2000 jeep cherokee sport 4x4 133,000 miles
ok so i drove my jeep around the neighborhood and as i got near home my voltage meter spiked at 19 volts and my dash read check gauges. so i turned of the jeep and tried to restart it but it was dead. it has a brand new battery in it... whats going on?

 

Probably a bad connection at the battery(or a failed battery) your alt is trying to charge but its not getting there, thats why your meter went high

 

or the alternator voltage regulator took a dump and overcharged the battery and killed it, that happened to my dad in his accord the lights got bright as hell and we drove it home when we got home and tried to start it the battery was dead ...

take the battery out, and the alternator and have them both tested, the battery has to have a full charge before it can be tested but i point at the voltage regulator

 

2nd the voltage reg. Thats what i would point to.

 

sounds to me that the internal reg in alt went bad and smoked batt. that sucks. take alt to autozone & have it checked. batt will just be a core after that happens.

 

You can confirm by checking to see if the battery has anything left in it. Thats what causes the batt to get roasted. The voltage regulator takes a dump and lets the alt overcharge the system, boiling the contents of the battery, and probably nukes other things as well.

Had this happen to me on a sport bike at 135 mph. All my gauge lights came on, got real bright, and my friends say I was blowing smoke, although I didn't see it. When I stopped the battery acid was boiled out and some wires were fried. Headlight bulbs also blew out.

 

happened to a buddy on a 06 ski-doo sled. we were running about 90 across a lake. blew every bulb after lights were so bright it looked like a ufo then all went out. sucked towing that thing 10 miles back to truck. fte motor had to come out to get to regulator!!!

 

Yes possibly voltage reg , but it is internal to the pcm, it can happen but not all that common

 

Damn, that really sucks! I got lucky enough to make it home!

Thats weird to me. Most of the vehicles I've dealt with are either inside the alt itself, or externally mounted near it.

 

Same happened to me.
The voltage regulator is a PCM function.
I went to a shop where they installed an external voltage regulator. It works as an alternative to not buying a PCM.

 

Seems like a really good idea. Does that do anything to the PCM, though? Bypassing it, I could see the PCM being confused if its smart enough.