deane.barker

Every once in a while, something in my 1997 Grand Cherokee TCI "wakes up" and drains the battery overnight. It's completely random. It might not happen for weeks, and sometimes it happens two days in a row.

The battery is totally, completely dead. I have to jump start.

When it's restarted, the power draw is not there anymore. It has vanished...until the next time it shows up and drains the battery again.

I have had it in two shops, a total of five times. Both have given up (and one was the local Jeep dealer). The last one finally installed a battery plug in as the only way to make sure it will start every morning.

(Sadly, plugging it in overnight is not practical as it's a third car, and it sits on the street mostly. This will work in the short-term, but it's not a long-term solution.)

Anyone ever seen this? It's a great Jeep otherwise -- still runs and drives awesome at 150K miles. I would hate to lose it over this, but I can't roll the dice every time I want to drive it.

mnewxcv

dome light? lol not sure. reason i say that is because door ajar triggers can be sporadic. anything else would be more consistent one would think. maybe hood light?

deane.barker

Sure, but if the door went ajar, it would theoretically still be ajar when the Jeep was restarted.

mnewxcv

but by then the battery is already dead.... Does your dome light work? if so we can probably rule out the door switches since youd notice.

deane.barker

If I remove the bulb from the dome light, will it remove any potential power draw? Or, is there a fuse that controls all interior lighting? I could disable that, then just see if it happens again.

carbuff

I was just going to post this. There should be a fuse but it might control something else too. Thats what I would do. Pull the fuse for the interior lights and see if that solves your problem. Also, instead of a battery plug in what a bout a battery disconnect switch. it goes right on the battery terminal and has a **** on it that you turn to disconnect the battery from the car circuit. You just have to open the hood every time you leave the car overnight and the next time you use it. Also it will reset your radio and computer and disable your remote entry. Kind of a pain but it might work out better than a plug in.

NathanJ

The lighted ring on my lock cylinder was killing mine.