Dying batteries

Anyone else have issues with the OEM taco batteries dying during the winter months. I have an 18 with under 15K on it and went through 3 batteries last year. I bought it last September and by march had been through 3, plus the original. One was able to be jumped the others I had to tow into the dealer and then sit for hours to change a battery. I could feel it getting hesitant to start and noticed voltage drops on the multimeter. Well fast forward to this week and in NE starting to get cold weather again. Started my truck this morning and could feel the hesitation, but then it started. So going by my previous experiences the truck will be completely dead within 2-3 weeks from now, probably sooner since its going to be in the single digits over the next few days. I have nothing attached to the battery or causing a draw, alternator works. All check out fine and Toyota wont do anything until it dies and then cannot find any reason for it, even toyo corporate was at a loss and just kept swapping batteries. My dealer said they had to replace a few new batteries last year also on different vehicles. No other issues with truck. Anyone else have this happen?

 

Take the truck by Auto Zone for a free battery health check before going to the dealership. They can tell if there is an issue with the battery or charging system... at least you’ll have a second opinion. Could just be a bad batch of batteries, but that’s stranger than “normal for Toyota”.

 

get an electric multimeter and check the battery and charging system yourself don't rely on the stealership https://youtu.be/COJr7OB23Hw https://youtu.be/LGB6ZEjGm7Q

 

Nope, never heard nor have I had such an issue.

I would recommend that you trickle charge your battery, and to do that whenever you buy any new batteries in the future from any one.

I have a ’16 almost 4 yrs old now with 50k miles on the clock and the battery is always GTG.

The first thing I did when I got it home from the stealer was to put it on a trickle charge and I periodically check the water level, add or clean if needed, rinse and repeat.

Good luck

Cheers!

 

It’s not normal to go through 3 batteries in that time. I would test the charging system and check for a current draw.

 

Any electrical modifications?
It looks like in one of your posts, you mention your amp cutting out and damaging head unit. Is it an aftermarket amp?

Wise man say: always look first, where the human was last

 

Weird thing is the charging system checks out fine. The batteries consistently just start to lose charge over a few weeks in the cold and are basically dead at 11V-ish. Will go from 12+ and then steadily decrease. 12.2/12/11.8 and then goes a little lower. Toyota will not replace a low battery, only a dead one. My last one was resting at 11.2 and was told still within acceptable standards and was dead the next day. All are factory taco batteries with the 84 month warranty.

 

tell the dealer you want to leave your truck with them and monitor the battery situation for a few days, they can give you a loaner

 

AMP only cut out with aftermarket headunit. Replaced back to OEM JBL headunit, that was in for maybe a week and that was only in march or whatever. Have an LED grill that has been unplugged for a year, since this started last year. Dealer couldn't find any parasitic drains.

 

My stock battery died at just over a year (and yes it was in the cold winter months), I've now had this one in for about 2 years with zero issues. Bit on the pricey side, but a 5 year replacement warranty is pretty solid and the deep cell is nice when camping. I've run the power with the truck off for a long time and have yet to drain this thing.

https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/sli24agmdp

Same battery as a Northstar, just branded for Batteries+

 

I did, I know how to wrench and wire vehicles. The alternator is fine, so is the battery until it starts to slowly die in the cold. Ive tried checking anything I could to find a draw and am unable to find anything with a parasistic draw myself.

 

That's really weird. With the colder months here/coming...makes me worry about my 2 year old stock battery, lol.

I hope you get everything figured out as to why you are going through batteries so fast.

 

well you cant be too good at it, because somethings draining the battery you nor the dealer has found any clues to why

 

I wonder if there's any sort of battery prep the dealer isn't doing correctly when the batteries arrive. Not filling with distilled water or something?

 

As far as I know all vehicles have parasitic drains from computers throughout the vehicle. The key is how much of a draw?
Can you post the dealer RO here?

If they checked it, they'll usually state the amount of the draw. I've found some the service manual maximum in other vehicle makes that allowed draws to be excessive and the battery dying in a couple days of non use.

The computer(s) maybe not be going into sleep mode, and could be causing that issue. That would be up to a competent factory train tech to pin point it.

Good luck

 

OEM battery died at 11 months.

 

With my last truck(not a Tacoma), it seemed like every other battery would be bad.

I took it to the shop a couple of times and everything seemed to check out okay with the charging system and all.

Searching through the web, it kind of makes it seem like it's a given that there will be a bad batch of batteries in a run and is why you want to consider the warranty for a battery.

But still the way it went through the batteries, always made me wonder if there was something going on with the truck. It wasn't until later on after I already traded it in I saw some comment on the forum about a known electrical issue with the truck. It was the first time I ever saw something like that mentioned and didn't really look into it. So who knows.

Anyways did you make sure there is no corrosion on your battery terminals/clamps and cleaned it? If I had kept my previous truck, I probably would've gone ahead and replaced the battery cables.

You already confirmed you don't have anything aftermarket in your truck. Do you leave anything plugged in? Like in the USB port or the OBD port?

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nevermind what I said about the corrosion and cables for your truck. I got this thread confused with another one with an older truck.

 

Put a battery tender on it?

 

Why put a battery tender on something I drive daily. On my bike yeah, it’s 25 out. I have a small draw which was toyos normal zone for the factory electronics. Have to look to see what it was. Again they stated normal draw. Like I said Toyota came and even looked at the truck. Something with the cold. This battery was put in, in March 19. Haven’t had issues until it got below 30 out. Again no codes or weird gremlins, no draw outside of Toyota stuff.

 

Gee I dunno maybe because they keep dying on you? At least until you find out whatever is causing them to drain.