last edited:
RichP said:
The best jumper I ever saw for this was simple and was made of two cig lighter adapters and some lamp cord with a fuse in the adapter. The jumper car would just plug in the lighter adapter to the cig lighter, pass the other end to the jumperee and she would plug it in to her/his lighter and sit there for 20 min while it charged.
JMO....
Click to expand...
I just went looking on Google for such a jumper and the only ones I can find are in England. Does anyone know of an American equivalent? Would the English one work w/American cars? I know their household appliances won't work on our current, at least w/o an adapter.

The only one like you describe is the Metro Jump Starter (http://www.towsure.com/default.asp?d=41&t=247&p=0&op=) for 10.95 British pounds ($20-22 US?).

Shipping from England wouldn't be bad on something so light. (And it occurs to me that I have a relative who flies to London almost monthly who'd bring me one.)
 
Coupla weeks ago I talked to a guy after I saw him jumping his car with some type of portable rechargeable unit.
It also had a built in light...
Guy said he'd used it about 6 times in the past 8 hours while driving around trying to find a battery...
It was about the right size to throw in the wife's car for piece of mind...
When at home, it plugged into the wall socket to recharge...
he seemed to be quite happy with it..
 
Gil BullyKatz said:
Coupla weeks ago I talked to a guy after I saw him jumping his car with some type of portable rechargeable unit.
It also had a built in light...
Guy said he'd used it about 6 times in the past 8 hours while driving around trying to find a battery...
It was about the right size to throw in the wife's car for piece of mind...
When at home, it plugged into the wall socket to recharge...
he seemed to be quite happy with it..
Click to expand...

Yes, I saw quite a few different kinds of those on various (American) sites. That's probably the best way to go. There are several in the $40-50 range.
 
Do you mind posting links to these sites? I've been looking at some of those jump boxes for my Jeep and my mom's Jeep. Been looking at the ones that have the air compressor, light, and all the goodies in them....cause they're about the same price as those w/o the goodies. But something that runs through the cig lighter sounds like it might be safer/better.
 
First off, congrats on the kid.

It sounds like either you have a bad alternator or your battery took a dive. Around here, Autozone will test both for you, no charge. If you can get it running, leave it running for 20-30 minutes, then check the voltage across the battery. It should be 14v or more. If it isn't, most likely the alternator is hosed, but the battery could have a shorted cell and is severely loading the alternator, so testing is the best bet.

The other thing to try is to swap the battery if you have another vehicle. It gives you two advantages. If the alternator is bad, the optima will get charged. If the battery is bad, the XJ will be fine and the problem will follow the battery.

Lots of luck and get your sleep before the baby comes home :wierd:
 
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