Battery Keeps Dying

I have had a reoccurring theme of my truck struggling to start recently and I was hoping one of y'all could help me diagnose it.

Two-ish months ago, I noticed a whining noise from my engine bay, then my battery died... several times... eventually, I decided that being stranded all the time was no fun and I went in to O'Reileys to get a new alternator, had it installed by a professional mechanic, and everything was good.

Recently, however, on two occasions specifically, my truck has struggled to start, started, engages hazard clicking noise and security system, lets me drive for a moment, kills the truck and sets on the alarm.

1) I dropped my sister off at school and rolled all the windows down, took out the keys and took a nap. When I woke up after her class (approx 90 min), the above situation happened. I had no electronics plugged in, and I had even taken off all of my accessory wiring harnesses off for another project.

2) Tonight I parked to enjoy some Tiny Tacos from Jack-in-the-crack and turned off the car and left the dome light on for around 5 minuets. The above happened. Is it normal for a battery to lose that much charge off of a single light for that short of time?

Should I get a new battery to replace the one I had with the bad alternator?

 

That’s not normal. I’d have the battery checked first. That’s simple and free.
It wouldn’t hurt to check all the connections from the battery to the starter either.
Mostly the battery terminals is the big one to check.

 

You need a new battery

Having it go dead after leaving the dome on for 5 minutes is the battery test, and it obviously failed

Also, be careful with reman alternators from OReillys, I've had problems with them. The only remans I trust are Denso and Bosch

 

I agree with BRO

 

You either have a draw or a fail-to-charge. Have it retested to see which one you have.

Or if you have a multimeter and some time, do it yourself. Check volts before starting the car, then drive the car for 15 minutes, shut it off, check volts again and compare. Then disconnect the battery, let sit overnight and check volts again.

 

1, clean battery terminals and posts. Noco makes a decent spray on cleaner, or baking soda and water. Then use a battery brush. Posts get oxidized and need occasional brushing. If the battery is close to 5 years old, it’s most likely time to replace it.

2, you might have a parasitic loss. With everything off, put a amp clamp on the positive cables, see what it says. Start pulling fuses. You might see the amp draw drop. Then you know which circuit to investigate.

Before I swap an alternator, I confirm it’s bad. After cleaning terminals and posts, check battery voltage with it running. Check amperage going into the battery, put a load on the battery and confirm amps increase. Make sure the belt is tight, check battery cables for good continuity.

I had one eat 4 starters in 3 years. found poor continuity in the positive cable, replaced it, good so far.

 

Ehhh… bad battery is the most likely scenario. If the alternator wasn't charging, then the truck likely wouldn't stay running, and if there's a parasitic draw sufficient to pull the battery below starting level in five minutes... there's likely smoke coming out from under the hood.

 

Factory alternator, sure. Remanned alternator...could be a different story.

I made the mistake of putting a pep boys alternator in my first car, many moons ago. Like clockwork, I was back every 4 months to have it replaced. The good news was that it had a 1 year warranty, so at least I got 5 free alternators out of the deal.

 

Same story with autozone alternator. Except lifetime warranty, they lasted me 9 months to 2 years. So for the rest of your your life, you’ll change alternators constantly. Or just buy oem.

 

Meanwhile, invest in a NOCO lithium emergency jump starter. One of the best investments I ever made. $99. It can last up to 3 months or more without recharging (USB for outlet or cig lighter ). Youtube vid shows it starting 14 cars in a row. I jumped two strangers cars with it. Forget cables.

 

^^ this^^

 

*Update*

Died in my driveway this morning, going to take the battery to Costco and claim my warranty.

The weird thing about the battery is that it is less than a year old.

I had the mechanic that installed the alternator clean the posts and grease them with dielectric grease.

I'm really hoping that y'all are all wrong about issues pertaining to other problems with my electrical system, but if all else fails I will begin to explore the other possibilities.

Thank you to everyone who responded! I really appreciate the tips!

 

Also, completely forgot to mention, this is the 3rd battery in this truck in 2 years.

Truck died a few days after I bought it, and the other two have failed in the last 3-4 months. Both of the recent ones have been from Costco.

 

Are they Interstate batteries? Was it around 100$ or so?

The good quality Interstate lines are MT and MTP and they start around at least 140$ - 150$

Pretty sure Costco sells the "I" line which are notoriously cheap and poor quality. I've seen them advertised as low as 80$

 

Looks like you aren't the only one having failures. Also appears Costco had a class action suit against them for bait-and-switch warranty replacements. Good luck OP.

https://www.google.com/search?q=interstate+battery+costco+failure

 

That Costco debacle is similar to what I experienced when I tried to have my Exide battery replaced under warranty at Home Depot (not for the Taco). The battery was originally purchased at Home Depot. They claimed they couldn't do it as an exchange because they no longer carried the EXACT same model (having to do with the 'model,' not the battery size/category) so tried to tell me that I have to contact Exide for the warranty claim.

After much argument, the manager did it as a straight refund on the old battery and purchase on the new.

Moral - don't buy batteries from HD either.

 

Here is the battery in question

 

Check the voltage on the battery before take it in. Otherwise they will probably tell you they need to charge it before they can check it and warranty it.

it needs to be ~12.6. If you can’t get it to 12.6 or so. You can tell them it won’t charge. But I’ve never had any luck with them believing me. I just leave it and wait for a phone call confirming what I told the. It wouldn’t charge.

 

How much did you pay for that?

 

I’m not OP. But my Costco sells that battery for $93.99


OP, if you’ve had 3 batteries fail in 2 years. And the last 2 failed with in 4 months of putting them in. That’s a bit suspicious. There could be something killing the batteries prematurely?