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Replaced Battery... all kinds of issues now

10K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  Murf 
#1 ·
I have a 2016 Dawn of Justice Edition with a little more than 76K miles. I had my first on and only issue tonight...

My battery died (assuming it was ready to go and the 20 degree weather pushed it over the edge). I went to start it and got the classic clicking and and the engine never turned over. From there, I had all kinds of service engine messages, service emergency brake, service airbags, service transmission...

Had AAA come out, they did a jump and told me the battery was bad and not taking a charge. After the jump, I had no messages, it started right up and everything looked and acted normal. I drove around the corner and down the block to autozone and had a new battery put in. And... this is where it all went to hell. I lost the 4wd, lost the heater/ac (no lights or anything, got a service engine message and flashing odometer. I drove about 15 minutes at 40 mph home, tried to start/stop it a few more times, but still have the same messages and issues. I checked the battery terminals and everything seems tight and fitting correcting.

I'll try to start it up again in the morning, but am not looking forward to having a vehicle with no heater and no 4wd in single digit winter weather thats coming in the next few days.
 
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#2 ·
Well, the issue of weird things not working simultaneously, and "Christmas tree" lights all over the dashboard, are a sure sign that the power supply to the vehicle is screwed up -- that is, that various computers aren't getting the dependable voltage they need.

Many times that's just due to an old battery -- any battery over three years old needs to suspect.

I do see that you just had your dead battery replaced.

However, there are also a lot of warnings here that jump-starting a Renegade with jumper cables from another vehicle can also fry electronics...which is why many people (me included) have gotten solid-state battery boosters to carry instead of jumper cables.

I realize the sequence is a bit wrong -- you first had the Renegade jumped, everything seemed fine, then got the new battery...but this all sounds unfortunately familiar...

Might be worth a trip back to Auto Zone (or a Jeep dealer) to ask them to scan the vehicle...

I wonder if Auto Zone maybe didn't put in the correct (capacity) battery, and that's what's causing your current problems...
 
#4 · (Edited)
I had a chance to let the jeep sit in the driveway today so I messed with the battery again. Found out that the negative terminal clip connector is pretty loose. Even with the clip closed I can wiggle the connector right off the terminal. I may try to get a shim to tighten that up.

But... the best part is that I disconnected it completely and let it sit for several hours. I went back out, reconnected everything as tight as I could and cranked her over.... Everything was back to normal. No service engine warnings, no flashing odometer, heater controls worked, I switched it through the 4WD options, everything was back to normal. I even had all my Sirius radio pre-sets back. I let her run for a few minutes, cut the engine off and re-started a few times and all was working normally.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way but wanted to say thanks for all the info and advice. I'll be getting myself a solid-state charger to hopefully avoid this ever happening again in the future.
 
#7 ·
Any time there is a service engine light on, the 4wd is disabled. I just did my sister's renegade. Hooked up my cheap code reader, reset the codes. Although it was the thermostat housing that was cracked causing the check engine for 4 starts after resetting she had 4wd.
 
#8 ·
Yep, same with me. Thermostat had code that it was not heating the engine to operating temperature fast enough. It disabled the 4x4. I could reset the code and use 4x4 for about a day before code popped back up and disabled it again. Fortunately I carry a Bluetooth code scanner that works with a phone app so I could reset it in an emergency. I replaced thermostat/housing and all was well again.
 
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