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So I posted a week or so back on how I thought my batteries was getting weak. Once the truck starts for the first time of the day it starts good the rest of the day. It just gets sluggish after sitting a day or 2. Like this morning, it had been a few days since starting and has been pretty cold the past few days and it was now where near fast enough the start the truck. I had them load tested at wal.art and you can see the results. They refused to exchange them. They are rated 850 cca but both tested well under that and that was in a heated building. Question is can they load test good and still be bad? All the co bastions seem clean from what I can see.
Were the batteries disconnected from each other when the test was done? If not, the test is invalid. At the voltage shown on your tickets, neither battery has a full charge, they should show at least 12.6. I'm thinking you have a draw on your batteries that is sucking them down after sitting a few days. Such as a glove box light staying on or something similar.
Unfortunately Wally World won’t do anything if the magic box tells them the battery is good. I use an analog battery load tester. Granted it is not as precise as the digital ones.
It it is interesting that one tested for almost 20 minutes and one for only 3 minutes
Unfortunately Wally World won’t do anything if the magic box tells them the battery is good. I use an analog battery load tester. Granted it is not as precise as the digital ones.
It it is interesting that one tested for almost 20 minutes and one for only 3 minutes
that's exactly what I thought. I'm almost 100% sure these batteries are my issue. I may hook a light up to them for a couple days straight and flat out kill them just so they will replace them.
On my truck I took it into a local regional dealer and had the batteries load tested. They did not remove the batteries, just disconnected the negative ground wires on each. The test took about 1 minute each and passenger side indicated 20% and drivers side 80%.. All of this was done in front of me as watched them do it. I had them put in new 850 CCA on each side and no problems since.
Before this when I first purchased the truck from a friend the truck would not crank enough to start. He put in new batteries but same problem. Finally put in a new starter all all was good for many years. The lesson learned in my case was good batteries, cold weather and an old starter was the issue.
The starter is 2 years old, got it from autozone with a lifetime warranty. If it was the starter wouldn't it do it all the time, instead of first start up?
Before I replaced my starter, the first cold start was the most difficult. After that, easy enough to start up once fluids and cylinders had some heat.
Maybe try to plug it in if you are able and test that out for a week??
Do you have access to do an amp draw tester on the starter wire?
My AZ is cool. I order replacement stuff on their site, just return inop to the store as warranty exchange.
So I posted a week or so back on how I thought my batteries was getting weak ...Like this morning, it had been a few days since starting and has been pretty cold the past few days and it was now where near fast enough the start the truck. I had them load tested at wal.art and you can see the results ... Question is can they load test good and still be bad?
Question is, did they actually perform a load test with a carbon pile? Technically, that is about a definitive test there is. There are other methods to test a battery that are very good at finding defects but they won't necessarily condemn a bad battery. In other words if they say a battery is bad, it's bad. If they say it's good, it might be. A carbon pile test takes the guesswork out, but is time consuming. Has to be at least 75% charged before testing and needs recharging after the test.
What kind of batteries are they? The first thing that jumps out on the receipt, is that they are both low. They need charging. When they are connected, they are electrically a single battery. Both "cells" need to be equally and fully charged. 12.5 volts is about a 60% charge, depending on the temperature, assuming they are sealed maintenance-free type. Most batteries sold today are.
I took my10-month-old batteries to Walmart last week. I told them they were fully charged and were only 12.35 v and in the morning when cold they were 11.75v I told them I did the test disconnected to bot batteries. they just swapped them out without testing them. they were busy so that may have helped too.
Slap your DVOM between the negative battery terminals. Neg leg of the meter on the chassis ground side, pos leg of the meter on the battery. I found one on the Scout this way...the alternator exciter plug was installed in reverse. The key notch on the factory harness had broken off, so the alternator was always 'ON'. Amp draw was crazy, like 1.5...killed battery over night! Flipped it the other way, amp draw gone and the alt still charged. High school pal's '72 Fleetwood had same issue!
I have had glove box lights stay on. Trunk lights. Bad radios. Just start pulling fuses if the draw is high. I think normal draw is to be in mA.
