Tapper

I have 01 limited.

While driving the battery guage is a little less than 14. All electric stuff seems to work. Recently car tends to need an extra crank to turn over.

Do I need a new a battery?

Abovetimberline

Your starter could be dragging also,which can make it sound like a low battery,how old is the battery?starter?

Tapper

The jeep is recently new to me. So not sure about age of battery and starter. Car only had 40K when I bought. Tires looked like original. I dont think prior owner changed much on car.

Is getting a new battery a good starting point. which brands?

muddpigg

yer local parts store (auto zone, advance auto, etc...) will check your battery for free, and if it's free it's for me! see what they have to say first about the battery.

Firestorm500

If you end up needing a battery, a good aftermarket one is SuperStart from O'Reilly's.

The Wal-Mart batteries are too tall. I don't believe the AutoZone batteries are reliable enough.
"If you don't pay much, you don't get much."

thesundancekid

the car ONLY uses the battery on crank and in the acc position once the car is running your alternator is the power not your battery also if your alt is not kicking on then it wont let it start take it out take it to autozone and they will test it for free if your getting lose of power while its running its your alt not the battery

95Cherokee

Maybe this is a dumb question, but do you have to remove the battery and alternator from the vehicle for Autozone to test them?

Firestorm500

No, they should be able to put a load tester on it and check it in the vehicle.

At least NAPA can.

Call ahead.

XJSETH

volts just below 14 is totally normal i ride there all the time. it should be between 13.4 i think and 14.9. dont quote me on that. but being on 14 volts even doesnt matter my jeep does the same thing when cranking. the starter might be going slowly but hard to say with 40,000 on it. mines the OG starter and i have 171,000 miles

Abovetimberline

Your battery sitting engine off,should read about 12.6.there are six plates each producing abour 2.2 volts per plate. with engine running if you check your battery it should be around 13.5-14.5 approx,that is if the alt is producing as it should,you need a dvom to check it like this,or like someone here said you can load check the battery in place at the auto parts.

XJSETH

thanks i knew i wasnt too far off! i dont think his battery is going out tho, i guess test it then come back and tell us. what kinda battery do you have?

Alex

if you think you have a bas alt then start the car and while its running take the positive lead off the battery and if the car dies its your alternator not working properly.

5-90

Make sure all grounds are clean and tight.

Make sure both starter motor mounting screws are tight, and that the contact pad between the starter and engine is clean.

You could have a ground going West on you, which would be your problem. I'd verify that 14VDC KOER voltmeter reading (IP voltmeters are notorious liars in general, and any reading should be verified,) and you can easily check your battery yourself. I've detailed how here before, and I'm working on a simplified tech writeup that's going to go on my site once I move it.

dangerousdavid

if you do need a new battery get an optima...a deep cycle battery is great if you end up needing to winch yourself out of something but dont want to leave your motor running while winching. other than that i dont even think you need a new one. just below 14 volts is about right. if it gets to around 11 or so then you have something to worry about and it might be your alt.

thesundancekid

13.-- is pretty normal but if youve noticed its droped from what it is usally at then id say have your alt tested if its below 13 while runing your alt is probably not functioning correctly if it isnt functioning at all your car will run off the battery for only a few minutes intill the battery drops to around 10.5 WHILE running and it will shut off so it would only run for about 5minutes tops if your alt is not runing at all
but if your normally at 14 and its now in the low 13s id definatly get it tested

also if you guys need a good second power cell that does charge with the alt to run your acc winch and what have you try one of these you can pick them up at your local car audio store ive personaly installed many of these and even seen one run a polaris ranger with a full system for 2 days before it was out of juice the installer forgot to hook up the lead for the alt and was still working after a weekend camping trip
http://carjamz.com/zen/index.php?mai...675c730d729205