northernjourney

This is from journey manual pg 391

6 hours ago, 2late4u said:

i dont believe the spare had any effect with the problem you are having. first do you have awd? and if it was a problem you would have gotton a service warning light come on. i believe it is just a coincident that it happened right after. good luck on what you find out.if it would be a problem dodge wouldn't have used it.

Have you seen this post and many more on the internet? 

UPDATE sorry it took so long 

took it in and after 3 batteries replacements since 2012 this time the post on the battery was corroded off {they say} I've been driving it now foremost year with no new electrical problems

 middle of winter we got a right rear flat, my hubby put our stock spare on, drove less than 5km to get the tire fixed. no big deal. heres the kicker 

some time later I read after having a clunk clunk clunk when I turn that its super important that all tire be exactly the same down to 2/32" 

WELL my stock spare is 6.20" smaller then my stock tires on my car !  wtf ?

anyone explain this to me? anyone noticed this?

I'm so upset the my diff/viscous coupler could be F%$#^%$ and its because of the stock spare tire ?!

11 hours ago, JourneyCanada said:

A few follow up questions:

 

1) You mentioned it was a DJ 2012. Have you owned it since day 1? If not, when did you pick it up?

2) How soon after you took possession of the car did the issues start? (Battery, power, etc)

3) I noticed that the Front (?) defog lamp is light by it's button. That feature does draw more power. Yes, things should never blink even if everything is on. Just wondering if this ever happens when just the basics are running.

4) How frequent, or infrequent is the problem?

5) I am assuming you have no more warranty, unless you bought it recently as a used car from a dealer?

 

In general some kind of wiring problem could definitely cause the battery to drain while the vehicle isn't running. Things like shorts can not only cause these drains, but also the flickering. The voltage from the alternator may be misleading in several ways. First, multimeters give a rough average, so if there are fast drop outs, and frequently, they may not catch it. More importantly, voltage could be within range while currently being supplied is too low. That will definitely affect the POWER delivered to each accessories as well as the battery charge.

 

Finally, if it is a wiring problem, it's a royal pain in the ass to find usually. For things like alternator etc you could swap it out and stress things to see if the problem stops. Alot of wiring problems involve harnesses that cannot easily be swapped out. This is why I asked about when the problems started and whether you were the original owner.

1yes I'm the original owner since 2011 dec

2battery died that winter but the above flashing first time was the day the video was taken 

3 the lights in the video might be on or might be off they all flashed off/on regardless if they were on.  the 3rd time which was last friday I had heat on low and my heated seat on and the radio 

4 its only happened 3 times all in the last 3 weeks { the battery dying happened from first getting the car }....  the 1st time {thinking back} at first my hubby started the car and it almost stalled out, but didn't, we started driving and about 20 mins into driving the 1st power flashing started and lasted about 3 minutes, the second time which is the video, happened about 20 minutes after the 1st time and the 3rd time 17 days later and the car had been driven a handful of times in-between 

5 no warranty 

4 minutes ago, larryl said:

Wonder why they have heated seats if your not supposed to use them??

Your dealership is whacked

yup they suck they also told me not to turn my wheels sharply cause its hard on the power  steering when there was a recall on the hose .

the original problem of the flashing power stuff happened again on friday,

thanks I did talk to dodge here, its not a recall issue I had already checked I can't afford to take my car to them with up to $200h price tag 

I did check the alternator with a multi tester and it was reading 14.5 to 15. I talked to a Napa auto parts guy who said that shows its not my alternator? 

not sure why I keep getting 2 posts when I post a reply ?

the problem starts 38 seconds in  

my hubby and I were drive my 2012 DJ when all the power inside started flashing off and on and the heater too. I read online that there was a P60 recall on chargers that has the same symptoms 

anyone else have this? 
little back story I have had many battery problems I'm on my 3rd battery the dealer said they didn't know why the battery kept going dead and at one point told me not to use my heated seats.  anyways reading about the charger recall made me think maybe the alternator was/is the problem all along ?  

I will add a link to a video I took of the problem