I have 2013 JKU. This morning I drove it 60 miles to a job site. Parked it at the security visitor center for 15 minutes and then drove it 10 more minutes to the building. I was inside for about 30 minutes before trying to leave. I got in the Jeep and went to start it, made a click noise but would not turn over. Dash lights had come on, but were flickering. I popped the hood and check the battery connection... seemed fine but still would not turn over. A co-worker had jumper cables and we jump started my Jeep. I drove it back to our office about 40 miles during which it was constantly giving me bells and alarms. The traction control light stays on constant, but the brake light and abs keep flashing on about every 10 seconds along with a chime. The speedometer jumps around between 0-20 mph while this is going on. The tach works along with fuel and temp gauges, but the odometer flickers between dim and bright. When I stopped for a light, the brake, abs and chime would go away. The speedometer would stabilize and fall to zero. I also noticed if I put the trans in neutral and coasted, the brake, abs, and chime would stop/go out and the speedometer would go to correct speed. I am not sure if I may have left the headlights on when I stopped, but are currently charging the battery. The Jeep would not start again after getting back to the office, but don't know why the other electrical issues are happening. Anyone else ever experience this?

 

This sounds like typical faulty battery to me. If that is the factory battery, they tend to go out with little to zero warning. Mine went in a similar fashion at the 2-year mark...just like clockwork. Drove to a restaurant...everything fine. Go to leave, dead as can be....with zero warning signs at all.

I'd also note that when others have had batteries go, they have experienced all kinds of wonky electrical things similar to what you've described.

 

Thanks. Mine is the original battery ... 4yrs old and this was the first issue at all (no warning), but the quirky electrical issues are really strange.

 

You got 2 free years out of it then! 2 years like clockwork is the life for most of them. I've not experienced it, but have read a lot of posts about strange electrical issues related to dead/low battery.

 

Yup. I posted a thread about my battery sudden death when it happened around the 2 year mark.

 

I guess there's not much to be said for the factory batteries. I was able to jump start it once and drive back to my office, but it never started again once i got there and shut it off. It would not even attempt to start after charging the battery for several hours and would only click a few times while using the 200 amp jump start function. The battery must have shorted internally somehow just to die all of a sudden like that. Anyhow, a new battery took care of the starting and all weird electrical issues were gone. Thanks for everyone's replies.