2017 Tacoma Dead Battery

Are TRD-OR tacos supposed to come with 24F batteries? Every website I look at recommends the 27F, but my 2016 truck at 64K still has the factory battery which is group 24F and only has 580 CCA. It died on me a couple times at the slopes over winter, so likely going to upgrade to the Northstar/X2 27F battery soon. Pretty surprised the ORs only come with a 24F. tsk tsk Toyota.

 

Yet another one... Mine is on a 2017 TRD OR with 33,500 miles on it. Went on vacation for last week and came home to a dead battery that won't hold a charge. I'm currently sitting in the dealership getting a replacement and eating shitty popcorn.

 

You bought a 2017 like 6 months after they stopped making them. So even if your truck was the very last MY17 to roll off the factory that still means it spent 6 months+ lot rotting. Know what happens when you let a battery completely drain and leave it dead empty for a month+?? It kills the longevity and it WILL die prematurely, so not surprised yours is already done.

I work in the car business, I've seen them replace batteries on brand new cars with 10 miles on the odometer because of this.

Also its common to think "batteries just suck these days" but thats completely wrong, its that modern cars draw a LOT more power than they did 10 years ago so modern vehicles demand a lot more from the same batteries. Thats why you won't see new car batteries last 10 years, its not the battery its the vehicles.

 

Mine crapped out at 9,000 miles. Bought a good battery from Advance Auto and got reimbursed from Toyota under the emergency repair warranty clause. Much better than getting the same crappy battery installed at dealership.

 

Does that say "AutoCrap"?

 

Nope, it says "I'm one step up from the piece of shit this truck came with"

 

There's another post on dead batteries for 3rd Gen owners worth a read... Below is my response:

My battery went out at 18 months... More than Half the cells were dry.

They will warranty the battery if you maintain it... ??? HUH?

Make sure you fill the cells with ANY KIND OF WATER, before you take it in. Dealer will honor the battery warranty. Dealer will check the charge and the cells to see if it's low on water. It's YOUR responsibility to maintain the battery... Dealer is notorious for denying warranty claims for batteries.

Glad by honored your warranty!

 

2018 Tacoma OR. Dead battery here too. I ordered the truck March and took delivery in May. I noticed the battery going soft at about 10 months, brought it in, was told it was fine. At 12 months I got the first no start after sitting 2 weeks. Brought it in, was told it was fine. Yesterday I came back from vacation battery dead. Wouldn't unlock the doors etc. After a 30 min drive it wouldn't start. Tossed the booster on and started it.

Called the local dealership they said they had no time to look at it bring it in tomorrow.

Tomorrow is now today..... woke up took trickle charger off truck. Click click click..... jumped it from my car started fine. Then decided screw it. Turned it off and told dealership to send a tow truck because it wouldn't run.

I've been at the dealership with the truck for just over 2 hours at this point.

 

Other owners have replaced it with a better battery and sent Toyota the bill which they’ve paid. The dealer may do nothing or replace it with the same one.

 

Is the current consensus that Optima's are no longer worth the money after shifting the manufacturing to Mexico?

 

Yeah they have been pretty much crap for several years now.

 

After my battery experience with my wife's Rav4 (2 dead OE batteries in 3 years), I just bit the bullet and replaced the battery in the Taco preventatively.

Even if the warranty would have covered the battery, I'd still end up with another junk battery and I'd be buying my own battery anyhow. The price of a nice AGM battery is worth knowing that I won't be getting stuck somewhere.

 

You know how many battery’s I’ve seen dead and needed to be replaced on dealer lots? Hundreds, from all brands. In my experience Honda has the worst factory batteries.

 

They’re just poor quality batteries in general. My OEM battery lasted all of a few months and less than 4K miles.. unfortunately getting the dealer to replace it would have cost more time and money than replacing it myself. I bit the bullet and purchased a quality AGM battery.

 

Lead acid, advanced glass mat, and sealed lead acid all hate giving up the juice or taking in juice. They like a steady 13.5v state. Even opening a door and listening to the radio while you work in your shop can degrade the life quit a bit. Discharged state then start vehicle, suddenly a shit ton of amps are being forced into the batt. And it doesn't like big changes. Slow charges are better but that's impossible in a vehicle that has to be charged asap. So a few times of draining it below about 12.8v and then suddenly starting it up can be a big factor in life. Commutes of less than 10 minutes or so can also put strain on it, as that's not long enough for it to replenish just the amps it used in starting the engine. Day after day... It becomes more and more discharged.

 

Crossed over 36k Friday...Saturday morning dead battery.

Pro tip that I learned, buy an Interstate from Costco with a 42 month warranty
You can take it back and exchange it anytime before then no questions asked.

I’ve got a reminder set on my phone to return my battery 41 months from now.

 

It is a pro-rated warranty.

 

For those whole have had batteries die prematurely, were you periodically popping off the cover to top off water levels? The covers are neither air or water tight, so water levels on cells will drop over time.

Also curious if those who have portable air compressors were running them off the battery while the vehicle was not running.

 

Flooded lead acid batteries are a very robust type of battery. They suffer if not topped up with water, or left to totally discharge, however they are not damaged by running a compressor with the engine off, and are much more robust than certain Gel batteries when it comes to recovery from deep discharge.

AGMs are generally more sensitive to both charging and discharging rates, but have the advantage of being more vibration resistant and non-spillable. They have their own set of reliability issues too.


If anyone is sitting on the shitter and wants to educate themselves, this site has excellent information on battery chemistry and charging:

https://batteryuniversity.com/

 

Honda's batteries are made by the same company that makes batteries for Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Chevy etc... they're all made by Johnson Controls.

But you're right that Honda, in my experience as well, eats the most batteries when new. But again I don't thinks its the actual batteries, Honda has some pretty weird electrical/canbus systems, like if a battery is low ALL the warning lights light up like a christmas tree and the safety systems are all disabled, and if a battery is low moving the steering wheel quickly literally makes the car turn off for half a second. I think Honda's just draw more power than average for their canbus system, plus they have "smart alternators" that they program very conservatively in their quest to become "most fuel efficient auto band", which they achieved but partly by pulling little tricks like this that can cause other issues like low charge on batteries if you drive a lot of short trips.

There's a few TSBs to fix this that reprogram the alternators because they don't charge the batteries enough.