Battery going dead - 2009 Tacoma

Hey Gang,

Not sure if this has been posted recently, so here goes. I'm on my second battery for my 2009 Tacoma, and it keeps going dead, if left for more than 2 days without being driven, especially when it's cold out (below freezing).

Has anyone here had, or know of a similar situation? Any ideas?

 

Bad alternator ?

 

So your Tacoma is pushing 9 years old. Being on your 2nd battery sounds reasonable. How long has each battery lasted before going dead?

 

Not sure if its the alternator. If I boost then run the truck for an hour or 2 it seems to charge the battery fine. It seems that if it sits there the battery drains.

It started happening to my first battery, and just kept happening even when the new 2nd one was installed. Mechanics at local garage couldn't find anything tha was draining it.

 

Again - how long did the first (original) battery last before you replaced it?

If you've managed 4+ years out of each battery, I'd say that's about average, especially in that colder climate.

 

also, can anyone recommend a good battery?

 

Extreme cold weather or Hot Desert temps will shorten the life of any battery . I'm lucky to get 3 years life out of the batteries in my truck or drag race car here in the High Desert

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/best-battery.56967/

 

The battery in my Drag race car which us a Optima Red Top even using a battery tender 24/7 and also using a battery disconnect was only 2.5yrs old and just recently replaced with a new one

 

To clarify - I replaced the first battery winter of 2015. I got maybe 1 month out of it before it started dying.

 

WALMART! Everstart battery

 

Most of the lower priced batteries are very poor design and won't last maybe 2 years at most

 

https://www.battfinder.com/

 

Newfie ehhh? It could be just too cold for a machine and you need to convert to dog sled. Take a voltage reading across your battery while the truck is running. If the alternator is ok, you should get about 14 volts.

 

Possible you have some sort of parasitic draw if it normally starts except when it sits for a couple of days. This happened to me as I have one of those ELM dongles attached to my OBD port. If I leave my truck for more than 3 or 4 days it will not start. Just another thing u can check.

 

Was going to mention this as well. I have a dash cam thats hard wired to 12v and runs 24/7 so if I am going to be gone a while I unplug it. When I had my taco and supercharger on it, the pump wire was attached to one of the ecm fuses under the hood. So every time the truck did its diagnostics, the pump would run for the supercharger. It only ran a few seconds, but given enough time without starting, that could drain a battery fairly fast.

 

Im on my 3rd in 10 months Toyota batteries fucking suck

 

Do you have a multimeter? If so this might help.

https://haynes.com/en-us/tips-tutorials/how-test-car-battery