Dead battery, computer freak out?

divit250r

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2016
Messages
61
Location
Columbia City, IN, United States
So after a short drive this weekend, the wife parked the Jeep in the shop. With the lights on. For a full day before I found it. I charged the battery (Red top, not sure when it was purchased), got it started, drove it and let it run for a good half hour. Restarted and idled fine, no issues. Two days after that, it's dead again. Charged it again, but it won't start. Fuel pump primes, but it doesn't fire up unless you mat the throttle. Once it's running, it won't idle on it's own either. Exhaust smells super rich, which I'm guessing is because it's still operating in open loop and I'm feeding it gas to keep it running. No check engine lights, but I didn't have time to hook up my code scanner last night to go any deeper.

All that to ask if anyone else has had to keep their foot in it to get it to idle after dealing with a dead battery?
 
That Optima battery is probably toast. Once they are drained like that it is hard to bring them back and they will not hold a charge. I believe @Jerry Bransford said something a few weeks ago about Optima coming out with special charger because of the issue.

When your battery died the computer forgot everything it knew about your engine. You will probably have to run it around the block to give them time to get reacquainted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: divit250r
Yep, that battery is probably toast, I agree 100%. You can find out for sure if you take it to any battery store (i.e. Battery Plus) or auto part store. They'll hook it up and tell you if it's bad or not.

Even Optimas go bad!