Battery dying. Upgrade suggestions?

I would find out what's killing a good battery before I put a new more expensive setup. Is it maintenance or lack thereof? A parasitic drain? Or is it weather related? IDK, we don't know, but if we had the info, some good advice could come of it.

 

in my case nothing was killing the OE battery. it was dying because it was a POS. mine died literally the week my warranty expired and, although i still qualified for a warranty replacement, i opted for the Odyssey and it was worth every extra dollar.

 

Already checked if there was any electrical drain from any added on accessories or from anything within the truck and everything looked good. i do live in Michigan, but the winters haven’t been anything outside the normal scope of cold winters and humid/hot summers ... I truly just believe i got a defective battery but rather than going to a dealership and having them touch my truck, i had already planned on upgrading the battery so just looking to get some good information on what everyone is using especially the ones who are running multiple accessories such as lights, and fridge.

 

It sounds like you got a raw deal. And revenge is here

If you have the tow package, and living in cold climate a slightly bigger battery would help imo.

Think of the alternator as a water pump and the battery as pool. You want to match the water pump (alternator) to the size of the pool (battery). Too big a pool and it’s gonna take longer to fill, if that makes any sense. Point being, stay as close as you can to the factory guidelines (specs) for highest reliability.

Good luck!

 

no, i knew exactly what i was buying in the beginning. my plan was to upgrade everything weak & soft with the truck and evolve it into something more. the weak OE battery was on the list from the beginning with almost every other mechanical thing on the truck.

 

my battery only lasted 36.5 months... imo the stock batteries are junk. even if you buy a replacement from the dealer, you'll note the 'toyota truestart' batteries they brand, sell, and warranty are not the ones that are put in vehicles from the factory.

pure speculation, but i think the consumer shift toward leasing allows mfrs to use the lowest quality batteries and roll the dice: as long as it lasts through the lease/warranty period (which in most cases they will), they'll make a tiny sliver of extra profit. my friend with a mazda3 had their battery die in under 30 months... it was replaced under warranty. for daily driven vehicles (15-20k/yr) in moderate climates, this shouldn't be a typical experience, yet seems to be getting more common.

OP - i ended up nabbing one of the x2 (northstar) mentioned above, just a 24F direct swap. figured with a 5 year warranty, it'll probably go at least 6-7. i can run some accessories without straining it much, and no more terminal maintenance or corrosion with the agm.

 

I got 4 3/4 years out of my POS OEM battery with maintenance, so...

 

I'm guessing you want the fridge to operate while the truck is running. When the truck is running, headlights, and accessories like fridge etc are powered by your alternator, not the battery.
Most of the time, the battery is used only to start your truck. And events any lights/accessory you might use while the truck is powered down.
For merely starting your truck, the stock LA battery is more than enough, and holds enough charge for plenty of starts.
If you want to power accessories/lights while your truck is turned off, then it makes sense to have a bigger group 31 AGM, which are in my opinion are overpriced and expensive to buy. Even still it's hard to know how long they can power a fridge, and risky too.

 

Since you are planning to run auxiliary components (fridge, etc.) it would make sense to get an AGM battery. I have a Northstar. Apparently, the stock alternator does not fully recharge an AGM battery. To maintain the battery life, I just run the NOCO battery charger once a month or so to make sure the battery gets a full charge.

$85 NOCO GENIUS10: 10A 6V/12V Smart Battery Charger – Automatic Maintainer, Trickle Charger & Desulfator with Overcharge Protection & Temperature Compensation – For Lead-Acid & Lithium Batteries

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W3QT226/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8

 

Just installed this THICC bitch Sunday. X2 power 31M

 

Running (2) X2, 27F's w/the OGE dual battery set up. So far so good. They charge at about 3.7-8 volts. Gonna tweak that w/a vF tune.

 

congrats. i actually wasn't talking about you..? fyi other people that exist in this world may undergo experiences that differ from the ones you've had. i bet there are people on here with 6, even 7 years on a stock battery, cool huh!

 

Would an upgraded alternator make sense then if it doesn’t charge the AGM battery fully? Or would it be a waste of money

 

Yeah... but there are also plenty of us out there who had their stock POS batteries die within 2 to 3 years (including myself). I live in SoCal and had relatively mild weather and mine still died. I went back for a warranty replacement and then gave it to a friend on TW and purchased a Northstar 31M AGM battery. That way I don't need to worry about battery drain from running auxiliary components without the truck idling. AGM batteries are made for deep cycles without deteriorating battery life.

 

+1 for the wife's highlander. I'm on yr 4 with it.

 

I believe the ECU is programmed to limit the alternator voltage so an upgrade would be useless unless you reprogrammed the ECU. Correct me if I'm wrong guys

 

yup ...

 

I just picked up one of these at Walmart last week. Just note the one in the picture says 5 years replacement but in the description it is 4 years. Apparently haven't updated the photo yet (I reported that to their webmaster).

BTW, my stock battery was still cranking with no issue after more than 4 years. But at the last service, dealer recommended replacement. I take dealer recommendations with a grain of salt, but with so many saying their battery died way before 36 months, I figured it was on borrowed time.

 

I did not get this much life from battery by accident, and it still had life left, but a couple cells were weaker. I get that performance routinely from all the batteries I’ve given maintenance to, and I got 21/2yrs from one I neglected, so there’s that.

And this is where some people might get into trouble, thinking the factory is a pos and start modifying for something much better touted on a forum.

The electrical system on a well designed vehicle is a delicate balance of purpose and reliability. You go modify it and you might develop unintended issues such as an expensive ecu/ecm blowing out and warranty denied.

Good luck