Battery took a dump on me.

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huntergreen

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You all got me thinking, my battery is 5 years old. So far, not an sign of trouble.
 

2012RAM1500RT

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You all got me thinking, my battery is 5 years old. So far, not an sign of trouble.
LOL, If you mostly stay close to home you may be ok chancing it. Nothing like being out in the middle of nowhere and your vehicle that started the last time won't start this time. My experience has been not good with a battery in the 5 year old range. Of course a battery of any age can be defective, I just quit taking the chance instead of kicking myself in the rear when it won't start. I replace at 5 years regardless. If the new one fails well at least I tried!
 

Fatbob Frank

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Yeah, winters here are pretty hard on a battery's lifespan.
If I get to the fall of year 5 in my daily driver I'm ready to replace it before it gets too cold...
 

Badger 13

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I changed the battery out in my 2013 truck this summer, and just changed out the one on the wife's 2016 Wrangler yesterday. Both of them were still good, but I did not want to take a chance and be stranded somewhere. Batteries never seem to take a dump close to home.. They both were upgraded to AGM batteries which I prefer. Heat is the killer of batteries, but cold cranking is when they let you know they are tired..
 

hoopster58

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Had to replace my battery today. Well, I’m hoping it was a battery and I’m hoping that’s all it was but when I went to start my truck this afternoon when I got back to the yard, the remote start wouldn’t work. Wasn’t sure why so I opened the door to start it manually and the flippin’ battery was dead, wouldn’t crank. Had about enough juice to power everything but no crank.

Checked the battery cables and sure enough, they were tight; should be tight because it’s the factory battery and Ive never taken the cables off. Had my buddy come over with his pickup to give me a jump and sure enough, it was dead because it took a little over 5 minutes to charge it enough to where it would even crank but even after it got to that point, it wouldn’t start, it would just crank, and crank. I guess the voltage has to be high enough in order for the fuel pump or whatever to kick on because after about another 3, 4 minutes of jumping, it finally fired up.

Drove it down to Oreileys, they put their battery checker on it but they couldn’t check it because the battery was hardly charged and sure enough when I went to start it back up, it wouldn’t crank. They had to get their portable jump starter out to start the truck. They said they could check the battery once it was charged so I drove it home, took the battery out and went back so they could charge it. Said it would take about an hour to charge it and then they said they could properly test it to see if it really was bad.

Well, they hooked up the charger and after a few seconds of the charger running it’s thing, it immediately said the battery was bad so I figured at that point, I might as well just replace the damn thing. 200 bucks for a new battery later, put it in and she cranked right up.

I’m just curious though, is it possible my battery just decided to take a crap like that outta the blue? I don’t think anything was left on because I found out right away that if you leave any lights on, including the headlights, it will shut them off as a protection.

This truck will be four years old this Christmas and I haven’t had a single problem out of the battery and yes, my truck does sit a lot, especially when I’m at work. It’s not out of the ordinary for my truck to sit at the yard all week and then I drive it home on the weekends. As I said, it’s been subject to this a lot since I bought it brand new and nothing….except for today and it was dead.

Usually if something drains a battery, you might get by with jumping it once but in my experience, if you have to jump one several times, you might as well just replace it at that point as it’s usually shot but not this time. This is the first time it went dead and that was all she wrote. Sorry for the long post but any ideas? I do have an amp powering my rear subs but it shuts off when there’s no audio signal coming from the radio so I find it hard to believe it’s that. Other than that, I don’t leave phone chargers plugged it so I have no idea where the parasitic draw would have come from if there was any. I’m stumped unless this battery just decided it didn’t want to hold a charge anymore.
Well I'm trying to figure out my 2021 1500 Ram just working t start after 3 days of use. Dealer has had more than me. Said they cannot duplicate the problem. 2nd truck .
1st they bought back
And we sort of downgraded from sport to chrome package. I'm sorry actually 3rd ram tru k 1st order was wrong color but right package
2nd truck started dieing after about 500 miles. This one they bought back. Next one prices jumped 12 grand
And we fought for our incentives that we had on first Truck. So we settle for a truck onthe lot .original truck colors but not sport.
What do I do?
 

Wild one

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Oh no! Had to be a Mopar battery, no other brand can have a problem! LOL
My company GM's battery went south when the truck was 3 months old,and what a fight it was to get GM to warrenty it. It'd pass a battery test using their high dollar digital set-up,but it wouldn't pass a test using my old toaster style battery testor.I finally ended up taking my old toaster tester over,and damn near had to ram it down the service writers ass,before he'd finally admit the battery had issues,even though the tech agreed with me,lol
 

EdGs

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.......I finally ended up taking my old toaster tester over,and damn near had to ram it down the service writers ass,before he'd finally admit the battery had issues,even though the tech agreed with me,lol.....
That would've been one hell of a sight!

I went to walmart to buy a battery for an '87 Ram50 I had. I picked out a battery that was the same physical size and post configuration, but was a fair bit higher CCA than the original.

Dude tried to tell me it wasn't the right one, because their computer said so. It took almost every ounce of strength for me not to tell him he didn't know his ass from a hole in the wall.

Unbelievable.
 
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Sherman Bird

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Dodge uses the cheapest crap possible when building trucks to maximize profit. You're lucky it lasted that long.
There are only 3 battery manufacturers in the USA. NONE of the vehicle manufacturers make their own batteries. To those referring to the wide array of battery service time being a "crapshoot", I take issue.

Battery maintenance is still a requirement, not an option. Peel the label on your battery and you'll still find caps to gain access to the cells, where distilled water needs to be added, and is often something I see. Disconnect your battery once a year, during maintenance, perhaps, and clean the terminals AND the battery posts; maybe remove the battery and wash the whole thing. See the dirt and dust on the top of the battery? Put a volt meter in the dirt, and you'll register voltage, which drains a battery and kills it prematurely. I use Dawn dish soap and keep my battery clean. I also clean customers' batteries when I do service work.

AGM batteries ARE THE choice, but damned expensive! I resorted to an AGM on my former 89 D150 because the regular battery would go dead inasmuch as I let the truck sit for months at a time. I use regular batteries on my daily drivers.

Lastly, grab your DVOM and test the cables for voltage drop along their length and at contact points. You'll be surprised how often high resistance at a ground or at the actual cable ends are slowly killing the battery AND causing subtle computer issues you might not even be aware of until you perform these maintenance items! Make sure the battery hold down is secure. A loose setting battery will die up to 50% faster than a secure battery will because a loose battery will vibrate and jostle around during driving. A loose battery can cause the cells to fracture, or lose the coating from the plates, depositing them in the bottom of the case.
 

Sherman Bird

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My company GM's battery went south when the truck was 3 months old,and what a fight it was to get GM to warrenty it. It'd pass a battery test using their high dollar digital set-up,but it wouldn't pass a test using my old toaster style battery testor.I finally ended up taking my old toaster tester over,and damn near had to ram it down the service writers ass,before he'd finally admit the battery had issues,even though the tech agreed with me,lol
"You can't fix stupid"
 

2012RAM1500RT

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My company GM's battery went south when the truck was 3 months old,and what a fight it was to get GM to warrenty it. It'd pass a battery test using their high dollar digital set-up,but it wouldn't pass a test using my old toaster style battery testor.I finally ended up taking my old toaster tester over,and damn near had to ram it down the service writers ass,before he'd finally admit the battery had issues,even though the tech agreed with me,lol
Had a similar incident with a battery about 1 year old. Let a truck sit over the weekend and the truck wouldn't start on Monday, assumed something was left on so I charged it , the vehicle would start all week and sit over the weekend again and wouldn't start on Monday. Repeat, started fine all week, weekend come disconnected battery over weekend still wouldn't start on Monday. Replaced the battery and put other battery on charger and when my battery supplier came by he put his $800 battery tester on it and battery "checked good". Put my old $30 toaster oven styled battery tester on it and it disagreed. Went 2 more weeks and the truck never failed to start again. Took an act of God to convince them the battery was bad or they got tired of me pushing the issue and they replaced the battery. High dollar tech isn't always the gospel! LOL
 

TMyers

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My batteries crapped out Monday. Six years so I can't complain too bad. I did switch to Napa's AGM's this time. Napa's batteries are made by East Penn, they make Deka. Napa had 20% off which helped some because I had to buy two... Cummins.
 

Wild one

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Had a similar incident with a battery about 1 year old. Let a truck sit over the weekend and the truck wouldn't start on Monday, assumed something was left on so I charged it , the vehicle would start all week and sit over the weekend again and wouldn't start on Monday. Repeat, started fine all week, weekend come disconnected battery over weekend still wouldn't start on Monday. Replaced the battery and put other battery on charger and when my battery supplier came by he put his $800 battery tester on it and battery "checked good". Put my old $30 toaster oven styled battery tester on it and it disagreed. Went 2 more weeks and the truck never failed to start again. Took an act of God to convince them the battery was bad or they got tired of me pushing the issue and they replaced the battery. High dollar tech isn't always the gospel! LOL
I have more respect for the old style toaster testers,then i do for the high dollar digital testers.I think the new style testers were designed so that dealers/battery suppliers etc. could blull**** their way out of having to replace a battery under warrenty,lol;)
 
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Sherman Bird

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Had a similar incident with a battery about 1 year old. Let a truck sit over the weekend and the truck wouldn't start on Monday, assumed something was left on so I charged it , the vehicle would start all week and sit over the weekend again and wouldn't start on Monday. Repeat, started fine all week, weekend come disconnected battery over weekend still wouldn't start on Monday. Replaced the battery and put other battery on charger and when my battery supplier came by he put his $800 battery tester on it and battery "checked good". Put my old $30 toaster oven styled battery tester on it and it disagreed. Went 2 more weeks and the truck never failed to start again. Took an act of God to convince them the battery was bad or they got tired of me pushing the issue and they replaced the battery. High dollar tech isn't always the gospel! LOL
Safety was a major motivator for getting away from "toaster" style battery testers. Open heat elements can and WILL ignite the extremely explosive hydrogen gas emitted by a heavily circuit loaded lead/acid battery. Ask me, I've had 2 explode on me (decades ago). Except for the safety equipment I used, I'd be blind today. And, you've never seen anyone shed their sulfuric acid soaked uniform as he (me) hauled ass to the bathroom to get water to neutralize the burns on me from said acid. (Fortunately, our uniforms were kept in this bathroom, so a clean one was at hand.)

Test equipment isn't developed to give anyone an "out" regarding warranty, although, I feel your pain. That guy may lack common "horse" sense, who knows? As far as your described woes with your repeated charging and the battery going dead repeatedly, it was possibly sulphated due to deep cycle discharge. Sometimes, folks in the business are mesmerized by "tech" gadgets. That's why, in spite of my multi thousands of dollars in high tech diagnostic equipment, there are times that a 10 dollar vacuum gauge will tell you all you need to know about a root cause issue on a poor running engine.
 

turkeybird56

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Safety was a major motivator for getting away from "toaster" style battery testers. Open heat elements can and WILL ignite the extremely explosive hydrogen gas emitted by a heavily circuit loaded lead/acid battery. Ask me, I've had 2 explode on me (decades ago). Except for the safety equipment I used, I'd be blind today. And, you've never seen anyone shed their sulfuric acid soaked uniform as he (me) hauled ass to the bathroom to get water to neutralize the burns on me from said acid. (Fortunately, our uniforms were kept in this bathroom, so a clean one was at hand.)

Test equipment isn't developed to give anyone an "out" regarding warranty, although, I feel your pain. That guy may lack common "horse" sense, who knows? As far as your described woes with your repeated charging and the battery going dead repeatedly, it was possibly sulphated due to deep cycle discharge. Sometimes, folks in the business are mesmerized by "tech" gadgets. That's why, in spite of my multi thousands of dollars in high tech diagnostic equipment, there are times that a 10 dollar vacuum gauge will tell you all you need to know about a root cause issue on a poor running engine.
WHICH is why I still have these beauties around just in case, LOL. Not help much with RAM, does good for 2 Cylinder Kohler Tractor Mower though.


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