I see this has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum but I've started a new thread because in this case the car is new!
This is my 2nd GV 2.8 and I had similar problems with the 1st. This time it's worse - 1st occasion was when the car was just a few weeks old. After a 300 mile drive the car was left for 12 days - on return the battery was completely flat. Once running after a jump start I checked and confirmed nothing had been left switched on.
Back at the main dealer they could find nothing wrong with car or battery.
A few months later it was back at the dealer for the same reason. Again they could find nothing wrong. This time though they pre-charged and installed a new battery. They also advised me that all dealers had been directed to create and maintain 'Battery Logs' for all new vehicles in stock, which suggests that Chrysler are aware of a problem.
After my wife was unable to get the kids to school the other day (you've guessed it - flat battery!) I requested thatthe dealer arrange a final inspection of the car but first to check and advise me on what procedure I must follow in order to reject the vehicle if no fault can be both identified and rectified.
I'm awaiting a response.
I believe, and have suggested as such to the dealer that the battery, and charging capacity of the vehicle is insufficient for the electrical drains imposed on it to which they offered no comment.
Anyone else had / having a similar experience?
Eventual problem may be what would I replace it with?!

 

Hi
You say it’s new, are we talking an 08 09 RT new shape voyager or the last of the 07 RG? What is your driving style, are you only doing shorts runs? If so I would advice a larger capacity battery be fitted. Clearly the is not a battery fault and if they can’t fault the vehicle then it can only be an intermittent drain or it is not being driven long enough to charge it back up. If it is your driving style then a larger battery have fixed the ones I have had with your problem. If you dealer contacts technical they will give them the numbers of the larger battery.

 

Hi Merlin - thanks for the reply.

It is the 01 - 07 Stow & Go model.The new, latest modeldidn't arrive until spring 08 so this is one of the last 01 - 07 models. The Executive XS was the top of the range, 2.8diesel model.
Was planning to buy the new model but Chrysler cut corners in the conversion to right hand drive - the gear shift was not transferred accross, instead they stuck it on the floor between the front seats at the expense of the cup holders, the dash top bin was not transferred either so doesn't appear on right hand drive models, but their biggest mistake was the engine - still the 2.8 diesel auto but in UK the annual road tax is charged according to CO2 emissions - the orig model fell just inside one of the mid tax bands but the new one is way up in the top band which virtually doubles the annual charge from £210 to £400. (times about 1.5 for dollars) Thismust have cost them a lot of sales - a year after launch I've seen hardly any new models on the roads over here. It certainly influenced my decision - within days of viewing the new one I'd located and confirmed an order for one of the few remaining originals to replace my 3 year old one.
That was back in April and it now appears the battery problems I suffered with my last car were not an isolated case.
I think you're right with regard to the battery capacity and possibly also the charging capacity.I've considered the possibility that the short school runs are a factor but the first failure occured when the car stood for 12 days after a 300 mile trip. If my suspicion is right though there must be others experiencing the same problem - the only indication I've heard of though is the comment by the dealer that they've been directed to start keeping battery logs.
I've never rejected a car before so I'm just trying to gather any information I can in case it does go that far.
Many thanks again for the response.

 

Hi
Yes we all had a new chargers to do these spiral red top batteries (that you have) and new battery testers. This was not because there was an issue with the vehicles or the batteries it was because batteries where being replace unnecessarily or not being stored correctly and kept charged up. If these batteries go flap because of short trips the car has a very hard time charging them back up, even with the new charger the battery can take over 12 hours to charge.
If the dealer still can’t fault the vehicle ask for the bigger battery and I am sure you will have no more issues. I would think this a better option then to try and back the vehicle.

 

If you are not driving enough to recharge the battery, then a larger battery will only postpone the time til the battery dies again. It doesn't solve the problem. You might want to consider buying a battery charger and plugging the car into it periodically to keep the charge up.
I would also check for battery drain. With everything off, there should be no more than about 0.05 amps draining from the battery. This is the minimum needed for the clock and remote keyless entry monitors. Much more than that and you've got something wrong.
Make sure there's not some interior light left on or something like that.
If you find there's excessive current drain, pull fuses one at a time until it stops. If you can then isolate the problem to one fuse's circuit, take it back to the dealer for repair under warranty.

 

Thanks for the input guys.
If it is a lack of capacity it would need both the battery and the charging system upgrading to avoid having to keep putting it on charge - something I'm not prepared to do on a8 month old car costing over £30,000! The car is used for aforschool runs (2 miles) - but heh that's what they're made for! And that doesn't explain the failure after the 300 mile daylight motorway trip...
It has been back to the dealers twice so far who claim to have checked it and found nothing wrong. I'm now waiting for them to arrange another visit when I suspect it might get a more thorough check due to my warning that I'm considering rejecting the car!
We're naturally pretty hot on making sure the kids don't leave any interior lights on after our experience to date so I'm confident that that is not where the problem is - when we've suffered a flat battery I always check to see if anything had been left on but never found anything yet, although that wouldn't have uncovered any 'invisible' current drains. Haven't gone through the fuse panel routine yet - I'll leave that for the dealer!
Thanks again

 

Hi
I know what you are saying but that is not the case as this upgrade is going from a spiral battery the that the alternator struggles to keep charged to a lead acid one that it can keep charged. I have done a number of these upgrades and never had a come back IF THERE IS NO FAULT WITH THE VEHICLE.

 

Just to add to show you that I know what I am talking about call customer care they know about this upgrade and if the dealer contacts technical they will tell them the same thing.

 

Hi Merlin
I don't know about a 'spiral' battery. What is it? Are you saying that the batteries used in the US are lead acid and that the Europe ones are not, and that the Europe ones are therefore harder to keep fully charged? Have to confess I haven't paid too much attention to the type of battery beyond confirming the pos and neg when hooking up the jump leads!
I haven't discussed solutions as yet with the dealer - so far we haven't got beyond "the battery keeps going flat" to which they have said "we've checked it and can't find anything wrong" At this time I still haven't heard back from the dealer 3 days after e mailing him (the overall outlet manager) with my request to check it again with the suggestion of rejection. Sent a follow up e mail yesterday advising thatmy wife had been stranded again this week (I'm offshore at work) so I'm guessing he's carrying out more detailed ressearch than previously right now.
Just read through this thread again and I wonder are you in UK or US Merlin- relevant to 'spiral battery' comment?

 

Hi I am in the UK, as for the batteries the diesel has a spiral battery and the petrol has a lead acid battery but the alternator charges a lead acid better but spiral batteries are smaller.