Hello.
I have a weird issue I was wondering if someone may be able to help with before I bring my jeep into the ever-so-expensive dealer for a repair. I guessing it has to be something super simple that I haven't thought of.
My Jeep is a 2018 "Golden Eagle" edition Wrangler JK (last of the JK's I believe). Only has 22,000 miles
Being a little on the thrifty side, and after paying $140 for my last Jiffylube oil change (they gave me some run-a-round about why it needed to cost this much), this time around I decided I would do the oil and filter change myself.
I've always done them myself on my motorcycles, and after doing some youtubing, the oil change for my jeep seemed even easier than some bike changes I've done.
So I get a great quality synthetic, MOPAR filter identical to what was in there, and get to work.
All goes 100% fine. Oil changed easily, did the reset with the power on, push in the gas pedal 3 times, power off. Oil life indicator resets as it should.
Checked all fluids, etc.
Car fires up, sounds great, drives great. But one big catch... Now the battery isn't recharging correctly. I go for a drive, get home, do some stuff, then go to run some errands, and get the "click, click, click" sound of the motor trying to start but not enough juice. I take my multimeter, check the charge on the battery, 11v. Not enough to get the car started. I have an automatic battery charger, so plug that in, wait until it says FULL, go to start the car, and its all good, fires right up.
So rather than do my errands, I go for a longish drive, just to make sure everything is ok, all seems well, get home, then the car won't start again. Same thing, battery back down to a bit over 11v.
Now, I realize that these are telltale signs of a bad battery or alternator, but, the fact that this car has had absolutely ZERO issues the whole time I've owned it, and this issue popped up directly after I was mucking around with the engine seems a pretty clear sign to me that I accidentally did something while doing the oil change. I know a coincidence isn't out of the question... perhaps my alternator or battery just happened to have problems right after, but that seems pretty unlikely.
So I do some googling. find a couple people that had similar issues, and see what they suggest. after getting that info, I check things others suggested.
1) battery connections dirty? Nope, battery still looks almost new, not one bit of corrosion or muck.
2) reset the security stuff? Seems pretty unlikely that the security stuff would stop the battery from recharging and still allow the car to start, but I go ahead and remove the negative side of the battery connection for 15 min as suggested and try again. Still same prob.
3) Look for any obvious wires loose... perhaps I bumped something with the engine cover a loosened a wire, knocked something loose. I can't find anything visually.
4) I've heard oil can get in an alternator and cause issues. I was super careful doing the oil change and can't imagine anything dripped into it. If this did happen, it could have only been a drop or two which to my knowledge wouldn't kill an alternator. It would take quite a bit of oil in there to cause issue from what I understand.
And that's where we are at with it! And that's why I'm posting here. So sorry for the huge post, but I wanted to give all the details so there was a clear picture of all the factors.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!
thx so much.
-Charles
I have a weird issue I was wondering if someone may be able to help with before I bring my jeep into the ever-so-expensive dealer for a repair. I guessing it has to be something super simple that I haven't thought of.
My Jeep is a 2018 "Golden Eagle" edition Wrangler JK (last of the JK's I believe). Only has 22,000 miles
Being a little on the thrifty side, and after paying $140 for my last Jiffylube oil change (they gave me some run-a-round about why it needed to cost this much), this time around I decided I would do the oil and filter change myself.
I've always done them myself on my motorcycles, and after doing some youtubing, the oil change for my jeep seemed even easier than some bike changes I've done.
So I get a great quality synthetic, MOPAR filter identical to what was in there, and get to work.
All goes 100% fine. Oil changed easily, did the reset with the power on, push in the gas pedal 3 times, power off. Oil life indicator resets as it should.
Checked all fluids, etc.
Car fires up, sounds great, drives great. But one big catch... Now the battery isn't recharging correctly. I go for a drive, get home, do some stuff, then go to run some errands, and get the "click, click, click" sound of the motor trying to start but not enough juice. I take my multimeter, check the charge on the battery, 11v. Not enough to get the car started. I have an automatic battery charger, so plug that in, wait until it says FULL, go to start the car, and its all good, fires right up.
So rather than do my errands, I go for a longish drive, just to make sure everything is ok, all seems well, get home, then the car won't start again. Same thing, battery back down to a bit over 11v.
Now, I realize that these are telltale signs of a bad battery or alternator, but, the fact that this car has had absolutely ZERO issues the whole time I've owned it, and this issue popped up directly after I was mucking around with the engine seems a pretty clear sign to me that I accidentally did something while doing the oil change. I know a coincidence isn't out of the question... perhaps my alternator or battery just happened to have problems right after, but that seems pretty unlikely.
So I do some googling. find a couple people that had similar issues, and see what they suggest. after getting that info, I check things others suggested.
1) battery connections dirty? Nope, battery still looks almost new, not one bit of corrosion or muck.
2) reset the security stuff? Seems pretty unlikely that the security stuff would stop the battery from recharging and still allow the car to start, but I go ahead and remove the negative side of the battery connection for 15 min as suggested and try again. Still same prob.
3) Look for any obvious wires loose... perhaps I bumped something with the engine cover a loosened a wire, knocked something loose. I can't find anything visually.
4) I've heard oil can get in an alternator and cause issues. I was super careful doing the oil change and can't imagine anything dripped into it. If this did happen, it could have only been a drop or two which to my knowledge wouldn't kill an alternator. It would take quite a bit of oil in there to cause issue from what I understand.
And that's where we are at with it! And that's why I'm posting here. So sorry for the huge post, but I wanted to give all the details so there was a clear picture of all the factors.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!
thx so much.
-Charles
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