Does My Jeep Need a New Battery?

If you go to start your Jeep and nothing happens, does that mean you need a new battery? Maybe, but before you replace it, you should try to make sure it needs replacing. Did you know many of the "bad" batteries that come in for warranty service are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly-recharged?

The first step is checking voltage in your Jeep's battery and you should measure this directly at the battery terminals. Fully-charged batteries will measure at least 12.6 volts (OPTIMA YELLOWTOPs are fully-charged at about 13.0-13.2 volts). If your battery voltage is well below 12.6 volts, try to charge it with a quality battery charger. Sometimes batteries are so discharged, that many chargers on the market will not charge them or may only briefly attempt to charge them and if the voltage doesn't meet a minimum threshold after a brief period of time, the charger will stop working.

OPTIMA battery chargers can recover deeply-discharged batteries, that have been discharged to as low as 1.25 volts, but older chargers that cannot do that can still be used to recover deeply-discharged batteries with a parallel charging technique. Once your Jeep's battery is fully-charged, you can then have it load-tested by a battery professional. Most quality auto parts stores can perform this service for you and many will do it free of charge. It is important to make sure you at least attempt to fully-charge the battery before load-testing it.

If the battery passes the load test, you should be able to continue using it with confidence. If you cannot get the battery to accept a charge or it fails a load test, then you'll know it's time to replace your Jeep's battery. If you think you need to replace your Jeep battery, you can use our battery finder tool at the top of this page, to find the right battery for your Jeep.