Audiophiliac

Interesting theory. There are plenty of guys here I think with Optima batteries....maybe one will chime in and let us know if they have had the stall since replacing the stock battery.

CLACKEY(_!_)

It stalls and comes right back on. There is no pulling over and restarting.

Get ready.....Doojer's gonna close this thread. He doesn't like multiple stall bug threads.

101gargoyles

Was that service advisor able to keep a straight face while presenting that theory?
That one's almost as hilarious as "our leak expert will be able to look at it a few days from now..."
Where do they find these guys-I hope they're not emptying out the comedy clubs.

SabrToothSqrl

I dont think that a battery short would stall any vehicle...

infact with your truck running you could disco the battery, and it should still run...


DO NOT TRY THAT, IT IS A THEORY!!!!

But i've run many vehicles (cars, boats, Lawn mower, PWC, and ATV) that had 'dead' batteries...

I would jump it to start it, then the battery would never charge...

Just don't shut it off till your done

However; on the optima batteries... I wish someone made cars like they make batteries!

I have a red top in my Tahoe; and I'm a believer! I will get a yellow for my TJ once my stock one takes a crap...

I can leave my headlights on over 12 hours in my Tahoe, turn the key, and BOOM, not only does it start; but my radio presets are all there! (I know this because I left my lights on 2x now going to work)

lightning

Acutally there is SOME merit there. About 20 years ago when I was doing car audio, we had a woman come in that had a radio that would completely shut off at intermittent times. We checked everything out thoroughly and could find no problems. I drove around the parking lot and up and down the street for hours, but never had a problem. My MAX/MIN reading voltmeter never flickered, not a bit. Since all was deemed ok, we sent her on her way but she was back the very next morning with the same problem. Since all the wiring appeared to be ok and voltage and ground supply checked out good, we put in a new unit thinking that maybe a bad solder joint in the unit was causing the problem.

Well, guess who was back the following morning. Yikes, this is getting old. This time, she had managed to pin it down to a few particular roads that she seemed to have problems on. I hooked up 2 multimeters so that I could read voltage for both the ignition feed and the battery feed to the radio and we were off. The first two roads were no luck, she was hitting potholes, bumps, curbs, you name it, no problems. I looked at her and she gave me a devious smile and said "I know where it will do it". Road 3 turned out to be the champ. She looks at me and says "hold-on !" The was a HUGE dip in the road coming up and she hit it at mach 12. After the suspension had gone from full compression and back to fully unloaded, the radio cut out, the ignition voltage went to 3V and the battery voltage went to 8 volts. A split second later, the radio cam back on and all voltages returned to normal. WOW !

We repeated this one more time for good measure and then headed back to the shop to fix the problem. I wiggled and prodded every connection that supplied voltage to the radio but no luck. What the heck ?! I dedided to check the battery cables for corrosion but they looked clean, almost too clean. The battery was brand new as well as the cables...hmmm... Wait a minute, something does not look right. As I was looking and thinking, it hit me, this car should have a side post battery, not a top post...oh, and what is that mark on the battery clamp... it is a huge arc mark ! I looked up and the underside of the hood on the bracing looked like somone had been arc welding, splatter everywhere. Ah-ha, then it hit me again, where is the battery hold-down?, its not there ! When we hit the dip, the battery was flying up and arc-ing out on the hood, shutting down the electrical accessories for a split second, when it came down, all was well again.

That was the effect on a old-school electrical system. If the battery is internally shorting, it COULD cause all kinds of weird electrical problems on a new fuel injected-computer controlled vehicle. Not saying it is but it IS a possbility.

Ryan Graham

lightning is right. although an arc welding battery is pretty obvious, loose plates in a battery will absolutely cause paranormal activity in a vehicle. including dying. the reason a car will still run with a dead battery is because the battery still has continuity through it even though it is incapable of maintaining a charge. I do not own a JK yet, and wont until this issue is firmly resolved but all symptoms point to a loose, corroded, or otherwise poor connection in the battery positive side of the system. poor grounds can cause symptoms like this but one poster noted that his radar detector was spliced into direct ignition switch voltage and it went blank during his "stall". which leaves the ignition switch itself (manufacturers have a history of poor ignition switches, remember the burning fords?), fuse blocks (probably one underhood and one underdash, correct me if I'm wrong), battery, battery cables, and all the wiring connecting these devices. although computers and their related connections can cause problems like these, I want to believe that it would set a code for it. and if it completely blanks out, and forgets its own name, then I want the body control module to set a code for communication problems with the pcm and vice versa. it is a difficult problem because no one can duplicate it with any sort of monitoring devices (scan tool, multimeter, even a damn test light) hooked up. it could be seemingly unrelated also (remember the loose instrument cluster plugs on TJ's and the radios in astro vans that adjusted volume based on speed but were causing weird cruise control problems and dying when they went bad?) I know this post is long and pointless because I still dont have a solution, I was just hoping to get all you Jeep guys really thinking about the problem. Anyone have a dodge caravan? these have basically the same engine (not sure if they're throttle by wire). Have they had any similar problems? thanks for listening. sorry for the two page post

BigJerm

so i had another stall this morning but it was diffrent...

last time everything cut out electrical wise, the engine RPMs were at idle as if i was in neutral (i have an auto) and i lost the power brakes and steering.

Well this time i was on my way to work this morning and on a gradual slow down coming down a hill to the normal traffic spot when it hit. The lights blinked, radio went off, all came back on with the dash lights on but the whole time the RPMs stayed the same and the feeling of the brake pedel never changed

deadspot

Today on the way home was stall number 3 - this time it was more noticeable. I actually felt the engine die for a second and then come back to life. The last (second) time was barely noticeable aside from seeing the lights come off and on. I just turned over 9K miles - maybe I get one every 3K... Dear Mr. Dealership... it's me again...one of those Jeep owners with the pretend problem...

(4 DR Auto X with power options; 12/13 build date)

CLACKEY(_!_)

I'm being advised by my dealer that the fix is a "throttle control harness" I called several other dealers in my area and they ALL said the same thing. Has anyone had this replaced and did it work?

deadspot

I am curious, did they actually say they acknowledge that a stall problem exists and the throttle control harness replacement was in direct response to that issue? I wonder if the basis for that came from DC - seems like it if more than one dealer had the same response.