davedude44

So my battery on my xj keeps dying on me. One thing i noticed is that the amber light on the rear defroster button stays lit 24/7. Jeep on or off is always on. Nothing happens when you click it besides the relay in the kick panel on the very bottom clicks faintly. I have tried to pull the relay and the light still stayed on and i just went ahead and disconnected the switch a couple hours ago. Just got back from checking on it and of course the battery is dead. Now im not sure that this is whats causing the battery to drain however i think it makes sense. Is there something that commonly goes wrong with this or an easy way to test?

Thanks CF

bloddy mud

Can you get a test light on the connectors in the back window

davedude44

I dont have a test light but do have a multimeter. I can check for voltage in the morning. Where are the connectors in the window at?

Another thing i noticed when pulling the switch out is that the fog light switch was disconnected and may have had jumpers in it. Both of my fog lights are disconnected so not sure if this would do anything or not.

davedude44

Battery was 100 percent dead this morning. Got it jumped and charged back up. Took the keys out and checked the connections on the rear defroster panel and sure enough had power going to it.

stock95sport(for now)

Not sure what else may be on it, but you could always pull the fuse for the rear defrost. Even if just temporary till you find a real fix.

davedude44

Yeah i would like to have it fixed esp with winter around the corner.

I ended up pulling fuse 14 and it no longer draws power. Hopefully didnt pull the power to anything else important.

stock95sport(for now)

You'll find out soon! lol, really though, I think thats the only thing on that fuse. There may be a relay as well you could pull instead if you find anything vital missing. Weirdly, my spare/gf's XJ is a 93 w no rear defrost and somehow, it never needs it....my 95 has rear def. and i ALWAYS need it....i dont get it
lol

steven72192

Same problem I had on my 98 xj take the rear trunk panel off carful not to break it or crack it ( you most likely will) there's a wiring loom on the top pull the 4 screws for the inner truck panel check those wires mine were grounding out causing it to keep the rear defogger on check them could be the problem

stock95sport(for now)

^ Nice tip!

davedude44

Will definitely look into the wiring on the rear hatch.

Unfortunately though the battery is still draining excessively. Thought this fixed the problem but apparently not. Went back out to the car and 100 percent dead once again.... ugh

What the best way to find where its drawing power? Take all the fuses out and check the slots?

RTorrez1

How old it your battery? Take it in and have it charged then have them put a load test on it. I had a fairly new battery do the same thing. It had one bad cell and wouldn't keep a charge.

Big David

You will ruin a good battery if you keep draining it 100%,unless it's a deep cycle.

davedude44

The previous owner said it was pretty new. Im sure its much weaker from discharging so much recently. There is an autozone right around the corner i can get it tested at. Would this cause the battery to go 100 percent dead though? I mean 0.00V

I have the fuse pulled for the rear defroster and doesnt pull power anymore however am still loosing power. I disconnected my amp and stereo i installed before the issue started happening and nothing changed.

One thing i have recently noticed is that the electric locks are acting funny. Sometimes the work sometimes they dont. They will only unlock sometime or only lock others or one side will work but the other wont

Im almost thinking of getting a heavy gauge switch and just hooking up a switch to one of the battery leads.

davedude44

Okay so i tried hooking up my multimeter in series with the battery to read current and pull fuses one by one. I hooked it up and it jumped to like 76 mA then shut off and wouldnt read anymore maybe fried it out not sure. Anyways my roomate had an extra led turn signal lying around so hooked it up in series with the battery and begun to pull fuses. The only fuse that seemed to have any effect was the 50 amp fuse battery acc. in the fuse box under the hood.

What is on this circuit that could be acting up? It was weird it dimmed when pulled and got brighter when put back in but after a couple times taking it in and out it stayed the same and pulling it no longer had an effect.

Want to try and borrow someone elses multimeter thats a bit better quality than my 9 dollar walmart one. I pulled the radio fuse before i started and made sure all the doors were closed. Realistically is there anything else that should be pulling power?

davedude44

Dead battery again. ughh