Jeep Cherokee, dead battery, auto-dimming mirror?

[ksocia]

My Jeep was dead today, haven't drove it since this weekend. It has one of those auto-dimming mirrors and I left the button in the "on" position. Could this be the problem? I've only had the Jeep for a week so I'm not too familiar with this function and if it uses battery power when the Jeep is off.

If anyone has any ideas let me know.

 

[precocious]

It could. How old is the Jeep and how old is the battery?

 

[nigdonht]

does the battery take water, if so, you might want to check to see that it has water in it

 

[ksocia]

Jeep is 98, not sure how old the battery is since I just bought it, but it seemed fully charged when I first got it last week.

 

[Kage_]

When you put the new battery in did you drive the jeep at all? Most new batteries only come at about a 1/4 of there charge. It would be best to drive the jeep for a few days to make sure the battery gets a full charge. This could be the problem.

Kage_

 

[ksocia]

I bought the Jeep from ebay, seller says the battery is a year old. *shrug* I'll give it a jump this weekend and see if I can track down what's "on".

Thanks for the help!

 

[Big Daddy]

Are you sure the headlights weren't left on? I would tend to think that the auto-dimming mirror only drains the battery when its being used (e.g., bright lights approaching your jeep). It might have been the inside light being kept on too, but I would think with a 1998 Jeep would have an battery saving feature to avoid battery draining in those circumstances.

It hopefully was just a fluke. If not, batteries are fortunately not that expensive and easy to install.

Good luck!

 

[ksocia]

Thanks, I just ordered a battery jumper from amazon (yay free Prime membership), so I'll check it out this weekend.

 

[spazntwitch]

I had a minivan where the battery would die after a couple of days non-use. It turned out the auto-dimmer from the mirror had a short in it that was causing it to drain the battery. When I switched it off, there was no longer a problem.

 

[ksocia]

I'm glad you said that, because the auto dim mirror has been stuck on half-dimmed, half-normal since I bought it. I ordered a new mirror from ebay, but I'm going to disconnect the current one while i'm waiting.

 

[Big Daddy]

Thanks, I just ordered a battery jumper from amazon (yay free Prime membership), so I'll check it out this weekend.

Don't you have any friends or neighbors that'll jumpstart your battery? (notice the careful use of words to avoid dehawk {aka Beavis} from adding his two cents)

 

[ksocia]

I'll have my wife jumpstart it (the battery) when she gets home. I don't use it to get to work so it's lower on my priority list than if I did need it every day. I had to push it out of the spot (I pulled in) and across to the other side of the lot so it is accessible to other cars for the jumpstart.

Plus i'm lazy.

 

[morriefisher]

A battery has a manf date on the side & a sell date on the top.

 

[ksocia]

A battery has a manf date on the side & a sell date on the top.

Noticed it when I jumped it last night, it's April '04, still should be good. The jumpstart took fine.