2014 Dodge Journey Battery Light / Power Save Mode
I've seen this topic elsewhere, but never a follow up on what was wrong
once it was repaired.
Driving today about 6 miles to town, almost to the destination and the chime
dings once and battery light comes on. Park, do business, get back in car to
go home, starts normally, no battery light, get almost home and it comes on
again, no chime.
Let it sit about an hour, checked battery voltage with a good digital volt meter
(I do electronics work, I have a good one!) and battery is sitting at 12.7, Start
up engine, goes to 14.5 with headlights on. After about 3-4 minutes voltage
drops down to 12.5 +/- then trickles off to 11.7...no battery light comes
on...left it run about 10 minutes. (I assume this setup is like others, they cut
the alternator field off based on battery voltage to lessen the drag on engine,
thus alternator isn't always charging, I could hear engine load go down
slightly when the voltage went from 14.5 to 12.5 above)
Shut it off, restarted. No battery light, engine cranks as hard and fast as ever.
Two more trips same day, battery light randomly came on and off a few
times, then as I came back home for the last time the envelope icon came
up, but no battery light, message said Power Saver Mode.
The battery is less than a year old, checks good, never a hard start or
jumped (car has never been jumped in it's life, previous battery was 4.5
years old and I replaced it just for good measure last January).
It's about 40 degrees out. Car has 68,000 on it.
One other time, about a year and a half ago this car shut itself off in the
parking lot while moving, but never lost electrical power. Restarted it and it
never did it again. Chrysler had no clue. No lights, no OBD codes then.
Sounds like other people have this problem, but I cannot find any solution
that was ever reached in these cases. Although a few of them seemed to just
shotgun parts until it went away....I don't have time or $ for that.
Thanks if you have any clues!