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battery goin dead every night.....help

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Old 05-15-2012, 08:39 PM
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Default battery goin dead every night.....help

well my 93 xj battery keeps going dead..battery is brand new an has been tested to make sure that wasnt the problem... if i leave the batt terminal hooked up over night shes dead....if i pull it off ...starts fine...checked the battery an looked to see if anything was staying on ..nothing is...any ideas where i should start???
Old 05-15-2012, 08:43 PM
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Mine did that too and I found out that when putting it in park the shifter was not all the way in park. The Jeep shifted in park and everything BUT there was a final little click or pop. Every morning I would have a dead battery like you.
Old 05-15-2012, 08:48 PM
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Mine did this I went through an alternator and then two batteries before figuring out that my shifter was doing the same thing
Old 05-15-2012, 09:47 PM
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You have a power drain somewhere, something isn't turning off properly or you have a short somewhere.

This video discusses tracking down a power drain in your vehicle.

Old 05-15-2012, 09:56 PM
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Originally Posted by jrh97007
Mine did that too and I found out that when putting it in park the shifter was not all the way in park. The Jeep shifted in park and everything BUT there was a final little click or pop. Every morning I would have a dead battery like you.
X2
Old 05-16-2012, 01:10 AM
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If you have too hard of a time finding the drain, just get a battery cable disconnect switch. It's a little plastic piece with 2 metal posts and usually a removable key to connect/disconnect your battery. These work great as an easy solution to dead batteries. And if you want to keep your settings on your stereo, just re-wire the battery wire for your stereo straight to the positive on your battery and you'll have no drain problem or loss of settings on your stereo when you add the battery cable disconnect.
Old 05-16-2012, 08:32 AM
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You have a short.
• Remove (-)negative cable from battery
• Clip test light to (-)negative cable
• Probe test light pin to (-)negative Battery terminal
• Light on = short circuit
• Light off = no short circuit
• Remove fuses to find out where the short is.
Old 05-16-2012, 10:43 AM
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may sound stupid.... but it happened to me, do you have any iterior lights left on. i would only drive mine in the daytime (non DD) and i never noticed the crappy faint interior light was on, i would park and have a dead battery the next morn, and this happened for a few days before i figured it out haha. check you head light dial, fat chance but worth a look.
Old 05-16-2012, 06:50 PM
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no lights or nothing obvious is on.... how would i go bout that shifter problem..i noticed my reverse lights quit working to
Old 05-16-2012, 08:09 PM
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Crazy! My reverse lights don't work too. Must be that Jeep thing. I would try to hunt down anything that may be drawing power like the others have mentioned. If you still find nothing I would buy that batetry disconnet becasue they are cheap and kind of like a very cheap security seystem. Good luck..... Not sure if there may be a faulty brake light switch that may be bad. Not sure if XJ's even have one, but that could maybe be the source of the draw.
Old 07-06-2012, 11:27 AM
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My 2000 had a draw. Dumb luck helped me find it because I left my hatch up and was testing battery/alternator. Come to find out, the switch that controls the "hatch open" light on dash is broken. Just released it from the latch and left connected. Seems to be backwards, since I have to leave it hooked to the harness but can't have it in position to work (on latch). Zip tied switch and am going to replace. Has not had a draw in 3 weeks and is running at about 13.6 volts. Seems to be my solution (replaced battery and alternator already).
Old 07-06-2012, 01:14 PM
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I would check the alternator I've had two bad ones be the source of my draw
Old 07-06-2012, 07:34 PM
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Has happened to me with 1) a battery that had a dead cell AND 2) corrosion on the terminals.
Old 07-06-2012, 08:44 PM
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I had a similar problem on my 98. Come to find out after checking everything. Including Alt, starter all the grounds. Come to find out that the little light in the engine bay wasn't turning off when the hood was closed. It was a very simple fix. I unplugged it!
Old 07-06-2012, 08:49 PM
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Originally Posted by RTorrez1
I had a similar problem on my 98. Come to find out after checking everything. Including Alt, starter all the grounds. Come to find out that the little light in the engine bay wasn't turning off when the hood was closed. It was a very simple fix. I unplugged it!
Or glove box light on pre 96 LOL!


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