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Very Dead Battery?

1985xjlaredo

1985xjlaredo

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Kansas City
Ok so as some of you know some asshole tried to steal my Jeep last Monday. Well I got the column back together and put in about 10 mins ago. Now my battery is very dead. I tried to jump it, no beans. The battery I tried to jump it with read 14.53v When I read my battery it was at 0.04. I have never seen a battery that dead. Plus the reading of my battery was on the post while the jumper cables were on. Am I missing something here? Could something I did while changing out the steering column cause this? The battery is only about 18 months old. Could the idiot that couldn't steal the XJ have done something. I didn't see any wires that were out of place in the engine or under the dash. Well thanks and Everyone have a good Valentines Day
:scottm:
 
Make sure you have good connections. I tried to jump my old WJ and got nowhere. It ended up being the positive battery cable was not getting a good connection.
 
smartazz19 said:
Make sure you have good connections. I tried to jump my old WJ and got nowhere. It ended up being the positive battery cable was not getting a good connection.
Click to expand...

x2
 
I understand what you guys are saying but I took the reading off of the barttery post. even if i took the battery out I should get a reading off of the post
no it didnt the brake lights wouldnt even come on
 
I think what they mean it...
Are your jumper cables making a good connection? Could be bad clamps, cables, etc. Just worth checking out.

H
 
Oh i see. The cables are pretty dam old and the clamps are all crooked and twisted. I never thought of them as the problem. I will have to check them out. An ohm test will tell me if they are bad or not won't it?
 
If your battery reads less than a volt, yea it's probably toast! Are you measuring it with a meter with one lead on the pos and one on the neg terminal? Just because it's only 18 months old doesn't mean that you can't lose a cell or you could have a shorted cell due to failure of the separator between the positive and negative plates. I have had that happen once.

Swap a known good battery into your XJ. If it starts and everything is fine, then you are definitely in the market for a new battery. Maybe you can get something taken off the purchase price for pro-rating an early failure on your current battery. Good luck!
 
This would be the second replacement. The first dies in 1 month of putting it in. Junk Oreilly's battery! I had an 88 that I had to replace as well and I bought them the same day. I will keep you informed keep the guessing up for me though. I just want to make sure that it isn't something related to the column and the dick that tried to steal my Jeep
 
That's why I'm suggesting putting a known good battery in there. If it acts the same way with a proven battery, then the problem ain't the battery....

But if that battery reads less than a volt (I would disconnect battery cables while checking to make sure something funky isn't going on), then the problem IS the battery.
 
maybe when the butthead tore your column apart he cause a contact to happen that caused a parisitic draw. i would change the battery out and recharge your old one . if the old one wont hold a charge i would take it back have them pro rate it to the price of the new one.
 
Yea well Im going to go get a new one tomorrow and see what happens
 
With the fact that wires were damaged during the theft attempt you might have had a short that *TOTALLY* drained the battery and kept it drained while you were getting parts for the repair, I'm assuming that 18 month old battery is NOT a deep cycle Optima or other specialty battery. Normal batteries do not take to draining totally dead to -0-. I just stick with my red tops, the go on sale every so often, usually in the fall for around $100 so when the time comes I wait for that which means this coming fall, all 4 jeeps get new ones. The three I have are 5 years old and I'm not going to push it.
 
No wires were damaged when they tried to steal it. Everything is ok. New battery works great. Im glad that this ordeal is over. It also took care of the brown wire that was giving me trouble. It was really just the ignition switch the brown wire and its contacts aren't bad at all. Thanks for all the help.
 
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