The last couple of mornings my truck has been having trouble turning over, and when it does start the battery voltage on my Insight is only reading 11V at idle and then as I drive it will climb to 14V. So to me this shows that my alternator is working, and that I could possibly have a bad battery. It could possibly be that I have something draining them, but I removed all accessories from my truck the other day and it is still doing it.

The passenger side battery is an 850 CCA battery and the driver side is a 750 CCA battery. I went and had them tested at Advance Auto the other day and the 750 CCA battery was actually pulling about 860 CCA's and the 850 CCA battery was only pulling about 820 CCA's. However, their machine still said they were "good" batteries. But I'm just wondering if one doesn't have a dead cell or something and they only tested good because I had just driven there and my alternator had just given them a good charge.

Also, I'm not sure if the cold has anything to do with or not, but I did notice this...our nights are starting to get down in the low 50s, and during the day its around 75-80. Saturday night I parked my truck and didn't use it again until later afternoon on Sunday. I was skeptical that it was even going to crank because it normally will barely turn over after sitting for half that amount of time. I jumped in and it turned over like a champ. But then like I said earlier, this morning when it was cold it barely wanted to crank. Any ideas?

 

What oil are you using..... Also if you say the battery only is showing 11v at idle: Is this RIGHT AFTER you start it? If so, the glow plugs are still drawing voltage. Wait another minute and look again, it should come up to 13.XX -14.XX volts.

As you have 2 different batteries in there, someone obviously replaced one without replacing the other....this is usually a cause for future problems..... ALWAYS replace in pairs!

When the batteries are tested, they should be tested individually. Remove the cables from one and have it tested. Reinstall the cables - then remove the cables from the other and test it!

 

I'm running motorcraft 15w40 oil and as far as the testing proceedure, that's what he did.

However, when I replaced the batteries I did replace them at seperate times, probably about 6 months apart from each other. But both batteries are less than 2 years old. Why is this such a big deal? I've never read anything about that before on here and I've been getting on here religiously for the last 2 years.

 

I've seen it on here a lot!!! Whatever - you replaced them so close to each other it doesn't matter........ What about your voltage? Did you get the voltage at idle AFTER the glow plugs circuit shut off?

 

No, ususally if I let it idle for more than 30 seconds to a minute the voltage will have gotten up to 12.5-13 volts.

 

Check the battery voltage in the morning before starting. Min. reading should be 12.5 with 12.7 optimum. Anything less and you have a draw or the batteries are takin a dump. And yes, you should change the batteries at the same time. That has probably been posted hundreds of times on this forum.

 

Probably due to me never having any reason to read any threads about batteries until now...

 

Anybody know what the amp drain should be with the truck shut off? I'm getting 0.057A right now but that was with the running board lights and the hood light on too. Is that the best way to tell if I have something draining the battery?

 

This was your quote, not mine.

 

I know...wasn't bashing. I was just saying that I have been getting on here religiously, but I've never had any reason to read battery threads, so that's probably why I've never heard it.

 

That's 57 thousandths of an amp. Start looking at your batteries.

 

you can get a battery hydrometer for cheap and check each cell individual

have you cleaned all cable connections including the main grounds

 

Yeah the connections are clean. But I'll take it to Ford and see what they say since they're b

 

Yeah the connections are clean. But I'll take it to Ford and see what they say since they're both Motorcraft and still under warranty.

 

Checked the batteries this morning and my volt meter was reading 12.42 volts before I did anything. When to start the truck and it STRUGGLED yet again to turn over. It's never enough to keep it from turning over (knock on wood) but it's definitely close every time.