Battery has never given me any indication of weakness.
Then, when picking up a guy from the metro station, I pulled into a parking stall to wait, and turned off the key...When I tried to start back up, I had a faint clicking noise behind the rear seat, and NOTHING else. Nothing, no lights on dash, no ding, nothing nada dead.
Tried to jump it with a Honda, which gave me the lights and dinger back, but the inferior battery that easily cranked the tiny rice machine was no match for the mighty 5.4L.
Went and bought a new battery and all is well.
Never had a battery die - so dead, without any warning what so ever.

No complaints here though - 78k miles and 5 years is a long life for a battery!
RIP trusty old friend - to be recycled and charge again!

 

Had the same thing twice with my '93 Suburban.

 

The battery in my f150 was a newer looking duralast, the yellow one. It came with the truck. I had it in there for about 4 months then one day at school it went completely dead with no warning at all. No dash lights, nothing. I heard that batteries no matter how strong they were can go dead out of no where, sometimes its not even a charging issue.

So I had campus police give me a jump (twice that day) and I drove 30 miles to the nearest walmart and dealt with the idiot 'auto techs' finding a battery for the truck. Well atleast I got 9 bucks back exchanging the old battery.

The old battery was so dead and weak driving there that if I turned on the wipers or headlights the truck would stall.

 

Hows the "neverstart" from wally world holding up? I have had 3 batteries go bad from there. Never will buy one again. They just went dead out of nowhere. I have had the best luck with interstate batteries.

 

For the money its actually holding up quite nicely, had it in there for almost 5 months now with no problems. I dont think it will last more than a year or so but for now its been fine. I think I got lucky. Next one will be an interstate.

 

The batteries in both of my Rangers gave me fair, albeit brief, warning they were croaking just shortly after I had had them one year. The one in my Screw is still going strong 19 months after it's original sale date. I'm paying close attention. It is possible for batteries to fail without any warning if they develop an internal short or open connection.

I've had three Wally World (Wallmart) batteries. The first one (which went into my first Ranger) was still going strong roughly when I traded in the truck roughly three years later. The second one went into my second Ranger and it also was going strong when I traded around three years later. The third one I put into my Issuzu when the factory battery failed after three years. I got five years out of it and it was still going strong when I traded.

I've had excellent luck with Wally World batteries. Besides never having one fail on me (and AZ is an infamous battery killer), I like getting Wally World batteries because, no matter where I am, even when out of town, there is likely to be a Wally World nearby and, most of the time, it's a 24 hour store so getting a warranty replacement will be fairly easy. Based on past experience, I will pop one into my screw when the factory battery shows signs of failing (hopefully, it will give me warning; I hate surprises). Whenever I get a battery, I always get the biggest, baddest one I can shoehorn in, even if it means replacing the battery tray (like I did in the Issuzu). In the past, I usually just replaced them myself in the parking lot (I had to do the Issuzu at home because of the battery tray swap) but I'm getting older and it's a way higher reach to get to the battery in my Screw so I don't know about this time.

 

Beware when buying batteries! Ford rates batteries based on CCA (Cold Cranking Amps, measurment taken at 0 DegF) , and alot of the stores may adverties their batteries as just CA (Cranking Amps, measurment taken at 32 DegF). So you may walk in to replace your 700CCA battery, and the store will say "We have a powerful 1000CA battery", when really its under rated at only 620CCA. I know most people are aware of this, but just keep an eye open for those who arent aware.

Yes, batteries can and will die at any time. I know the Ford ones were actually pretty bad for a while too. I've seen a few that one min, the truck would start, the next min the truck would click (batt would show like 5.6V), then a let it sit for a min or two, and it would start again. However Ford dealership was unable to duplicate conern, and would not replace battery (they need to put it on a tester which gives them a code to return it, otherwise they will not get paid for it). So we wound up dealing with it, until it finally happed and they were able to duplicate it for the 3rd trip to the dealer.

But yeah, stuff happens.

 

I swapped out my stock battery with one from Costco. My stock battery was giving up its last electron after 5yrs. $65 if I remember right. It's OEM'd from Johnson Controls which also supplies batteries to Sears Diehard Golds and carries the same 100month warranty.

The last 3 batteries I got from costco have never failed before the warranty period.

The direct cross for our trucks is a rather smallish 650CCA unit. I opted for the next size up (not listed in the cross-reference guide) and it coughs up a healthy 1000CCA. It's physically bigger and heavier than stock and it fills in the battery tray completely.

I've got enough juice to jump just about anything, maybe even a Boeing 747 jet engine

 

The worst batteries I ever had were from Auto Zone. The batteries would open up internally. When one hauled it in for replacement, they would put it on a charger that would throw some ungodly amount of voltage/current across it that would temporarilly burn the connection back in. Two weeks later, it would fail again. I had it happen to the batteries in both of the vehicles I had at the time. The first one merely died, revived, then died for keeps. The second one opened up while cranking and the resulting spark blew the battery up. It took a lot of water and baking soda to clean the mess up. When I took the battery in to get it replaced, at first the parts guy wasn't going to replace it because he apparently thought I had blown it up jumping it but changed his mind when I "politely explained what happened" (I'm sure the fact I was ready to jump the counter and claw his eyes out had nothing to with his change of heart). After that, I never went back to an Auto Zone for over 20 years and even after that, only to buy a magnetic key case.

 

when battery dies - it goes hard and fast.

Yep, I can vouch for that...300 miles from home.

 

I just (last month) replaced the battery in my 2004 FX4 original battery, I bought my truck in August 2004, truck was made in Feb 2004 I think, so battery was in the truck for 76 months. Truck has almost 75k miles, and battery survived 6 cold New England winters. I replaced with the same Motorcraft battery..and the battery wasn't dead when I replaced, just a preventative measure, I mean I guess I was on borrowed time with the one I had. Not too shabby for a stock battery.