Has anybody else had to jump start their diesel? Unfortunately I've had to do it on a couple of occasions. I have yet to determine the cause of my low battery and it tested fine when I took it to Sears (after the first time) but to be on the safe side I bought a new one after the most recent incident a week ago. On both occasions I was off-road and the first time I got AAA to come out and last week I was fortunate to have someone nearby who was able to give me a jump. From those experiences I've learned the diesel is much more difficult to turn over than a regular gas engine. For example, the AAA guy first tried a standard portable jump pack and that did absolutely nothing. Maybe it would have done something if left attached for a long enough time, I'm not sure. A week ago when it happened again we had to keep the jumper cables hooked up for at least 5 minutes before it would crank over. This leads to my main question. Has anyone tried one of the new "micro" LiOn jumper packs for starting a diesel? I'm not keen on getting stranded alone in the back country with no cell coverage.
I haven't done it with my Jeep, but I had to jump start my Dodge Ram Cummins Turbo Diesel last winter. It has 2 batteries from the factory and we had to use 2 of the jump start packs to have enough power to start it.
2014. It's not related to the cold weather. First time it was maybe 60F and last time was about 80. A little more background. The first time it happened I was running my ARB fridge off the starter battery, which I had done many times in the past. The fridge has a low voltage cutoff however I think I just may have reached a point where the battery's age couldn't handle that along with starting the diesel anymore. My solution was to add a second battery for the fridge which charges off the alternator but is isolated once the ignition is off. This has been working fine since I did it up until last week. Next step is to install a new starter battery and look for any parasitic leaks. But in any case I'd like to be prepared in the future if/ when it happens again hence the inquiry into whether these new lithium jump starters can really start one of our diesels.
My '12 Wrangle Rubicon died at a gas station recently. I'd just picked it up from my wife at work and left her the GC. It started right up at her work and I drove it about 2 miles to get gas. Tried to start it up after filling up and it was dead dead. A nice lady let me jump start it from her vehicle and still dead dead. Needed a new battery. These new cars are really squirrely wrt batteries.
Dodge's have had issues with the A/C systems in the past causing a drain on the battery for not shutting off like they should. I'm not talking about the fan still blowing but some valve or something that puts a long but continued drain on the battery.
You need plenty of mAmps to turn a diesel, and based on my math comparing recommended power for various gas and diesel engines, you need *at least* 10,000 and preferably more.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Jeep Garage - Jeep Forum
1.7M posts
176.2K members
Since 2009
Jeep Garage is where you can talk about all your favorite jeeps including the Cherokee, Liberty and Grand Cherokee.