battery light on?!

[kbooneKJ]

so i just got my evic install 2 days ago and everything was fine untill friday night after work when i started my car and it sounded like the battery was dead. i took out the fuse for the OBD port(which is where i have all four evic wires running to) thinking that it was stealing to much power. everytime i started my car from friday till tonight it sounded dead. but tonight on the way home from work the battery light came on and the radio got fuzzy so i turned everything off in my car and made it home. its on the charger now and its taking alot of charge so what im wondering is if my battery is shot or is it my alternator or could it be something i did wrong. please help

 

[tjkj2002]

Don't hook anything to the OBDII port,it will mess stuff up.Sounds like it was drawing constant power killing your battery,better check the voltage output of the alternator also just in case.

 

[kbooneKJ]

huh the other page about installing the evic says to splice into the obd port. i took out the fuse that is for the obd so it wouldnt suck power out but was that a bad idea? when i installed the evic the fuse for the obd was blown so i must have been driving with it off for a long time anyway, why would this time make a difference

 

[kbooneKJ]

is it possible that i could have fried my PCM when i installed the evic? if i accidentaly connected the power to the yellow wire going into the computer would it fry it?

 

[kbooneKJ]

Can Anyone help me? I don't dare to drive at all cause I don't want it to die on the road

 

[tjkj2002]

Unhook the evic,test the battery and alternator.If those both are good go for a test drive and if everything is still good find a alternative power source for the evic that only get's power when the key is on.

 

[sd89gta]

I used the radio power supply as the power source, just an idea. Worked like a charm. I'm pretty sure i used the ground as well from the radio as well. Anyways, 4 months strong and no problems.

 

[sd89gta]

No wait, scratch that. Used the radio for the constant power and the turn-on lead. Used the obd for the ground and the evic info.

 

[n8fis]

More than likely your battery is bad.. My 04's Liberty factory battery
went dead as a door nail while I was in a coffee shop. Ever after I
had the Jeep jumped started, it went less than a mile and the engine
went dead in the middle of the road.

I replaced the battery and all was ok. The charging system was ok also.

 

[Uncle Krusty]

Start with the alternator. Slowly loosing power whike driving means the vehicle is running off the battery only.

If the Alt. is bad, you may have also toasted the battery due to the constant drain on it. The battery will "recover" to some extent while parked, but not like re-charging it while driving with a functioning alternator.

Most auto parts stores can test both - even if you drive it in.

 

[tjkj2002]

Start with the alternator. Slowly loosing power whike driving means the vehicle is running off the battery only.

If the Alt. is bad, you may have also toasted the battery due to the constant drain on it. The battery will "recover" to some extent while parked, but not like re-charging it while driving with a functioning alternator.

Most auto parts stores can test both - even if you drive it in.

Not so true on a KJ,the KJ is very picky about it's battery voltage,if it does not have enough battery voltage it will not run/start right.The voltage regulator for the alternator is in the PCM so if the PCM is not getting correct battery voltage it will not tell the alternator to charge right.

 

[kbooneKJ]

well i went to my local autozone and they tested the battery and alternator for free and it was at 12.3 volts while running and the second i turned it off the voltage was droping fast to about 10.5 volts. then he cleaned all the connectors and sprayed some red stuff on it and then retested it and it was at 14v running and 12.5 off. he said it was just a bad connection but it is still not starting the same. do you think that my battery is shot and the PCM isnt telling it to charge right?

 

[JeepJeepster]

Mine runs those exact volts when running and when its off(13.8v and 12.5). If the Jeep is starting then the battery is ok, just may be getting weak.

 

[kb0nly]

New battery in your future then i bet...

Batteries seem to have a pretty short life these days. I put a new one in the minivan we had this year when it started acting up, all the problems went away, including some error codes for sensor problems, best i can figure is the lower voltage was causing some errors.

When i bought the KJ it had a brand new battery in it, if it hadn't i would have bought a new Optima for it, my experience with them has proven they are virtually bullet proof!