lshort8907

Sorry, this is really long, I figured I would give as much detail into the problem as I could...

Around 3 weeks ago I was driving my '00 Cherokee and all seemed fine, but my check gauges light came on and battery gauge dropped to 9, so I called my mom and told her to meet me with jumper cables just in case. She said it had happened to her a few weeks before when she was driving it, and she shut it off, started it again and all was fine. Same thing happened to me, shut it off when I got to my destination, everything came back on fine and I didn't have any issues for over a week.

I had to make a long trip from Upstate NY back to Ohio for school, and 600 miles into the trip, same thing happened, check gauges light on, battery gauge dropped (just after I had surpassed 190,000 miles). I got off the highway, shut it off and started it again, and the gauge went 1/4 of the way up while idling, but as soon as I started driving, the gauge dropped and the light came back on. I was almost back to school so I decided to drive the rest of the way there. I started and drove it 3 more times that night and it seemed normal except that the gauge and light were still on, but the next morning it wouldn't start at all (power locks and dome light were still working though)

I called AAA for a jump, and it started right away with the battery charger connected, but I made it maybe 100 feet before everything in my jeep shut down and I ended up needing a tow (my 4-ways wouldn't even work).

I had it towed to a mechanic that has been good to me before and he says that he tested my alternator many times, and even put a different battery in, and that my alternator was charging that, and my alternator is fine. He said he thought the core in my (13 month old) battery melted and put a new one in and everything was fine...for 5 days.

I am very skeptical of my Jeep because of all the problems I have had, so I have been keeping an eye on the gauges, and yesterday I noticed that when I came to a complete stop, the battery gauge dropped a little but not as far as before, and the check gauges light did not come on, but I had no actual issues and drove it home figuring it was me noticing things I never had before because I have never had a reason to monitor the battery gauge. Today I drove it to work and everything seemed fine.

When I went to leave work it started fine but the battery gauge dropped and the check gauges light came on. I let it idle and after about a minute the light went off and the gauge came back up to normal. I drove it about a half mile down the road, it drove fine, and it sat for around 3 hours before I started it again. It started fine, but the check gauges light is back on and the battery gauge bottomed out.

I haven't had any issues with the lights dimming, but as a precaution I shut off the radio, dimmed my dash lights as much as possible and turned off the fans.

Is it my alternator? or is there something else I should be looking into? really I'm just afraid of trying to get to work in the morning and getting stranded again. I've had the "no bus" dash issues before, and in my dreams, there's just something wrong with the gauge, but lets face it, my jeep hates me and if something can break it will

Bustedback

I would suspect the alternator.

Radi

Yeah, something's intermittent in the charging circuit. Most likely the alternator, sometimes they behave on the test jig but not in actual use. Wouldn't hurt to give the wiring harness, the bat/gen terminals and maxi fuse in the PDC a couple of shakes to check for problems and a good looking over.

belvedere

The alternator is sure a possibility, but I would suspect a dirty/loose connection, too..

Roler

This might give you some ideas:

Diagnosing alternator problems:

Testing a charging system:

lshort8907

My alternator tested bad so I replaced it in Monday. Worked great for 4 days, didn't drive it at all yesterday and when I started it today something didn't sound right, and the battery gauge was only 1/4 of the way up. I reved the engine and it sounded normal after that and the battery gauge shot back up to 14. What do I check now???

freegdr

Connections and belt...

Roler

And how did this go?