Battery dying sitting in the driveway

[GrumpyOldMan]

Brand new (3 months ago) 2022 1500 Bighorn. Maybe 3K miles on it, mostly highway. I'm recently retired and moved, and it's been sitting in the driveway unused quite a bit. It's also been on the cold side with nightly lows in the teens or occasionally single digits, and highs between 20 and 35. Last week I went out to run a couple errands. When I hit the Start button it said it wasn't able to read the key fob. Go back in the house and get the 2nd fob. Same thing. Other electrical stuff wasn't right either and eventually I realized the battery was probably too low. Put a charger on it for a couple hours and then it started right up, everything working normally. Only thing I could figure was maybe I left the cargo lamp turned on. It's easy to do, with it and the fog lamp switch being co-located the way they are. So I've been extra careful to check it whenever I shut the truck down.

Fast forward to today, 4 or 5 days since I last drove it. More errands to run so I hit the remote start just to be sure it's going to start. Nothing. Go out to the truck and this time not even the 'can't talk to the fob' message. No clicks, no nothing. Completely dead. So I connect up the charger again, plug it in, and the alarm horn starts blaring, won't stop unless I unplug the charger. I can't very well let it sit out there sounding the alarm until the battery charges, so I'll have to call AAA and have them come out and jump start it.

Is this a known issue? Is there enough parasitic drain on the battery that you need to run the damn thing every day or two to keep it charged up? Or do I have a bad battery that's getting killed by the cold weather?

 

[Jim BB]

Brand new (3 months ago) 2022 1500 Bighorn. Maybe 3K miles on it, mostly highway. I'm recently retired and moved, and it's been sitting in the driveway unused quite a bit. It's also been on the cold side with nightly lows in the teens or occasionally single digits, and highs between 20 and 35. Last week I went out to run a couple errands. When I hit the Start button it said it wasn't able to read the key fob. Go back in the house and get the 2nd fob. Same thing. Other electrical stuff wasn't right either and eventually I realized the battery was probably too low. Put a charger on it for a couple hours and then it started right up, everything working normally. Only thing I could figure was maybe I left the cargo lamp turned on. It's easy to do, with it and the fog lamp switch being co-located the way they are. So I've been extra careful to check it whenever I shut the truck down.

Fast forward to today, 4 or 5 days since I last drove it. More errands to run so I hit the remote start just to be sure it's going to start. Nothing. Go out to the truck and this time not even the 'can't talk to the fob' message. No clicks, no nothing. Completely dead. So I connect up the charger again, plug it in, and the alarm horn starts blaring, won't stop unless I unplug the charger. I can't very well let it sit out there sounding the alarm until the battery charges, so I'll have to call AAA and have them come out and jump start it.

Is this a known issue? Is there enough parasitic drain on the battery that you need to run the damn thing every day or two to keep it charged up? Or do I have a bad battery that's getting killed by the cold weather?

sounds like a bad battery ! but that being said you could have a slow draw on the electrical system draining the battery ! looks like you are still under warranty ! i would call the dealer and tell them what is going on ask if they want it towed to them dead or driven to them let them diagnose and fix it under warranty !
but hey that's just me !

 

[JayLeonard]

I agree take it to the dealer. Those temps are not cold enough to have that kind of effect on the battery. Something else is going on.

 

[andymax]

What he said^^^...that would be my bet, but it is possible that something is pulling current. Dealer would be my first call...

 

[stevenP]

I used the remote start the other day(first time), and saw after it was shut off that the display in the dash was not shutting off in the 2 minutes it was supposed to. Sure enough it was staying on, with the push to start message. Was drawing 3 amps or so. If I hadnt caught it, it would have killed my batteries(2x). I always keep my truck on a tender, and if I hadnt noticed that the tender stayed on charge inordinately long, I would have missed this issue. These rigs are so full of current hungry modules. I guess I will have to take mine to the dealer and see whats up.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Well the AAA guy just left. Took a little doing but it's running again. The battery was so low that when power was applied, either from my charger or his jump box, the computer assumed the battery had been disconnected in a theft attempt. That's why the alarm sounded. After a half dozen or so attempts we were able to shut the alarm off with the panic button on the fob. The charging system seems to be working fine, so the battery itself is the prime suspect. I'll stop by O'Reilly or someplace in a bit and have them test the battery. If it's OK then I'll take it to the dealer next week (and run it for a while every day until then) to hopefully find out what's going on.

 

[Loudram]

I'd take it to the dealership anyway. That new, the battery should be covered under warranty.

 

[06 Dodge]

Well the AAA guy just left. Took a little doing but it's running again. The battery was so low that when power was applied, either from my charger or his jump box, the computer assumed the battery had been disconnected in a theft attempt. That's why the alarm sounded. After a half dozen or so attempts we were able to shut the alarm off with the panic button on the fob. The charging system seems to be working fine, so the battery itself is the prime suspect. I'll stop by O'Reilly or someplace in a bit and have them test the battery. If it's OK then I'll take it to the dealer next week (and run it for a while every day until then) to hopefully find out what's going on.

IIRC battery should have 1 year/12k warranty so if you had it less then 1 year or 12k make the dealer get you a new one...

 

[Stavinksi]

My ‘22 with 10k mikes sits Wednesday night to Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes Monday in winter temps. So far has started every time. Something amiss. Curious if you leave it locked or unlocked. I have noticed locking it seems to put it to sleep pretty quickly whereas unlocked I wonder if it’s going to shut off interior lights and what not. Not necessarily consistently but I do always lock mine.

 

[Timsdually]

If you lock it up the alarm is set so it is drawing power. This happened way back on a 2003 I had. Went on a three week vacation, truck was only about 6 months old, came back, dead as a doornail. Put the charger on it and the truck fired up. After that my trucks rarely get to sit one day without being driven.

If sitting is a regular thing, buy a charger/maintainer and keep it hooked up. I have a Mercedes which has two batteries. One is just for turning the starter, the other powers everything else. The starter one has no draw, but the other one does, mainly from the alarm system. I rarely drive except maybe once every week or two. I plug a Foval 750m/a maintainer in and it keeps it up nice. Lights on for charging and different light for "charged". About $25.