# No electrical power



## cscsc (Jun 14, 2009)

Yesterday everything was working normally. Car parked in the garage as usual. When I opened the door this morning, I noticed no interior or dashboard lights. No response at all from the key. no lights or power anywhere.

Checked battery [it's only a year old] with voltmeter - 15 volts. Cables tight, terminals clean.

Called dealer's service dept. - they have no idea what could have happened either. Will have to have it towed in.

Had the WIN module recall done recently - could something have failed in about a month's time?

Any ideas?

I'll post the results if and when it's fixed. This is the first real problem I've had with the van in almost 90K - I'm concerned...


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## CDJackson (Feb 28, 2013)

If there's no power at all to anything but the battery is putting out 15 volts, then I would have to think the problem is with the connection. I know you said the terminals are clean and the cables are tight, but are you just looking at them or did you actually disconnect and clean them? Before I paid to have the vehicle towed, I would disconnect the cables, use one of those wire battery terminal cleaners to thoroughly clean the posts and the connectors, and then reconnect everything.


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## cscsc (Jun 14, 2009)

Turns out it was the battery after all. The towing co. put a load test device on the battery and the printout read "REPLACE BATTERY". So Auto Zone gave me a new battery under their warranty.

Seems that the battery must have failed the previous day and went completely flat overnight. Using a voltmeter to check it showed the proper voltage, but there wasn't enough amperage to boot the computer, never mind energizing anything else. I should have jump started it myself, but then it would have just gone flat again the next time the car sat overnight. 

I guess you can't assume that a 1 1/2 year old battery [Duralast Gold in this case] is still good. Hope the new one lasts longer.


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## Zambee500 (Jun 23, 2011)

These vehicles seem to be hard on batteries. I think I read somewhere (perhaps here) that the newer Chrysler vans come with AGM batteries from the factory. Not certain of that though.

My experience has been that using the VES without the engine running can trash the battery - not just drain it, but ruin it. We have an '09, and I've personally replaced the battery twice and when we bought it in 2011 it already had a replacement battery in it. So that's at least 4 batteries already in just 6 years. The last time we killed it after watching a movie in the parking lot for 10 or 15 mins without the engine on, and we had done that previously from time to time. So I think I was unknowingly killing the batteries. We stopped doing that and haven't had any battery problems since then.

As an aside, these vans (at least 2009 MY) seem to have a lot of electrical gremlins too, so there's also that to consider.


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## BrocktonBarbie (Mar 29, 2014)

*battery life*



Zambee500 said:


> These vehicles seem to be hard on batteries. I think I read somewhere (perhaps here) that the newer Chrysler vans come with AGM batteries from the factory. Not certain of that though.
> 
> My experience has been that using the VES without the engine running can trash the battery - not just drain it, but ruin it. We have an '09, and I've personally replaced the battery twice and when we bought it in 2011 it already had a replacement battery in it. So that's at least 4 batteries already in just 6 years. The last time we killed it after watching a movie in the parking lot for 10 or 15 mins without the engine on, and we had done that previously from time to time. So I think I was unknowingly killing the batteries. We stopped doing that and haven't had any battery problems since then.
> 
> As an aside, these vans (at least 2009 MY) seem to have a lot of electrical gremlins too, so there's also that to consider.



We have had to replace the battery in our 2009 (that we bought in 2010) 4 times. That seems crazy to me. Other cars I've had for way longer and have only had to replace the battery once or twice. Either the Routan I have is a lemon or they all just stink.


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