tarpon4me

So, I was driving yesterday, just normal driving down the street, and all the sudden the Speedometer started to drop, and a handful of electrical lights popped up on the dash. All the other gauges were fine, the engine was running. Cruise control fell off, and the aforementioned speedometer fall off and random lights popped up. Anyone else experience this? I googled it but didn't find anything.

14Sport

Sounds like the typical symptoms of a loose battery connection or weak battery. Since it's a '14 I presume the former. See if you can turn one or both with your hand.

drexelsteve

Did you hit a pothole or anything else that would cause you to lose traction? What exactly happened with the dash, specifically.

tarpon4me

I was just driving like normal. No pot holes or anything. Cruise control was on every time it happened, which isn't abnormal because I use cruise ALOT as I have ADD and it keeps me from getting a speeding ticket. It actually happened again yesterday, but has been complete intermittent. Cruise control fails, Speedometer drops to zero, dash lights (brake, ABS, etc...) come on/blink randomly. The jeep is still running, and the tach/fuel/temp gauge works fine. Power steering is fine.

I will check my battery connections here shortly. Despite my jeep being a 2014, I wouldn't put a bad battery out of the possibilities either if that will cause this glitch. I have a winch on my jeep, and it's not ornamental, I actually use it. Despite me having the jeep running 9 times out of 10 when I do use it, I know a winch is hard on a battery.

I appreciate the feedback to gents. Mechanical I can do, electrical is not my expertise by a long shot.

rob_engineer

Plenty of threads on here about the batteries. They suck. Last typically 2-3 yrs, then die suddenly with whacky symptoms. I know others with your symptoms have had loose connections.

prod78

I am experienceing the same extract thing happening to my 2014 Sahara. And actually noticed this morning that cruise control is no longer working.

tarpon4me

I found what I think may be the problem with mine. The negative battery terminal is loose. The problem is, it's completely tightened down. It's snug enough to stay on, but loose enough to move freely by hand.

With that said, how difficult would it be to replace the factory battery terminals with a quality aftermarket one? I notice Qtech and some other manufacturers make replacement terminals. The big question is it a simple unbolt and bolt on install, or with there be harness considerations. I can't find anything on you tube or google search about swapping them out. Maybe i've not searched for the right thing.

tarpon4me

I think I know why my battery terminal will not tighten. So, when I installed my winch, I attached the ground wire to the front screw on the negative terminal. Those of you with accessories probably noticed that the positive side has more banks than the negative. I happen to stumble across another thread on here that had their winch line installed exactly the same way. It seems the screw that I attached it to is the screw responsible for tightening the terminal. So if i'm correct, the thickness of the winch ground wire connector is just enough to prevent the screw from tightening down all the way.

When I get home this afternoon, i'll move the winch ground wire off that bolt and put it on another bolt. I'll see if that will allow the tension bolt to finish doing it's job. I may also look into a terminal buss to add more attachments points on the terminal so it's clean and neat. stay tuned. I'll take some picks.

14Sport

I was just going to ask you if you had anything under that nut. It's a cam nut and NOTHING should be attached to it. It is the nut closest to the battery terminal for those who don't know.

GregoryBR1

I had the same problem. I upgraded the battery since I was running accessories and haven't had a problem since. I did think it was odd that neither of my battery terminals have a fastener. They are both just held on by nothing but friction I suppose.