Battery dead next morning.

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kolelt

New member
I'm seriously just ready to drive this truck of a bridge. The battery is about 2 years old. When I start driving it idles at 13.7-14V. According to scangauge. It starts up if I shut it of. But the next day after being parked. Can't start it battery drained. I don't understand man ! Never had this issue.

I have installed a viper alarm ( fallowed all the wiring diagram )
Have installed a aux bussmann fuse box. It's wires to a breaker. I can turn the lights on even with the key not in the ignition. But I keep the switches in the off position. So I don't see how it could be draining the battery if it is. I highly doubt it.

I have a test meter. Not really sure how to set it up to test things.

I'm afraid I have a parasite charge. But I highly highly doubt. Maybe a battery going to shit ?
 
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kolelt said:
I'm seriously just ready to drive this truck of a bridge. The battery is about 2 years old. When I start driving it idles at 13.7-14V. According to scangauge. It starts up if I shut it of. But the next day after being parked. Can't start it battery drained. I don't understand man ! Never had this issue.

I have installed a viper alarm ( fallowed all the wiring diagram )
Have installed a aux bussmann fuse box. It's wires to a breaker. I can turn the lights on even with the key not in the ignition. But I keep the switches in the off position. So I don't see how it could be draining the battery if it is. I highly doubt it.

I have a test meter. Not really sure how to set it up to test things.

I'm afraid I have a parasite charge. But I highly highly doubt. Maybe a battery going to shit ?
Click to expand...

If its a cheap battery and it sees cold/hot winter/summers they can fail in 2 years. Pull the battery and have it tested at a local auto parts store. Of coarse make sure if the issue started after installing something thats where you look first.
 
You could have a parasitic drain. You could put your digital multi meter in the 10a position. Put the red lead on the negative cable end, put the black lead on the battery terminal and check the amperage draw. Anything above usually .030 amps is not much.


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Like others have already said, if you have another vehicle or someone that can drive you, pull the battery out and take it to an auto parts store like O'reilly that have load testers and will do it for free.

When I bought my rig two years ago, replacing the battery was one of the first things I had to do. I bought the battery from the dealer because I've had great experience buying batteries from the dealer for my Subaru so I thought the same would be for my 4runner. The batteries I bought at the Subaru dealership consistently lasted me 5+ years. Batteries I bought at auto parts stores were notorious for going bad within 3 years.

So, long story short, the battery I bought from the Toyota dealership went bad in 2 years. It was technically past the warranty period to get a free replacement but the parts gal at my local Toyota dealership hooked me up and gave me a new one free of charge. I was looking at paying 50% of the price of a new one.

There's a very good chance you don't have some sort of power draw on your rig and your battery just died an early death.
 
I do have a second vehicle. I will take it out and bring to local autozone.

I didn't have the issue right away after installing my aux fuse box. But little after. Long story short the aux box is simply a box with relays. And the relay on kicks on if I flip the rocker switch. So it can't be draining the battery.

The viper alarm has a LED light indicator when the car is of and alarm is activated. But can a single small led kill a battery lol?

The battery is autozone silver edition or something.

Thank you guys. I'll post back after autozone.

Just curious under load test how do you know if it's bad ?
 
nely said:
You could have a parasitic drain. You could put your digital multi meter in the 10a position. Put the red lead on the negative cable end, put the black lead on the battery terminal and check the amperage draw. Anything above usually .030 amps is not much.


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Click to expand...

I did this and it reads nothing.

However my underhood LED light is working from AntiDark.

Bringing the battery to autozone to get it checked.
 
If it reads nothing either your fuse is blown or connections are bad. There is ALWAYS a very small battery drain.

I also don't think I was fully clear you need to hook up the meter in line so the negative cable is off the battery when you do this teat


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kolelt said:
I did this and it reads nothing.

However my underhood LED light is working from AntiDark.

Bringing the battery to autozone to get it checked.
Click to expand...


If you have no draw when it's off, disconnect the ground and put your multimeter between the ground terminal and the ground battery cable. Then see if you have any amp draw. A 0 reading means you did it wrong, there is always a small draw. Once you get a reading, post back or google it to see if it's too much. If yes, do the following:

1. Have someone hold the multimeter on the two ends or position in a way that it stays connected and can view the readings.
2. One by one pull fuses from the interior fuse panel until you get a significant drop (or disconnect your alarm first if you think that is it).
3. Once you've identified the fuse, figure out what components are on that fuse to find the draw.
4. If there are no big drops or the readings are within normal range, it's your battery.

Most common draws are aftermarket head units or amps that are not wired right or aftermarket alarms that do not switch off correctly.
 
Thank you guys for all the info.

Brought the battery to autozone. They did load test and it's shot.

Ended up picking up a OPTIMA red top for $100. Basically got the old battery warrantied and paid the difference for OPTIMA. Thing it's good
 
kolelt said:
Thank you guys for all the info.

Brought the battery to autozone. They did load test and it's shot.

Ended up picking up a OPTIMA red top for $100. Basically got the old battery warrantied and paid the difference for OPTIMA. Thing it's good
Click to expand...

If you continue to have problems, even after the new battery, than you definitely have a parasitic drain. When you tested it you must have not had it hooked up right because it will never be drawing 0.0 amps. Your old battery may have got messed up because of a parasitic drain, I would still test it for it even with the new battery. You don't want to mess up your new battery either.

If you do have a draw somewhere, use the method of pulling fuses until the draw in amps goes away, that is how you find out what is sucking the juice. If you are confused on how to do it, just google it or search on youtube.

Not to be an alarmist but I bought a Optima red top battery a couple years ago and it was the worst battery I ever bought. It didn't last 2.5 years before it failed a load test. Many people are reporting that the new Optima red tops are junk. Hopefully that won't be the case with yours.
 
Running a red top optima for about 3 years+ now without issues but never let it get too low or your charger may not see it unless you parallel it with a regular wet cell battery. I do average 30+ minute runs in the T4R so it gets charged well. I also run 3 yellow top 900CCA deep cycles in my boat plus a cranking and have been running them hard for over 5 years each now without issue.
 
I did read the OP's finding of a defective battery.

There's another solution to the problem of parasitic battery leaks that not all readers of this forum may know about.

On several vehicles of friends and relatives, and one vehicle of my own, I've installed one of these:

http://www.napaonline.com/napa/en/p/NW_785116/NW_785116

(Napa item 785116)

Also on Amazon: search for NOCO ID220S

or search for "Master Kill Switch" and get a pair of 'em for $10.75,

These vehicles had parasitic drains that would sap the battery in about a week. One friend worked 4 weeks on / 4 weeks off in the oil industry, and his F250's battery always died in the month it sat in his garage.

My brother's 2000 Dodge Neon had a similar issue. (I know I know, he needs to ditch the Neon. Who among us doesn't have a relative driving a family-shaming car?)

This $10 solution solved these problems. Of course, the owner had to reprogram his radio, reset his vehicle's clock, and lament his lost tripmeter settings every month.

Furthermore, the OP mentioned an alarm, and disconnecting the battery of course renders the alarm useless.
 
thegipper said:
If you continue to have problems, even after the new battery, than you definitely have a parasitic drain. When you tested it you must have not had it hooked up right because it will never be drawing 0.0 amps. Your old battery may have got messed up because of a parasitic drain, I would still test it for it even with the new battery. You don't want to mess up your new battery either.

If you do have a draw somewhere, use the method of pulling fuses until the draw in amps goes away, that is how you find out what is sucking the juice. If you are confused on how to do it, just google it or search on youtube.

Not to be an alarmist but I bought a Optima red top battery a couple years ago and it was the worst battery I ever bought. It didn't last 2.5 years before it failed a load test. Many people are reporting that the new Optima red tops are junk. Hopefully that won't be the case with yours.
Click to expand...



Click on it to see bigger pic.

This is the tester I have. Don't laugh at me. I'm not a retard but I just simply don't understand how to use these things. If you could tell me ,
I would really like to test my new battery. I know I have to put the red wire into the left hole and the black into the middle for amps reading... But just to make sure I'm not misusing the tool improperly.

Should the car be running ? Or key out ?
 
kolelt said:


Click on it to see bigger pic.

This is the tester I have. Don't laugh at me. I'm not a retard but I just simply don't understand how to use these things. If you could tell me ,
I would really like to test my new battery. I know I have to put the red wire into the left hole and the black into the middle for amps reading... But just to make sure I'm not misusing the tool improperly.

Should the car be running ? Or key out ?
Click to expand...

Nice meter! Truck off, let it it sit for five minutes for all systems to shut down. Set to 10A, red wire on left, black wire in center COM hole. Remove negative (black) ground cable from battery. Put black probe to battery negative post and red wire to the loose cable. If reading is zero point something that is five or less, it is safe to move the needle to mA and the red lead to the right side (you are under the 500mA maximum). Reading should be 50mA or less. If more, use the fuse procedure described above.

If you're really stumped, drive up here and I'll try to chase it down for you.
 
TheDurk said:
Nice meter! Truck off, let it it sit for five minutes for all systems to shut down. Set to 10A, red wire on left, black wire in center COM hole. Remove negative (black) ground cable from battery. Put black probe to battery negative post and red wire to the loose cable. If reading is zero point something that is five or less, it is safe to move the needle to mA and the red lead to the right side (you are under the 500mA maximum). Reading should be 50mA or less. If more, use the fuse procedure described above.

If you're really stumped, drive up here and I'll try to chase it down for you.
Click to expand...

Im doing everything as said. And meter reads flat 0. Doesn't even twitch. I don't understand what I am doing wrong.
 
[MENTION=10169]TheDurk[/MENTION] I tried moving the red wire to the right on the test meter. And set the test meter to 10A and set it to this

I put red wire to lose ground cable and black wire to the negative battery terminal and it read solid 0.314

If i reversed the meter wires. It read 0.183

Is this normal ?

Then I changed it to mA and did red wire of meter to lose ground wire and black wire from meter to negative battery terminal and it reads solid 3.02
Using this setting
 
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