1998 BATTERY ISSUE

I have a 1998 battery doesn't take a charge. Changed battery work for a month. Alternator test fine. Is there anything inline that would be causing this.

 

Buy a new battery. I cant really understand what you mean.

 

a 1998 battery

 

it is a new battery.

 

I have a 1998 toyota taco. 3.4... month old battery doesn't take a charge. Battery before this had the same problem. Alternator test good. What else do i need to look for beside loose connection....

 

Oh it's a new battery. It's possible the new battery is goofed from the get go cause it's been dropped. I'd take it back. Most places will give you a new one no problem if there is a problem when they are new. Other possiblility is a short somewhere that is slowly draining it when the truck is turned off.

The other one is it takes on the truck a long time to get it up to temperature before it will take a charge. Lots of stort trips in the winter will wear them down.

The other one is somebody put water in it instead of acid when it was brand new. That's kind of hard on them but they will eventually charge up at reduced capacity. Also a problem inside the battery like a short which is very likely cause the plates are so close together. Anything accidentally dropped in one of the fill holes is bad news.

Guy next door here had the same problem. Brand new car. Kept going dead. Took it back and they gave him a new battery. I'm not sure if it fixed it yet.

 

I didn't think it was the battery, because the old battery I took off took a charge on a battery charger.

 

If you have a dead cell, one of the 6 it will always take a charge. That dead one will kill the battery fast because the remaining 5 will be feeding the short. You can no longer get to those connections anymore so it's difficult to detect. The only way is have two identical batteries fully charged and do a load test on them with a digital load test meter. The one with a dead cell will show a reduced load test.

The thing is, is to start simple and work to the crazy. So how you start is eliminate the battery by changing it. If then it happens again you know it's something else. If you put a meter across it when the truck is running it should show between 13 and 14 volts. Then you know the charge circuit is working.

Goofed batteries from brand new is actually a very common problem. Maybe one in a hundred. They are heavy and very delicate. People are hard on them moving them around. The other test it's possible to detect it maybe with a good digital meter. Charge the battery up fully and take it off the charger. Test the voltage, it should be minimum 12 volts, no less. Let the battery sit unconnected for 24 hours and test the voltage again. If it has dropped the battery is screwed. That is telling you it is shorted out internally somehow.