XJ_Jeeper01
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Avondale, AZ
First off some background. I have a 2001 auto, 4.0 XJ. I replaced the battery that was in it when I bought it back in Dec.'06. I put in an Optima Yellow Top. I had no problems with it for a good while. I hooked up a pair of hellas the day before a wheeling trip in July '07. I don't use this XJ every day since I have another to drive everyday. I try to run it every other day or at least every two days and pretty much all weekend. In August after it had been sitting most of the week, it was quite dead. I returned the battery thinking it was faulty and got an Optima Red Top. The only other electrical thing that I have installed is the wiring for my electric locker on my toyota rear end. I wired that up in Sept. I went to go start it Thurs and it had been sitting all week since sunday and it was really dead. Not even the dome lights went on when I opened the door. So I had the battery recharged all day friday and went and put it back in. Before firing it up, I disconnected the hellas because I thought that they might be the culprit. It fired right up. The voltage gauge in the jeep said it was between 11 and 12 before firing it up. I drove it around town a bit, stopped at a store shut it off, went in, came back fired right up and went home. When I got home the volatage gauge in the jeep with it not running said it was right at 12. I tried to start it today(Sat.) and it is just as dead as the first time. No dome light, nothing. I tried jumping it, it would not turn over. My question is, assuming that the hellas were the issue and they drained the battery dead, could the battery have been damaged and even though it got charged up it wouldn't hold a charge? So that maybe I fixed the battery drain problem, but since the battery was toast it just died on it's own? Tomorrow I am getting a new battery(not an Optima) and going to test the alternator and run some other tests(using a test light and pulling fuses to see if there is still a short somewhere). Anyone have any suggestions? Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks.
-Matt
-Matt