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Jeep Grand Cherokee L > Battery Discharge Issue

Mzwy

Member
Can't make this stuff up... Service calls and says they didn't get to diagnose the problem until mid afternoon and won't have time to finish because tech's leave at 4:30. Dropped the car off last night as the appointment was for 8 am. They said if I want the car back tonight, I'll have to make another appointment so they can "dig into" the issue. Then service advisor tells me they did find a bulletin about the rear latch, but they aren't sure what needs to be done....
If only they had a bulletin to guide them. Unreal.
That sounds like something the dealer I bought mine from would say. The new guys I took it to seem pretty helpful.
Keep us updated what they say when they finally have a chance to “dig in”…
 

eleceng1979

Well-known member
At least your dealer didn’t blame the Mopar accessory rear cargo mat for blocking the hatch and blaming me the owner for the battery draining…. I am speaking about the Mopar oem accessories purchased from Mopar.com. To date the dealer is doing nothing about my latch and has blamed me as the root cause, all while listing reasons for service as “miscellaneous” on my reports so I can’t even track my issues for my legal case.
 

jugdish

Well-known member
Gets better…. Get a call that they charged the battery (which I’ve don’t twice on a CTEK battery conditioner). Tech said there were multiple faults on the scan and we aren’t closing our doors. This is my wife’s daily driver and she’s the only one in the truck. 🤦‍♂️

Of the faults were multiple open rear hatch. It’s a known issue, but they can’t order a part yet because the battery has only died twice 🤬

Hey Jeep Cares…. Time to start caring. $63k for a vehicle. Might want your service people to start stepping up to the price point.
 

Mzwy

Member
This is my first Jeep. After hearing these stories and my own experience it’ll probably be my last. It’s too bad because when it runs it’s a great vehicle.
 

jugdish

Well-known member
Even better news…. Wife picked it up and they told her that if we really want to know what the issue is, they’d have to keep it at least a month or more…. After they told her everything is good and battery has been charged, got home and tested the battery. Came in at 12.2 Volts 🤬

May take them up on the month offer as that’s Wisconsin Lemon Law…..
 

Mzwy

Member
Even better news…. Wife picked it up and they told her that if we really want to know what the issue is, they’d have to keep it at least a month or more…. After they told her everything is good and battery has been charged, got home and tested the battery. Came in at 12.2 Volts 🤬

May take them up on the month offer as that’s Wisconsin Lemon Law…..
Did you print out this forum?
 

jugdish

Well-known member
Showed it to the service manager…. Got a call that they will take the car for several days after the holidays so they can dig into the issue…. Just frustrating
 

Mzwy

Member
Update for anyone following this latch thing. Dealer called this morning and the car was ready. They did a couple Rapid Responses (third row headrest folding issue and electronic power steering inop) which by the way, I hadn’t had problems with either of those things. Also did a recall for the headlights (which worked fine as far as I know).

They replaced the lift gate latch with part number 68593350-AA. I don’t know if that part is universal, but this was on a GCL 4x4 Limited. Note that’s a different number than what’s mentioned earlier in this forum. The service guys did tell me there was a new one.
So far battery voltage seems to be nominally good. As mentioned earlier, I used to get the check rear seat message at every shut down. Now it only annunciates on shut down as described in the manual when the back door (but not lift gate opened only by itself when I tried it) is opened and then the car is started within a few minutes.

Fingers crossed it’s fixed.
 

QueenNeeNee

New member
Jeep Grand Cherokee L > Battery Discharge Issue, woke up found battery dead down to 8v dead. It was about maybe after 18 hours none use.
I charged it up took about 12 hours to charge to full which tells me typically good battery. Bad battery's typically charge fast and discharge fast.
Now this was 2 days after I bought it.
I figured maybe I left something on, by mistake. So the past two days we used it one long trip and another short one. Been off for about 14hours and Volt is down to 11v.
Now I am thinking what the heck. We been overly paranoid we left something on before. So now checking each time we get out is the 'off' is showing on Start/Stop Button, all lights off, all doors closed.
We are taking it back to the dealership to have them troubleshoot issue. Kind of sucks its only a week old and killed the battery twice. A few more times and that none deep cell is toast.
We have not modified it, its 100% stock.

I was wondering if there is someone else having this issue. Could it be something we doing, or just random bad alternator, fuse, or wiring issue. Random may mean a bigger factory issue as well.
The Jeep is a fully loaded Grand Cherokee L Summit v6. Only thing its missing is passenger side screen and Rear Seat entertainment.
Did you ever figure out the issues here? I am having the same issue. I had my car for two weeks and they battery died, they towed it in and replaced both batteries. However, it happened again last night and Chrysler sent someone to charge it, it worked but then died again this morning. There is obviously something running in the background draining the battery.
Thanks, your advice is appreciated.
 

Mzwy

Member
Update for anyone following this latch thing. Dealer called this morning and the car was ready. They did a couple Rapid Responses (third row headrest folding issue and electronic power steering inop) which by the way, I hadn’t had problems with either of those things. Also did a recall for the headlights (which worked fine as far as I know).

They replaced the lift gate latch with part number 68593350-AA. I don’t know if that part is universal, but this was on a GCL 4x4 Limited. Note that’s a different number than what’s mentioned earlier in this forum. The service guys did tell me there was a new one.
So far battery voltage seems to be nominally good. As mentioned earlier, I used to get the check rear seat message at every shut down. Now it only annunciates on shut down as described in the manual when the back door (but not lift gate opened only by itself when I tried it) is opened and then the car is started within a few minutes.

Fingers crossed it’s fixed.
Well, it wasn’t exactly fixed. Running some errands on New Year’s Eve and shut the car off in a parking lot (after a 25 minute drive). I had been watching the battery voltage on the instrument panel with the engine off and saw it go from low 12’s to low 11 volts in about 2 minutes. Wouldn’t start. Called dealer to jump it. Just got it back today and they diagnosed a bad main battery, which I suspected anyway because I couldn’t get it to charge much beyond 12.4 volts on my charger at home the couple times I tried. I just checked it at about 13 volts so we’ll see what happens over the next few days. Between the latch and the battery maybe it‘s fixed? I’m not too hopeful.

Preparing my lemon law application in the meantime….
 

Mzwy

Member
Did you ever figure out the issues here? I am having the same issue. I had my car for two weeks and they battery died, they towed it in and replaced both batteries. However, it happened again last night and Chrysler sent someone to charge it, it worked but then died again this morning. There is obviously something running in the background draining the battery.
Thanks, your advice is appreciated.
Seems like most people are being told it’s the power lift gate latch, although somewhere on this forum a couple people were told an amplifier for the stereo. Not sure which stereo though. I don‘t think anybody in this thread who got a new latch (besides me) has come back later to say anything good or bad so maybe it’s the solution.
 

Knucky

Member
Well, it wasn’t exactly fixed. Running some errands on New Year’s Eve and shut the car off in a parking lot (after a 25 minute drive). I had been watching the battery voltage on the instrument panel with the engine off and saw it go from low 12’s to low 11 volts in about 2 minutes. Wouldn’t start. Called dealer to jump it. Just got it back today and they diagnosed a bad main battery, which I suspected anyway because I couldn’t get it to charge much beyond 12.4 volts on my charger at home the couple times I tried. I just checked it at about 13 volts so we’ll see what happens over the next few days. Between the latch and the battery maybe it‘s fixed? I’m not too hopeful.

Preparing my lemon law application in the meantime….
Thanks for updates on this issue. My GCL goes into the shop next Friday except mine the battery has not gone dead in yours and others case. Mine never charges above 60% state of charge for the stop start to work. I have done the same thing and tried charging my battery at home and could not get it above 55% SOC. Let us know if your battery is at least staying charged now after they changed it and the rear latch module. Thanks
 

Knucky

Member
Hey, Security_Britt. Have you had the chance to get your Jeep to the dealer yet? If so, send our team a private message with details on the appointment and we can dig in.

Kate
Jeep Cares
Hi Kate, what is being done about this issue. My GCL goes into the shop next Friday Jan 14th. Enumclaw Chrysler Jeep dealer. We could use your help here. Thanks
 

JeepCares

Well-known member
Hi Kate, what is being done about this issue. My GCL goes into the shop next Friday Jan 14th. Enumclaw Chrysler Jeep dealer. We could use your help here. Thanks

Sure, Knucky. Feel free to send us a private message as well.

Kate
Jeep Cares
 

jugdish

Well-known member
Im almost sure its the liftgate module. When I get the "check rear seats" notification, I manually open and close the rear hatch and it goes away.
 
New member here and I stumble ltd onto this thread after searching up numerous issues with my gcl limited.

My vehicle has already been to the dealer numerous times after a annoying dash rattle, and a power steering failure that happened on vacation- requiring a whole new rack. After two weeks, I got it back Monday. Today, it’s dead.

What concerns me is everything I am reading here; however, I was not able to jump it and it seems others were able to. At this point, I am at a loss, hoping that it’s the same issue you are noting in this thread and it’s an easy fix but I’m not convinced. Unfortunately, I think I am going to need some real help here as this vehicle is starting to feel like a lemon.

Can Jeep Cares provide any guidance here. Trying to arrange a tow tomorrow and it’s infuriating that I probably wont see this thing fixed for another two weeks.
 

Mzwy

Member
New member here and I stumble ltd onto this thread after searching up numerous issues with my gcl limited.

My vehicle has already been to the dealer numerous times after a annoying dash rattle, and a power steering failure that happened on vacation- requiring a whole new rack. After two weeks, I got it back Monday. Today, it’s dead.

What concerns me is everything I am reading here; however, I was not able to jump it and it seems others were able to. At this point, I am at a loss, hoping that it’s the same issue you are noting in this thread and it’s an easy fix but I’m not convinced. Unfortunately, I think I am going to need some real help here as this vehicle is starting to feel like a lemon.

Can Jeep Cares provide any guidance here. Trying to arrange a tow tomorrow and it’s infuriating that I probably wont see this thing fixed for another two weeks.
Stranded on vacation. That’s terrible. Mine has only stranded me locally a few times. And died in the garage a few too. If only I would have seen this forum before buying it!

That’s odd that it won’t jump but I’ve had dead batteries in older cars that prevented me from jumping so it’s not impossible in my mind. I had been monitoring my dying battery in this car for about two or three weeks, but more or less it finally failed completely overnight too (it allowed me one final drive to get stranded, of course).

The other thing is these cars are always on, even when you don’t think they are. USB backlighting, position updating, tiny fans etc. My wife turned it off and was sitting in it then called me and told me the cd changer was still on because of all the noises it makes like 3 minutes after you shut it off. I had to tell her cd changers don’t come on ‘21 cars.

Let us know what you find.
 

Mzwy

Member
Im almost sure its the liftgate module. When I get the "check rear seats" notification, I manually open and close the rear hatch and it goes away.
I haven’t erroneously had that message since they replaced the latch. Only when it’s supposed to. I used to always have it.
 
Stranded on vacation. That’s terrible. Mine has only stranded me locally a few times. And died in the garage a few too. If only I would have seen this forum before buying it!

That’s odd that it won’t jump but I’ve had dead batteries in older cars that prevented me from jumping so it’s not impossible in my mind. I had been monitoring my dying battery in this car for about two or three weeks, but more or less it finally failed completely overnight too (it allowed me one final drive to get stranded, of course).

The other thing is these cars are always on, even when you don’t think they are. USB backlighting, position updating, tiny fans etc. My wife turned it off and was sitting in it then called me and told me the cd changer was still on because of all the noises it makes like 3 minutes after you shut it off. I had to tell her cd changers don’t come on ‘21 cars.

Let us know what you find.
Several calls to the dealer and arranging a tow through Jeep. Unfortunately, the tow company bailed because of bad weather. Note, my tow appointment was at 7AM. Bad weather ( a little snow) won’t hit until late tonight, so that’s response is pathetic.

As of now, the Dealer is putting a loaner on a flat bed and bringing it here and taking my car with them back to be worked on. We will see how this plays out. The dealer did suggest it’s a bad battery, but I don’t buy it. The latch is a likely / possible culprit and I asked them to look into it.

I think this Jeep’s days are numbered. My loyalty to Jeep is fading fast. (I’ve had plenty before ( YJ, liberty, Grand Cherokee, now this Grand Cherokee L. I was even considering a rubicon or gladiator for the kids) Looking like never again.
 
Several calls to the dealer and arranging a tow through Jeep. Unfortunately, the tow company bailed because of bad weather. Note, my tow appointment was at 7AM. Bad weather ( a little snow) won’t hit until late tonight, so that’s response is pathetic.

As of now, the Dealer is putting a loaner on a flat bed and bringing it here and taking my car with them back to be worked on. We will see how this plays out. The dealer did suggest it’s a bad battery, but I don’t buy it. The latch is a likely / possible culprit and I asked them to look into it.

I think this Jeep’s days are numbered. My loyalty to Jeep is fading fast. (I’ve had plenty before ( YJ, liberty, Grand Cherokee, now this Grand Cherokee L. I was even considering a rubicon or gladiator for the kids) Looking like never again.
Jeep is back. Rear latch replaced.

The Jeep was delivered to my driveway, I took the key, went back to work at my home office, and left to go to pick up a prescription in the Jeep an two hours later…….

It starts, but service 4WD alert is now lit, touchscreen is very glitchy and requires a reset.

Here we go. Round three I guess

What an absolute turd.
 
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