Battery toast in my 2020?

Wondering what could have caused this, it turned over sluggishly Saturday morning but started and I was able to drive it, then was completely dead this morning (didn't start it at all Sunday). Less than 16k miles on factory battery. Then when I hooked a maintainer up to it this morning, it seemed to bounce from 5.2v down to 3.9v. So I'm guessing the battery is cooked, but I haven't messed with the electrical other than installing the factory remote tailgate lock and some Diode Dynamics fog lights maybe 8 months ago. Ideas? Ways to check things with a multimeter perhaps?

 

You can get a bad one every once in a while, it should be under warranty.

 

Take it to your dealer and have it load tested.

 

Disconnect the battery and attempt to charge it. You may have a parasitic draw.
Or is could simple be a bad battery.

Also, some battery maintainers will only maintain a charged battery. They won’t charge a “dead” battery.

 

when adding accessories other than OEM

always good to be able to disconnect acc’s from OEM wiring harness

to troubleshoot..........................to determine IF the issues are in the OEM harness

or with any / all accessories

no less there was an UNknown drain on the batt

disconnect & trace !!

 

Warranty issue.

With as many electronic components as these vehicles have, if they don't have ample time to recharge (i.e. too many short trips) they'll lose charge. My 2017 still has the factory battery, but I also drive about 28000 miles per year.

 

Everybody, and I mean everybody is getting about 2 years out of the oem battery. Me included.

 

a dealer mechanic is NOT goin to work on added accessories.....................always gets the mech

an OUT !

always remains a possibilty / reason that any or all items plus prowess o installation

an underlying cause for issues

identified & fixed could no less lead to exorbitant $$$$ charges

again disconnect / isolate any/ ALL acc’s

trace OEM wiring harness to determine the origin

 

If your going to do any diagnostic before going to dealer, check alternator output is 14v+ at idle with no significant loads. Either way, battery is probably no good anymore, but a bad alternator or regulator circuit can cost you another battery.

 

Yea let the dealer replace it - even if that one only lasts 2 years that's a few dollars you don't have to expend.

 

a new batt in a compromised scenario results in same or very near same results...................not a solution

 

Wow, my OE battery in my 07’ went almost 8 years.
I guess all the new electrical components take a toll on the battery?
Or, the batteries are “no good” from the start.

 

amperage capacity is the key

many look at the 12- 14.3 voltage to determine the health o the batt

voltage tells little to amp capacity

short commutes to work........home..........hooters..........mall

dont result in a FULL Charge !!

residual voltage usage..............Cranking Volts / Amps lower the Capacity

no less regular use actually lowers batt capacity

the Batt no less only is brought back Up to the Charge rate of the alternator

vehicle to vehicle ..............NOT the same

batt to batt .....................NOT the same

normal daily use 1/2 DOZ cranks a day would require 45mins - 1 hour legal hiway speeds

bring capacity up

bump / grind stop lite commute does not bring charge back up

 

My old tractor uses the same size battery as these gen3 tacomas. I've had 2 bad ones like that from wally world where they ran good one and a day later stone dead...both just out of their 1 year to 90 day warranty. Tried recharging them both would not take a charge to even 10 volts.

 

the factor o time is NOT valid to determine when where or how battery performs

1 inadvertent ground

1 loose connection

can cause failure

 

Heck my 01 tundra delco battery went over 9 years. Replaced it with a deka, its still going strong more than 10 years later.

 

I've recently changed it to a deka....been about a month now. I fired the tractor up last week...all seems good so far.

 

Here's a huge thread with people complaining about the 3rd gen oem battery-

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/battery-bad-need-recommendation.740182/

 

Hmm well this is very helpful, and I mean I was looking for an excuse to buy a group 27 AGM battery anyway (got the new tray for it and everything, then would add the appropriate tune to bump up alternator output to keep it charged properly). My commute is fairly short, but I leave it running in the morning to warm up, and drive it daily, so would be curious if this is having an impact. I need to buy a new battery to actually get it to the dealer regardless though.

Also when I checked the battery with a multimeter some months ago, when loading the tune, I was registering above 13v (don't recall exact numbers) while running. I'm really wondering if rats could cause this though? I had parked overnight at my family's house Christmas eve and my mom has complained about rat damage to her vehicle a couple months ago. Didn't see any evidence of them in the engine bay at first glance however. Ah man, I just don't want this to turn into a $1000+ hassle, eat up all my year end bonus for bullshit.

 

My 2018 get driven maybe 2 to 3 times in a 3 week period, sits sometimes for about a week or more and short trips. The battery is still like new. I don't believe the short trip theroy>