Trickle Charging Shenanigans

A) B)C)
I’ve been dealing with on going electrical issues on a ‘24 Grand Cherokee Summit edition. It’s had the primary battery and the auxiliary battery replaced already in the past year. It completely died and needed to be towed to the dealership after sitting at the airport for 7 days. It wouldn’t jump worth a shit. It almost killed my JKU while I was trying to jump it and my Noco boost pro jump pack only turned on the lights. It’s been dead in the garage several times as well even while being on a trickler.

I’ve tried hooking it up to the jump points under the hood (which I do with a BMW and Mercedes and it works fine) but with the GC the trickler eventually didn’t recognize a battery.

I’ve hooked it up to the primary battery and the trickler eventually didn’t recognize a battery again.

By this point, both batteries were dead and needed to be jumped and driven.

I eventually said screw it and disconnected both batteries and put them both on separate tricklers.

After the owner came out for a trip, I didn’t get it hooked up for just a couple of days and it was completely dead again and smelled like sulfur after I drove it. Took it to the dealer and they swapped the primary battery and sent me on my way.

This most recent incident of it being left at the airport and being towed to the dealer, they swapped the auxiliary battery and charged the primary. They told me that both the primary and the auxiliary battery both need to be on a trickler charger at the same time without being disconnected, that sounds like a load of bull to me. Am I the only one that thinks that is crazy?

dead after only 2-7 days, sound a parasitic drain from a faulty module.

I've been helping friend research this issue, they got a fantastic deal on a 2024 GC with what sounds like the exact same issue.

He was getting a dead battery about every other month if they didn't drive it for a few days, the dealer would replace the battery, charges the other and sends him on his way testing nothing else.

He said a couple of times he thought the dash was already lit up when he went out in the morning but since he had the key fob wasn't certain if he was causing it.

We put a Go Pro inside to record overnight and sure enough, the dash/head unit was waking up and staying on likely until the battery drained; discovered the newer model Jeeps (I think '22 and up) have a Telematics Box Module (big brother black box) that automatically connects to their servers and does not shut off. After some hassling and threats, the dealer replaced the TBM but took a while to get the part.
I believe they unplugged it and it did stop the battery dead issue until the replacement part arrived.
No idea how or where to unplug it.

Found a few TSB for the TBM, not all specific to the GC or North America but still issues, good luck.

I would use a battery tender not a trickle charger. Trickle chargers are known to cause fires.

I would bring it back to the dealer and make them figure it out. 7 days is a HEFTY draw! Take their loaner car and Don’t take yours back till they can figure out what’s drawing that much amperage

jeeeep said:

dead after only 2-7 days, sound a parasitic drain from a faulty module.

I've been helping friend research this issue, they got a fantastic deal on a 2024 GC with what sounds like the exact same issue.

He was getting a dead battery about every other month if they didn't drive it for a few days, the dealer would replace the battery, charges the other and sends him on his way testing nothing else.

He said a couple of times he thought the dash was already lit up when he went out in the morning but since he had the key fob wasn't certain if he was causing it.

We put a Go Pro inside to record overnight and sure enough, the dash/head unit was waking up and staying on likely until the battery drained; discovered the newer model Jeeps (I think '22 and up) have a Telematics Box Module (big brother black box) that automatically connects to their servers and does not shut off. After some hassling and threats, the dealer replaced the TBM but took a while to get the part.
I believe they unplugged it and it did stop the battery dead issue until the replacement part arrived.
No idea how or where to unplug it.

Found a few TSB for the TBM, not all specific to the GC or North America but still issues, good luck.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10239920-9999.pdf

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10236943-9999.pdf

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thanks for that info, I asked them to do a electrical system test and they said it came out normal. I need to get the exact numbers from them on the draw while it’s off.

OverlanderJK said:

I would use a battery tender not a trickle charger. Trickle chargers are known to cause fires.

Click to expand...

It’s one of those smart Noco trickle charger/battery maintainers.

cozdude said:

I would bring it back to the dealer and make them figure it out. 7 days is a HEFTY draw! Take their loaner car and Don’t take yours back till they can figure out what’s drawing that much amperage

Click to expand...

I told them to do an electrical system test and said it came back normal, I don’t believe it. I’m going to get the exact number from them.