No start. New-ish battery. WTF?

[Daryl]

I’m on my second battery. First one (NAPA) wasn’t holding a charge. Now, handful of months later, second one (MotorCraft) is doing same. Granted, I haven’t driven the car in a couple of months, but now I’ve got to jump it to start it.

Last jump I let it idle about 10 minutes, shut it down, checked the battery with volt meter (12.9). Checked it again a short time later and 11.8. New starter, new alternator, weather has been mild so no heat draw from sitting outside. So, WTF??

Naturally I started thinking maybe NAPA and MotorCraft batteries just suck. But my Ram has had a NAPA for a handful of years and it’s fine. Maybe I just got a dud? Twice in a row though???

I’m going to put it on a Battery Tender and see, but I really don’t want to have to keep a extension cord line running out from the garage to the car full-time. I think it’s time to return this one, get whatever refund (if any) and be done with it. Go to another brand! Which reminds me: I always had good luck with good ol’ Sears Die Hard.

 

[maillemaker]

Put an ammeter between the battery positive and the positive cable and see if you are pulling current with the car off.

 

[ttocs]

as he said if you disconnect the battery and put the amp meter in between you can start pulling fuses one at a time to narrow down where the draw is. I would look under your radio to see if the mach amp is still in there and connected as they are known to kill batteries. If it is disconnect it and if you lose sound from the stereo we can fix that as long as it is starting regularly

 

[07GtS197]

The battery probably dropped a cell since it’s been sitting so long.

 

[lwarrior1016]

If the car sits for periods, I would probably look in to a deep cycle agm battery. I know they’ve done better for me.

 

[cobrajeff96]

About a month or maybe two is the longest I let my batteries sit without a charge. But this assumes there's no parasitic draw in the picture, everything tip-top.

And after such dwell periods, I'll throw an intelligent charger on it the night before I plan to drive it just so it's topped off.

This is especially the case with newer CANBUS vehicles that constantly sip on power even when completely off.

 

[Daryl]

The Battery Tender I ordered from Amazon Prime will be here tomorrow. I’ll hook it up and let it do it’s thing until it reads full charge.

 

[ttocs]

that is just a band aid. If you have a draw sooner than later it will kill another battery when you forget or something

 

[maillemaker]

Like ttocs said - if you have some kind of parasitic draw going on, charging your battery won't help you.

If you don't want to hook up an ammeter, here is another easy test:

Charge your batter overnight. Disconnect from charger and read voltage. Let battery sit for 24 hours. Read voltage again. It should still be 12.6+ volts. Put battery in car and hook it up. Leave it sit for 24 hours. Read voltage at the battery. If you're dipping down into the 11s you've got a discharge problem.

 

[Daryl]

Ok, everyone. I’ll hit up a friend for the tutorial on how to check fuses, etc.

Question though: if I am able to trace the draw and fix the problem, will I still need a new battery ?

 

[ttocs]

I know the fuse pulling seems like a big deal, but realistically you only have to disconnect the battery(one bolt). It takes about as long to set up the amp meter, be aware that on some older meters there is a 2nd spot on the meter for the positive that you have to use for this. It will normally have an "I" or "A" or "AMPS" next to it where the other one will have "V,R(or ohmega symbol) and a few others if this is the case. After that start at the box under the hood and just watch for when the current drops right after you pull one of the fuses.

If you find and fix the draw then you should be able to leave the car for months with no issues.

 

[maillemaker]

Depends on if the battery has been damaged through overdischarge. The only way to test this is to take it to a place that can do an actual load test on the battery.

 

[duh09]

Everyone's giving good advice here, but just wanted to add- your parts house should be willing to warranty swap out that battery if it tests bad with a load on it. A Motorcraft battery should have a 3 Year Warranty.