Truck wouldn’t start. Had to Jump. Dealership says everything fine.

Hindsight is 20/20, but next time your vehicle cranks slow, drive it for a bit,,, better yet, don't shut it off until you're somewhere you want to be stuck. Short trips are hell on batteries, they get used and not recharged.

 

While I'm sure it's just shuffling the deck chairs, Johnson sold off the automotive battery business a few years ago.

I know a lot of people running these batteries in their Tacomas and I haven't heard a single bad thing. Their price and word of mouth was one of the things that convinced me to join Costco.

 

I’ll put money on a bad cell in the battery. Even with a proper loaded test it won’t always show bad...

As far as the jackwagon calling dealerships stearlerships, all manufacturers require a part proven to be defective in order for the the dealership to be paid for the warranty repair. “Oh, it’s probably the battery” gets your warranty claim kicked and debited.....

 

MIL had the dealer replaced OEM battery in her RAV, still crap. Replaced with Interstate, no more issues.

 

My bet is something was left on you did not notice. I know you said everything was off, but the description you provided screams battery drain. Something drained the battery, hence you had computers reset. When they first hooked up you needed to go your battery a few seconds to get juice from the other car. Once your truck was running your alternator charged your battery and it held the charge so it restarted no problem after that.

Or, you need a new battery.

 

Because I swap them for free about every 7-8 months and it doesn't cost me anything. I own multiple vehicles and I like a bargain. I haven't paid for a Costco battery in over 10 years. I wouldn't use one in a daily driver, but they're fine for collector vehicles or vehicles that aren't driven on a regular basis.

 

I throw a Schumacher charger on my cars every 6 months or, just to bring them up to speed. Seems to help make them last longer. Only family van gets regular long trips, rest of the cars do not get enough time for the alternator to charge them back up completly.

 

I just don’t know what it would be. Headlights weren’t on, bed light is selected to “off”, dome lights are both set to “door”. If a door was ajar, it wouldn’t lock with the fob and screech at me. I park in my driveway and am ridiculously paranoid about locking my vehicle. I even re-lock from my kitchen window every night before bed.

 

New cars still draw a small current from the battery even when it's off and some more than others. You might double check the battery water levels to see if they're low, but most likely you're due for a new battery or close to.

 

Mine came with Johnson. No issues after 3.5 years. 2017 is truly a golden generation

 

I don't disagree. Out of pocket. Warranty replacement. I guess my point is that I would do it rather than wait for it to potentially happen again. Given the cost is low -- cash out of pocket or warranty -- I would just be proactive about it because I am a better safe that sorry kind of guy. Of course, I would check the connections, etc. just to make sure.

The only problem is that if the dealer says the battery is fine they likely won't replace it under warranty -- they will just say no because they checked it and it is within their acceptable range. Of course, press them and you save $200 ... and you should absolutely do that. But if they fight it, and they might depending on the service folks, then personally I would just replace it.

Hard to really diagnose on an Internet forum, of course, but it does sound like it is the battery.

In any case, best of luck to you .. hope you get it sorted ...

 

Truck started up fine this am. I talked to the dealership today and was told it was just a basic battery charge test (they had the truck for 1 hour and they said they let the truck cool down for at least 3 hours before doing a more in depth test). So, I’m thinking I might just say screw it and go get myself a new battery and be done with it. My question is, am I fine to just switch it out, or do I absolutely need to have it hooked up to a battery tender? The manual doesn’t mention it. I don’t have one and would rather not deal with it if unecessary. Thanks.

 

I know this is a Tacoma forum, but my wife's 2019 Highlander was doing this. Techs said everything is ok. Battery tested ok. Think it might be the battery, or a TSB issue. Wife traded it in while they were trying to figure it out. Didn't want to deal with getting stranded somewhere.

 

Just changed my alternator, serpentine belt and battery today. Everything was fine yesterday. This morning, the starter wasn’t turning over. After a jump start I checked the voltage from the alternator and was only reading 13.3 max. All this at @60k.

 

Our 2020 Rav4 had this issue. It was faulty firmware in the remote connect module, just kept sending and sending, draining the battery enough to not start. Hasn't happened since the reflash.

 

Dude. What do you think is the most likely cause? That will be the problem. Buy a new battery the next time you get stuck.

 

Just go to Napa and they can test the system and install the new battery if need be or if you just say put a new one in I want it .

 

Yep. That’s what I will do. It’s been fine so far today, but if it happens again, I will just get it done. I’m not heading out into the woods or mountains anytime soon.

 

To add, the only reason why it seemed strange to me is that it’s a 2019 with 21,000 miles. I’ve never had a battery go even close to that fast. Otherwise, I would have just shrugged and bought a new one that day.

 

Yeah, I've heard some people have them go every few years. Near as I can tell my 2017 still has the factory battery though. It's definitely not great, but not unheard of.