New battery failing, or is there more to it?

Check for drain, remove Pos or Neg (your choice) cable from the battery, put a voltmeter set on amps between the cable and the terminal you removed it from. Let the truck go to sleep (not sure how long it will take) and check the amp meter, 0.05 amps is not idea but acceptable. to insure you have it hook up right, turn your parking lights on and see if the Amp meter goes up to 2.8 ish. if you do have a drain, start looking for a light on, glove box, vanity mirror, Etc... If ya can't find anything, start pulling fuses while watching the meter. Before you start, roll the windows down, or everytime you open the door the truck will wake up, or flip the door locking mechanism in the door, it will think it's shut.

 

In my experience I agree, and I live in a cold weather climate as well

 

My battery died on my 2018 TRD OR last March. Dealer replaced under warranty. My son still has the original battery in his 2013 Regular Cab 4x4. Batteries generally last a long time, but there are some that don’t last long. NBD. Have the dealer check yours and replace if needed.

 

Not really related but, my OE battery on the ranger lasted for about 6 years. Thats me listening to music full blast with the truck off when i went camping in the summers. Also, it sat outside 5-6 days a week, only drove it on the weekends. IMO most OE parts seem to be good quality, better than aftermarket.

Engineers make mistakes here and there, like we all do, but for the most part they know wtf they are doing.

 

Maybe a lot of guys leave the lights on or leave the truck in ACC mode for a while, i dont know. I think thats why a lot of guys complain because they dont take care of their batteries. Its just common sense.

 

IDK how much mine was used the first 3 years but 6600 miles so I figure very little. That next 7 years it was running a powerful stereo, and at least was daily driving.

 

Any new cars will have a parasitic drain. I replaced my stock battery the first week I got my 2020. I just like AGM type batteries.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart-Platinum-AGM-Battery-Group-Size-24F-12-Volt-710-CCA/286630898

And the best for the money(IMO)=

https://www.remybattery.com/intimidator-9a24f-group-size-24f-agm-battery.html

 

Yeah, the thought did cross my mind that they might try this, so I sneakily took a photo of the battery before he replaced it. When I went to pick it up I compared the battery to my photo, and thankfully they were different.

 

Just a suggestion.

Have the charging system checked.

You will be needing a new battery.

 

I made a mental note of this when buying my wife's Rav4 last year. The battery needed a jump when we first looked at it and the tires were dry rotted in the treads. We negotiated those items to be replaced before taking delivery. First thing I did when we returned was check both and the tires were not done..the salesperson was pretty upset as well so they set it up for us to get them done near our house free.

Not a Toyota dealer, a used place we found

 

Had mine replaced by the dealer under warranty as well. OEM batteries are made to a price point like anything else.

 

don't replace the battery, just replace the whole truck

 

Toyota-branded batteries are supplied by Interstate. Both True Start and True 2 are the same battery and the difference in price is due to the length of warranty.

 

I’m sure it’s already been mentioned, but you need to throw the battery on a charger for a nice long trickle charge.

New vehicle battery’s commonly come very depleted. Imagine frequent starting to load and un load, driving it around the dealer lot, and not much run time. Additionally, techs in and out of the truck doing the PDI, interior lights on for prolonged periods of time, the truck sitting in port etc.

Alternators do a horrible job at actually charging the battery. They’ll never get the charge above 60-70% as they can’t vary the charging voltage. I personally recommend hooking it up to a trickle charger every month overnight, in the cold months. Battery’s last waaay longer if they are kept topped up.

 

You can also dick around with all these settings in tech stream. Easy peasy

 

I don’t know why the battery voltage got down to 12.08v to start with. But everything else you showed seems normal. The voltage will drop anytime there is a load on the battery. The bigger the load, the more the voltage drops.

 

If you already know the battery is dropping to 7.6v while cranking, there is no need to do a load test. It's a bad battery. Also, the terminals sparking when installing your new battery is your parasitic leak. Bigger the spark, bigger the leak. A tiny spark is normal.

 

What is an acceptable voltage drop?

 

If I remember my tech training from 13 years ago, it’s in the area of 9-10v. Battery voltage should never drop below that or it indicates bad cells.

 

Toyota sourced some cheap supplier, I use Optima Red Top but that's my second in less than two years. Even Optima has gone downhill...people talk about Odyssey brand as being great. Make sure you get an AGM type.