Kent Gratteau

Does anyone know what drain there is on battery when the Jeep is left parked? Several times now I have left the Jeep while away from home for a couple of weeks. After 10 - 14 days sitting unused I have had to put the charger on the battery to get it going again. This time I was gone for 18 days and came home to a totally dead battery. It wouldn't even take a charge. It read 2 volts. I replaced it this morning and new battery is fine; no issues except I guess I'll have to reprogram the radio. Looking for suggestions to prevent this from happening again. I could just pull the positive cable, I guess, but I'd like to know what the drain is. OBTW, this is a 2013 JKUR.

jchappies

Alarm? LED dome lights?

ronjenx

You should do an ignition off draw test. Put an ammeter in series with the battery negative cable to see what the draw on the battery is. If it's more than 5mA - 35mA, start pulling and resetting fuses, one at a time.
A key point is to let the computers shut off after connecting the meter. It can take a few minutes.

Whenever you want to disconnect your battery by pulling one lead, always make it the negative lead. (It's a safety thing.)
When removing the battery, disconnect negative first, then positive. When re-connecting, it's positive first, then negative. An easy way to remember: never apply a wrench to the positive when the negative is still connected.

rob_engineer

Isssume yours is a 2013 with stock battery. After 2 years, you are in borrowed time with the stock battery. It sucks. Many posts on here about that. My belief is that if you put a new battery in this problem would go away.

Kent Gratteau

Neither were on.

Kent Gratteau

Thanks for the advice. I do have a multimeter that should be ok for small current. My clamp-on meter is only good for AC current. I think I had heard about disconnecting the negative lead first but I guess I wasn't thinking of that when I changed the battery. I know that I've done it both ways in the past.

rob_engineer

Don't over think this. A dying battery explains your symptoms. Letting the weak battery die actually shortens the already short life. The stock batteries are known to die prematurely. This happened to me and many other people. Go to Walmart. Buy a new battery. Problem solved.

Kent Gratteau

I've read posts about how bad the stock battery can be. The first incidents with the dead battery after sitting for a while were when the Jeep was fairly new. I've also had an incident when it would lose charge because I spent a couple of weeks only making short drives and not enough time for the battery to regain the loss from starting. When I use it more often or longer drives it was not a problem.

I'll see how this new battery does.

ronjenx

Over thinking?
Wouldn't it be risking the health of the new battery to let it discharge if there were an excessive ignition off draw? It doesn't take a lot of effort to find out.

rob_engineer

My comment wasn't directed at you, rather the OP. Sure, if you have the meter and are comfortable using it in ammeter mode, then by all means do the test. The point I wanted to get across is that the stock battery sucks, so I immediately look at that before diving into more complicated things. I've been active on this forum for over 5 years and you have certainly earned my respect. I'm not second guessing you.