Dying batteries

No, they just sell the trucks with a really cheap battery in them. Designed to last just long enough to get it off their lot and into your hands for a while. Then they sell you a rebadged interstate battery.

 

They just keep replacing with the OEM taco battery. Wont replace with anything else. And not gonna spend 200 bucks on a new one until I really have to. Ive had the truck for 14 months, Hell my jeep sat in sub 0 weather for 2 weeks straight after I blew my knee out and started when I went out. The taco can sit overnight and not start. Literally you can feel the voltage dropping as the days go on. Slight hesitation, more, more, dead.

 

I could he wrong but I believe I've seen people reimbursed by Toyota for replacing the battery on their own.

Have you checked the water level in the battery?

 

Just as Greybaldtaco said above, buy a battery and submit the receipt to Toyota and you will get reimbursed, it's in the Owners Manual.

 

im still on my original factory battery at 5.5 years and still has a 12.3 volt reading its the Johnson controls model 00544-24F60 575 CCA

 

I have a 2019 Taco SR and the battery has completely died twice in three months time. The service tech checked it out after the first failure. the second happened yesterday, during a snow/ice storm. Lucky we had a 2014 Camry to jump start it. I live in Maine and never had a problem with my 2006 Taco SR battery dying...even after sitting in a dealership yard waiting to have it frame swapped out.

 

If you don't drive every day, or mostly for short trips, the battery never gets fully charged. Putting it on a trickle charge will help.

Anything electrical can fail after a short time, or last a very long time. It is hard to predict. It wouldn't be unusual to see a new battery die after a short time. Seeing 3 consecutive ones do it is unusual. My guess is that something is wrong with the truck, or you keep getting defective batteries from the same production run. If the truck checks out buy a different brand of battery.

it is HOT weather that kills batteries, you usually don't find out it is dead until it gets cold. Engines are easy to start in warm weather and a battery that is almost gone will still get it started. In cold weather you need all the available power. Batteries in colder climates typically last longer than those in hot weather states.

 

What is your normal drive pattern? How many starts in a day and how long do you drive afterwards?

 

I'd revisit the charging system and check for causes of accelerated sulfation.

Cold, old, loose belt slips more...won't matter how good the rest of the system is.

 

This tacoma has all kinds of stuff that stays on after you turn the truck off. Lights, key fob proximity sensor. Check your settings on headlight coming home duration. Set to lowest setting. The alternator is weak. Very weak. Charging never gets above 13.5v so short trips are a killer. Final step is a parasitic dawn test but on a new truck it is likely a combination of cold, short trips, headlight on after stop and weak alternator.

 

If you have a digital multimeter, drive the truck normally to charge the battery to capacity, disconnect negative cable, wait an hour or so for surface charge to dissipate. Then measure the voltage, let it sit overnight or more, measure again. If the voltage is a tenth of a volt lower or more it's a defective battery.

 

So what's the running voltage at? Has that been tested? My deep cycle batteries with bad cells will act like your saying but that's only if they are not being charged. If it's your daily even a bad cell would maintain charge for a few months before really deteriorating, unless your commute is less than 4 minutes.

Have they tested for miliamp draw off the battery? How about when it's not hooked up to anything at all?

Our Subaru has gone through 3 batteries in 43months replaced every time for free (30 month replacement at no cost) but they were leaking.

 

https://m.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain

 

Disconnecting cable eliminates any parasitic draw.

 

Just to answer a few more questions asked by other members...
I drive the truck about four or five times a month in the winter for about a hour a day.
I got the truck in May 2109 and it started every time until the first frigid day in November...BUT it has started continually until December 31
I don't know what sort of battery testing the Toyota tech did.
My 2006 Taco sat in the yard plenty of COLD winters, with less use, and never needed a jump...??

I am leaning toward this parasitic draw, you and other people mentioned. My 2019 Taco does have the new Safety Sensor stuff. I disabled that stuff real quick. I also noticed that the cargo light does not work, I need to check to see if the bulb is burnt...? I also had a remote starter installed...after I found out you can start the truck remotely with the KEY...!?

Thanks All for the replies/help

 

My 2017 has 32K miles on it, but ran out of the 3/36 bumper to bumper back in September. Of course my battery waited a few months to take a dump. Picked up an X2 (Northstar) today for ~$250 after the savings from Batteries Plus. I hope this thing lasts a long time.

 

Remote starter is a red flag. I dont know witch brand or how it was installed but I would start there.

 

I don't love my battery enough to do all that. I'd rather throw it away and buy a decent one.

 

@Riotfunk We must have the same truck - we had the same issues over on the Joying thread by @5nahalf. And now this. I'm on my 3rd battery. The OE one was targeted as the issue for my 4x4 not engaging. So when I brought it back in because that wasn't the root cause, they replaced the battery again along with the 4x4 actuator. The OE battery had 13k miles and the replacement battery had 1,200. If this latest one fails, I'm done and getting an X2Power like @1bad2k. 20% off + $30 mail in rebate right now at Batteries Plus. Kind of hard to not just pull the trigger.

 

I bought my '17 in Dec 2018 it had 4,900 miles on it. Service record noted the battery had been replaced twice at the dealers. Once on 3/17 at 550 miles and again on 1/18 at 3,400 miles. I figured that was due to it sitting as it wasn't driven much in 2 years.

A couple of weeks back, I noticed it was starting slowly and my trip meter reset a couple of times. Now I had to jump it the past 2 mornings.
Battery read 10.5 volts before the jump and 13.7 while running. Guess a trip to the dealer is in order!