[applegrew]

We own a Jeep Meridian purchased at the end of August 2023. Only fews week back it had its first servicing. It has completed 3700+ kms. Yesterday morning when I pressed its start button the screens (infotainment and instrument cluster) started having slow jerky animations then they would turn on and off again and again. The wiper also start running although slowly scraping the windshield (the wiper was set to auto). All control lights were turning on and off. Eventually all died down, first the screens then the control lights. At the end only the white ambient light (installed as part of "X" accessory pack) was dimly lit. Even the brake pedal had now gone completely hard and difficult to press. The car was completely dead. I had drove the car only the day before yesterday for many kilometres. In fact I was driving it daily.

Below is the video of the incident. This video was taken after trying for couple of minutes. By this time the screens have already stopped working completely.

https://youtu.be/MVBAKn4Bajw

I called up the Jeep service centre who asked me to call Jeep Road Side Assistance. At first RSA told me that since the car is not in an open area so they will need to bring in some equipment to move the car which can damage my 6 months old car and asked if I am okay with that or not! To which I strongly replied, no I am not and asked why can't they send someone to jump start it. To which they replied that they only tow and have no such technician. Then they further said that I will then need to bring the car outside somehow. I was like; how? The car is in Park mode and my parking is extremely challenging. I need do multiple manoeuvres to bring the car out. Hell, even service centre's own driver scrapped my this car's bumper while taking it out from my parking for the service centre! (That was an ordeal in itself) After much argument the person over the phone requested permission to transferred my call to his senior. Surprisingly the senior operator proposed to first send a technician to jump start it and if that did not work then send a flat bed. I readily agreed to that. After about an hour the technician arrived on a scooter with a battery and simply connected its terminals with my car's terminals and lo and behold, the car springs to life. He charged the car only for a min or two.

Then I immediately jumped into the car and drove it to my nearest Jeep service centre. When the car turned on it gave me couple of warnings, like Hold needs servicing, Traction control needs servicing and while I was driving, Dynamic Steering too needs servicing. It took me around 20mins to reach there. I parked inside the centre but kept it running. It took a while but when I got confirmation that I can turn off the vehicle and they have provision to jump start it, I turned it off. After few more minutes I got a Service Advisor assigned. When he turned on the car, it turned on with no issues and there were no warning lights, as if nothing had happened. I reiterated my ordeal and how I had to cancel two meetings etc. etc. They mentioned that it would take two days as they will have to make claim under warranty.

After attending a meeting from the service centre's lounge when I was leaving they informed me that they did not find any issues with the car and the battery was 55% charged. Below are the images of the battery.

Day 2

Today, evening I spoke to the Service Advisor and he mentioned that yesterday evening itself they had taken out the battery and handed it over to Exide for inspection. When they handed the battery during evening it was still holding the 55% charge. As of writing this, today 7pm, Exide has not yet replied with their verdict - Is the battery faulty or not.

If it turns out the battery is not faulty then I will be in a very very bad situation, since that means the car has some issue, a ticking bomb, which can drain a completely good battery in one night, which means I can get stranded anytime. The service centre people claim that they have run their diagnostics and have found no issues. Only thing they can see is that an update is due for the PCM; however few weeks back during routine servicing only I think the PCM was flashed since my infotainment had lost its user profile info (but not all the settings). As per the Service Advisor flashing PCM may do that, but he was unsure.

I will post an update about the battery when I hear from the service centre.

Has any of the members here have experienced any such issue? Any clues as to what might have gone wrong?

One thing to note, right on the day of delivery the instrument cluster showed engine malfunction warning. I refused to accept the car then. That a being a Sunday, Service Centre was closed. During next delivery date the warning was gone and they told me the only thing the Service Centre did was disconnect the battery and reconnect it after few minutes and this is apparently a common issue!

[Bhokal]

If the battery is not faulty then something (might be one of the accessories) is draining the battery even after turning the car off.

[applegrew]

Originally Posted by Bhokal

If the battery is not faulty then something (might be one of the accessories) is draining the battery even after turning the car off.

I Jeep's official Mopar dashcam and Rear Seat Entertainment. The Rear Seat Entertainment unit is connected using external 12V plug and has a switch, which always remains off. Other than these two it has foot area lamps and ambient lights which are part of "X" pack. All of these go off when I turn off the car.

[Newtown]

Originally Posted by applegrew

The car was completely dead. I had drove the car only the day before yesterday for many kilometres. In fact I was driving it daily.

To begin with my suggestion is to always have a battery pack to jump the car pack and a battery testing device in your car. Both are inexpensive for the value they provide.

The previous few times you drove the car, did it by any chance take a little longer to start?

The service center has a battery and alternator tester. What did that indicate? Can you share the read out from there? It could be something as simple as terminals to the alternator coming loose or vice versa.

Please get these basic checks done and enjoy your car. It will all be fine.

[applegrew]

Originally Posted by applegrew

We own a Jeep Meridian purchased at the end of August 2023. Only fews week back it had its first servicing. It has completed 3700+ kms. Yesterday morning when I pressed its start button the screens (infotainment and instrument cluster) started having slow jerky animations then they would turn on and off again and again...
...
...

Update 1

Day 3

Got call from the Service Advisor. Exide has returned the battery as it is in good health; as per them. Now they have taken the car out for a test drive to check if all functionalities are working, like Auto Start/Stop etc.

I failed to mention before that I habitually turn off Auto Start/Stop 99% of the time when starting the car.

[AutoSphere]

One of the approaches could be to check the current drain, after the vehicle is switched off, typically on account of security system and couple of other circuits. This can be done by inserting a DC ammeter in series with the battery and service-center should be capable of carrying out this experiment. Next is to compare the current(amps) reading with the results of a similar experiment of a known good vehicle.

If the current draw is indeed high, then the fuses can be removed one by one to identify the faulty circuit.

[applegrew]

Originally Posted by Newtown

To begin with my suggestion is to always have a battery pack to jump the car pack and a battery testing device in your car. Both are inexpensive for the value they provide.

The previous few times you drove the car, did it by any chance take a little longer to start?

The service center has a battery and alternator tester. What did that indicate? Can you share the read out from there? It could be something as simple as terminals to the alternator coming loose or vice versa.

Please get these basic checks done and enjoy your car. It will all be fine.

No it always started quickly. During battery and alternator tests what should they look for? Since in case of battery they are checking for battery charge level periodically. I can see the battery voltages from the app. Below are the readings I notice for voltages.















Are these kind of variations in voltage normal? And are these voltages even okay?

[Newtown]

Originally Posted by applegrew

Update 1

[h3]
I failed to mention before that I habitually turn off Auto Start/Stop 99% of the time when starting the car.

I do that too. No problem at all. Infact I would recommend it.

Originally Posted by applegrew

During battery and alternator tests what should they look for?
Are these kind of variations in voltage normal? And are these voltages even okay?

The battery tester they have indicates the health of the battery directly on its read out. I don't understand why they would send it to Exide to check if their tester came with a "Good Health" result for the battery?

Same goes for the alternator. The device will tell you if the alternator is charging the battery and working well.

More importantly ask them to check the terminal connections between the battery and the alternator.

Yes those readings in your pictures are absolutely good.

[applegrew]

Originally Posted by applegrew

Update 1

Day 3

Got call from the Service Advisor. Exide has returned the battery as it is in good health; as per them. Now they have taken the car out for a test drive to check if all functionalities are working, like Auto Start/Stop etc.

I failed to mention before that I habitually turn off Auto Start/Stop 99% of the time when starting the car.

Second update of Day 3

Spoke with Service Centre. They say all is green but on my insistence they will checking the wirings for shorts.

Below is the battery test result report by the service centre.

[manasr28]

Originally Posted by applegrew

I had drove the car only the day before yesterday for many kilometres. In fact I was driving it daily.

Had a similar battery drainage behaviour on my Scorpio N, detailed post here on how I managed to prevent it in my case.

Infotainment systems in "connected" cars don't turn off internally even after the ignition is turned off and the car is locked.

If a software process suddenly turned rogue, it will continue to run in the background and may drain battery.

Manually pressing the power off button on the infotainment system before turning off the ignition can help prevent this problem, atleast it did so in my case.

[Tassem]

I think herein lies your answer. Connected car tech consumes power. However low that is.

Originally Posted by applegrew

I can see the battery voltages from the app.

I'm assuming a combination of low running plus always on tech has prevented your battery from achieving a full charge. This happened to me. I was surprised because I use the car daily. But clearly it wasn't enough to charge my battery.

I now have a trickle charger + keep a jump starter handy.

If this is not the case, then you'd need a proper investigation to be done and can only hope the technicians will be patient and thorough.

[applegrew]

Originally Posted by Tassem

I think herein lies your answer. Connected car tech consumes power. However low that is.



I'm assuming a combination of low running plus always on tech has prevented your battery from achieving a full charge. This happened to me. I was surprised because I use the car daily. But clearly it wasn't enough to charge my battery.

I now have a trickle charger + keep a jump starter handy.

If this is not the case, then you'd need a proper investigation to be done and can only hope the technicians will be patient and thorough.

Can you suggest a good and portable car jump starter? Since it seems I would need that now.

Day 4 update

The Service Centre claimed to have checked all key connections and have not found a single issue. They claim to have flashed the PCM with an update yesterday.

Today while they test drove it, I noticed the voltage to fluctuate between 12.8V to 14.2V. I don't remember ever seeing the voltage to go to 14V levels before. So I hope the PCM update might have helped. (Wishful thinking )

In the end it seems like I now need to understand how to jump start a car and need suggestions for good portable jump starter. Is Ambrane Car Jump Starter with 7200mAh Lithium Polymer Battery any good?

[anshumandun]

Originally Posted by applegrew

Today while they test drove it, I noticed the voltage to fluctuate between 12.8V to 14.2V. I don't remember ever seeing the voltage to go to 14V levels before. So I hope the PCM update might have helped. (Wishful thinking )

That fluctuation is normal. I see the same in my Meridian.

There was a batch of Meridians in 2023 which were recalled to change some alternator part. Please check with the service center if your car falls in that batch.

[R.I.P]

As far as I know, this is a very common issue on the Compass as well.

I own a 2021 Compass model S and since the beginning, I have seen "Start Stop disabled/service battery" error on my screen. I even see it now pretty regularly. But once the car has run for about 10-15 minutes, it goes away.

I have taken it to the ASS guys and they have checked battery health every time and it comes out normal. They have even kept the car overnight to "reset" the car electronics but the error came back after a few months. So I have just learned to live with it.

I think there is a small drain on the battery when it is parked and there is no solution to it.

This is the solution they have suggested for me:
1. Don't keep wipers and headlights on auto when parked
2. Start the car every few days so that the battery charges

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by applegrew

We own a Jeep Meridian purchased at the end of August 2023. Only fews week back it had its first servicing. It has completed 3700+ kms. Yesterday morning when I pressed its start button the screens (infotainment and instrument cluster) started having slow jerky animations then they would turn on and off again and again. The wiper also start running although slowly scraping the windshield (the wiper was set to auto).

I would suggest a Simple DIY to troubleshoot, if you feel there’s a parasitic discharge (more than 50mAmps) for your car battery;

- Unplug all devices from your vehicle and make sure no electrical components are on.

- Remove the negative battery cable from the negative terminal.

- Connect the digital multimeter to the negative battery terminal.

- Pull out the fuses one at a time while someone watching the multimeter reading.

- Stop when pulling a fuse makes the reading drop significantly more than 50miliamps.

- Once fuse is identified, find out what’s running on the affected circuit and check each device connected on that fuse.

- Repair/change the defected component.

Clocks/Chargers/Auto starts/Remote/Alarms they all add on to the parasitic discharge. Unfortunately, Modern day cars are more electronics/electricals than mechanical.

Just loan a digital multimeter from someone for this DIY

If your alternator is bad, then it’s a completely different scenario.