Factory battery went bad at 32k miles... dealer zero help... anyone else??

bigdave2212 said:

Mileage really doesn't matter, the average life span of a battery is 5years. That sucks either way and for them to bs, there is no reason for a 5hr test u less they are gonna do a charge on it and then test it?! I hate dealers.......good luck though pal

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Bdersch said:

so has anyone else had their factory battery die? Anyone send their battery through their 5 hour test?

Also, i have some truck service scheduled monday anyways and im going to take them the battery and said here you go run the test and let me know what it says...

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Bdersch said:

so has anyone else had their factory battery die? Anyone send their battery through their 5 hour test?

Yes, after 2 years. And No, I am sure they would have rightfully blamed it on the sound system, so I just replaced it myself and probably got a better battery than they would have given me anyway.

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MdMassey said:

I work at O'Reilly's and the testing procedure the guy at the dealership mentions is a pretty standard deal with a battery warranty issue. It's the same procedure we follow for our warranty... just it doesn't usually take 5 hours... more like 1 or 2 hours if the battery is really low on the charge.

Also don't try to "test" your alternator by removing a battery cable... this was a reasonable test back in the early days of alternator vehicles but not today, here is why; First the surge that the alternator receives when the battery is unplugged is enough to damage or destroy the voltage regulator, and second the battery acts like a diode, this means that even if the diode pack in the alternator is damaged the battery will keep the current a DC current... remove the battery from the circuit and now the bad alternator which is creating AC current is feeding that AC current into electronics that were not designed for it... sensitive things like the PCM and BCM and ABS controllers can go pop that way. Oh and a fuse will not protect the components from AC current, a fuse doesn't care if the current is AC or DC so long as it isn't more than it's blow rating.

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adrianp89 said:

Find a new dealer. You are within warranty, within reasonable time of a battery to have plenty of life. They should give you a loaner, and should replace the battery at no charge.

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Bdersch said:

okay... so this weekend i took a trip up north for 3 days in which my truck sat and i got in and out of it quite a bit taking out camping stuff and repacking it. i went to leave and the truck wouldnt start... everything had power and the truck tried to turn over. It would crank one time maybe 2 times and then there would be nothing.
I used my friends jump pack and it started right up without even having to wait.
Drove home and everything was fine (it was a 6 hour drive though).
so fast forward 5 days to this morning. i go to work last night work my 12 hour shift and go to leave and again truck wont start. same exact thing everything has power but wont crank beyond one time.
Used my co-workers car and it needed to charge for about 5 minutes but it started up fine. no issues.

Go to the local autozone (who by the way are a bunch of idiot and slow pokes). Guy runs the test with truck on says alternator is charging fine. Turn truck off and sure enough battery is bad. I tried starting truck again out of curiousity and it was dead again same thing as last 2 times...

So i call my local dealer and they are like its covered by 3 years/36k mile warranty. HOWEVER, you have to bring it to us and we will run it through a test and it has to fail our test and then we charge it again and it has to fail it again...?? said it takes about 5 hours. Im like well i have to work tonight so can i drop it off, get a loaner car and then come get it tonight before work? He's like um chrysler doesnt do loaner cars. I told him ive gotten a loaner numerous times from my other chrysler dealer. He again said no one does loaners... its $35 for a rental through enterprise. I said okay then. Hes like oh and i wont be able to get you in till tuesday anyways... im like are you serious?

So i just buy an autozone battery, install it myself (which the guys took 5 minutes arguing about who was going to install it... even though i kept telling them i would do it... eventually i said listen i have my own tools just give me the battery and they are like what? really?)... truck starts right up no issues. Im about to go to sleep and will see what happens tonight when I try to go to work...

so has anyone else had their factory battery die? Anyone send their battery through their 5 hour test?

Also, i have some truck service scheduled monday anyways and im going to take them the battery and said here you go run the test and let me know what it says...

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Bdersch said:

I must not have been clear... the test for the alternator was done at autozone with there test box/ cables. Nothing was disconnected from the battery.

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MdMassey said:

I didn't mean to make you think that's how you or they tested it. I have worked for 3 different auto part stores (CSK Schucks, Advance, and O'reilly's) and I get people in all the time who tell me that they tested the alternator by unhooking the battery... I cringe every time I hear that. I was simply offering some advise to any reading this about what not to do with a modern vehicle. As for vehicles from the 60's... Hell have at it, those old relay type regulators could take some serious abuse, and the loads on the electrical system were not too hard on the diodes when dropping the battery causes a surge in the alternator.

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