2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission 2Gen Electrical – Weak Amperage: “You Shall Not Pass!”

[tomblue01]

Situation:
The Day Before Yesterday - Starts fine. Drives fine. All is well.
Yesterday - Turn key to run position. Lights & buzzers activate. Move key to start position. Everything electrical dies. There's neither smoke nor a popping sound of some fuse bursting. Even the power locks don't work…

Conclusion / Solution:
Isolate each battery & test separately. One bad one will take the system down – while it's in parallel with a good one, though, it'll trick your multimeter! Replace the bad battery.

 

[tomblue01]

Prolonged Discourse:
I went to run an errand, but I never left the driveway. After the first failure I immediately tried the ignition key again. Nothing happens. Followed by a useless third attempt at cycling the key. Followed by alternating feelings of “WTF's happening” and “Oh, S**t. This is gonna be expensive.”.
Out comes the multimeter. 12.83v “That's good,” I think. [←- My first mistake. One that would cost me several hours.] All four connectors are tight and without corrosion. I open up the PDC; test & switch several fuses & swap relays. Everything looks good & has continuity. I test the passenger battery. 12.81v [it's an unworthy test (the two batteries are hooked in parallel, after all), but I'm trying anything to get more information] I head towards the fuse panel by the steering wheel in the cab. By chance I depress the power lock switch, & they work!!! Lock; unlock. Lock; unlock. I go to move the power seat forward. Nothing happens. Now the locks have stopped responding too.
Confusion starts gaining ground in my mind, and anxiety is not far behind it. I cycle the key. Nothing happens. I retest the driver side battery. 12.81v I haven't heard any noises that would lead me to believe some circuit had arced & thereby ruined continuity [but continuity to the entire truck?? & through different electrical activities??]. By the time I actually test fuses, I check continuity only & forget to test voltage [top row & bottom row should have constant power]. All that are tested are good. I am baffled, so I head inside to browse the internet. Time passes. Articles & forums get open/closed. Some folks have similar issues, but I don't come across any CTD's with my exact symptoms. More time passes. A friend arrives, & his vehicle runs off of a known good battery.
My fortune will now change, because in the process of hooking up a known good battery, I must disconnect the parallel setup that's been 'hiding' the real culprit – a weak battery. I attach the jumper cables to just the corresponding pos/neg terminals, bypassing my batteries. All electrical functions come to life. Just for grins, I attempt to fire up my truck. The starter makes several clicks before I release the key knowing that the donor battery just doesn't have the juice a CTD requires.
Driver's side battery, now detached from the truck: 12.83v Pass. Side: 12.40v I read somewhere that an automobile's 'resting' voltage of 12.4v → 50% of the rated capacity. I did more tests. Now I hooked up just my good battery to the pos/neg terminals – via the jumper cables [as my batteries are still removed from the truck] – viola! All electrical systems work. I hook up the weak battery – also via the jumper cables – no love! The parking lights won't even turn on! I measure the voltage across the ends of jumper cables… 11.82v ←- this is with nothing attached to the cables. Weird! So, I put the jumpers on the good battery & measure from the end of the cables: 12.81v That's more like it. I've never encountered such a voltage drop over essentially nothing before. That battery is gone.

 

[tomblue01]

Lessons Learned:
1) Resting voltage on a multi-battery system can be deceptive!
2) For those of us who don't have those fancy absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries, the best way to test your batteries' health is with a 10$ hydrometer that can be ordered off amazon or acquired from common places like wally-world. For those of you who don't like playing near acid, or for those of you who have AGM batteries, a 20$ load tester from places like hf can seriously help out! [mid-range load testers price out around 50$.] I recently ordered a hydrometer.
3) Don't be lazy or afraid of getting some lead on your fingertips. Isolate your batteries, and test them independently!!! This is 'low hanging fruit'. Do it first!
4) When the world doesn't make sense, call for backup. [I already knew this. I just didn't put it into play until late in the game. Pride cometh before the fall? ]

 

[tomblue01]

My Destruction of the Scientific Method:
Sorry guys, but my weak battery has been going through Stanley's “Battery Reconditioning” for nearly 20hrs now. I wish I had kept it in it's original state so that I could do further testing, but my desire to immediately fix my truck trumped the famous rational process. Doh! Perhaps I oughta put that in “Lessons Learned”. BTW, this is a 50$ digital battery charger found at your infamous big box store. I'll let you know if this process is worth anything.

 

[tomblue01]

My UnResolved Questions:
Why did nothing work? How come the parking lights didn't even come on at least dimly…? Is there some guardian circuit -?- something that examines present voltage & should it find said voltage to be unacceptable, turns everything off? [I don't think so, but the reality is that not a damned thing worked after working just a moment before. My confession: I have the FSM, but I don't look at the wire diagrams because I don't always find them helpful. Lines on a page just don't equate [for me, at this moment in time] to plastic black wire harnesses wrapped in electrical tape running one direction before splitting off into others. Also, DC's troubleshooting pages in the FSM had nothing to do with what I faced.] If anyone has an answer, please speak up!

Cheers!

 

[Tractorat]

When you finally break down and buy at new batt, replace both of them even though one old one seems ok. You should always replace those in 2s

 

[GAmes]

I second what Tractorat said. Installing one good battery to one that is minimally good will just ruin the new one.

Edit; If your engine won't start on one good battery in the summer it is too low in CCA. Don't cheap out with 750s.

 

[tomblue01]

Tractorat & Games, thank you for the input. I'll suck it up & buy two new ones when the time comes. These batteries came with the truck when i purchased her, and I intend to milk them for everything their worth.
Fortunately, for today anyway, I don't have to replace the 'weak' battery. The charger's "Battery Reconditioning" feature seems to have brought enough life back to run the truck as if nothing ever happened. I have now positioned the 'weak' battery on the driver's side, this time around. The combined measured voltage is 0.06v lower [negligible, I suppose] at 12.77v. Before reinstalling them, the 'weak' battery measured out at 12.65v after 1 hour's rest - post reconditioning. The 'good' one - 12.81v. She fired right up. Drove her for 15min before she sat for 3hrs. Then She fired right up again before I took her back home.
Oh, I've sanded all the terminals & all the connectors. Plus they have a fresh coat of dielectric grease on them.
I'll continue to monitor the system and will post if anything significant arises.

 

[tomblue01]

ps - I'll have to give the 'good' battery a chance at starting the truck, alone. The thought of it makes me a bit nervous, but I don't know why because it's not like I have anything to lose - nor is it hard to do. Alrighty, then! Tomorrow we shall see!

 

[Tuesdak]

Sounds like the bad battery is draining the other battery. A shorted cell would be a cause of this. You already see the voltage difference so the ~.2v from the good battery will flow through the bad battery till the voltage is the same. The small voltage you see is major with batteries. This discharge into the bad battery will sulfate the good battery from undercharge. I suggest you just replace the batteries and avoid being randomly stranded or watching the bad battery suddenly suck the juice out of the good battery resulting in a smoking set of batteries.

As they are likely the same age the good battery isn't very far behind the failure of the other one esp. with the abuse the bad battery is now giving it. Shorted cells work the alternator very hard adding risk of more expensive repairs.

 

[BigPapa]

I just had an issue with mine. I had driven it a couple of times over the weekend with no issues. Went to take my daughter to a friends and it would not start. Got the "ruh, ruh, ruh, click, click, click". I found the positive terminal on the passenger side loose. I cleaned it and made sure it was good and tight, then jumped her off and drove it about 20 miles. It started every time after that. The next morning I tested both batteries independently and found the driver side battery was bad. I replaced both with some 1000cca A/C Delco's. The batteries were five years old. I would imagine the terminal had been loose for a while and that had taken out the driver side battery.

 

[tomblue01]

Single Battery Test: Both batteries pass. Isolated, each can start the truck cold in 75*F weather all by itself. *breathing sigh of relief*
____

JDoremire: I began looking into the shorted-cell-battery possibility. I do not believe I have that situation. The electrolyte levels completely cover the plates, and [from what I've recently learned] I do not have 2v difference. There still remains the 0.2v difference. The batteries are two different brands from different years. [more on that later] Your reference to the alternator led me to check voltage while the truck runs, on each isolated battery. Both batteries: 13.99v, the cab gauge read ~14.2v [still on the 14v middle line, but slightly leaning to the right].
____

BigPapa: I can twist the pos. connector, driv. side, as well as the neg. connector, pass. side! Neither lifts vertically easily. Should I get rid of the grease? ^^ They are the original connectors, and they are so worn that I cannot tighten them any further. I see that Larry B's has some military style connectors, which I will soon install. In the interim, I cut a strip of aluminum foil; wrapped it around the terminal; tore off excess length; placed connectors over the foil. It helped.
____

FSM calls for group 27 sized bats; 750cca; 150min reserve capacity. My group size, I think, is 65. Because it's pouring now, I'll wait before getting the right details. Will use this time to figure out the codes carved into the plastic.

bbl

 

[tomblue01]

I've learned something interesting things.

'Strong' Battery = Wal-Mart Everstart Maxx 65S, mfd. NOV 2011 !!! [little round sticker on the side reads 11/11. heat stamped code: K1DLD (confirming the sticker date)]
'Less Strong' Battery = Brand 'B' 65S, mfd. FEB 2015 [little round sticker on the side reads 2/15. heat stamped code: B5JKD (also confirming sticker date)]

Brand 'B' battery caused my electrical headaches. I do not mention the manufacturer because I do not know the history of that battery. It came with the truck - that's all I know. It's quite possible that the individual who sold the truck to me grabbed the cruddiest abused working battery that could be found in order to make everything appear normal. I don't know, so I can't conclude anything about the quality from the manufacturer. Therefore, they won't be named.
However, I will conclude something very positive about the Everstart Maxx battery. It rocks! Still strong after nearly 6 years, and it's lead-acid! I'd like to believe that it has spent it's life in the truck, but I don't know. Regardless, I'm impressed. I went to the consumer reports website to look at new batteries. The Interstate AGM's consistently took top marks across all group sizes. [Their price seems to range from 180$-240$, ea.] Several positions lower [as all AGM batteries beat out their lead-acid counterparts], the 'top' slot for lead-acid batteries, more often than not, goes to Everstart Maxx batteries. They don't win it in every group size, but they certainly win the clear majority. **Group 27 was not tested by CR. Group 65 was, where Everstart Maxx won for lead-acid.** A Group 27 battery costs 102$ at my nearby Wal-Mart in central VA. Now, everybody knows that mileages may vary and that past performances don't guarantee future results, but soon I will have to make a choice on what batteries to purchase for my truck. I'm leaning towards Everstart Maxx's.

I do not work for any battery manufacturer, nor wally-world, nor has any entity given me anything in return for saying positive things about one product vs. another. Just to be crystal clear, here.

 

[BigPapa]

I put 65's in mine, AND, I was wrong on the CCA. They're AC Delco Pro Gold's with an 850cca/1000ca rating.

If you can move the terminal at all it needs to be tightened or replaced.

 

[Bob4x4]

Did you fix the hold downs when you went to the 65's?