Batteries Dead This Morning

[WM-300]

I have a 2003, 2500 that has never given me a problem. This morning I went to start it and both batteries were dead. No lights were ledt on, no doors ajar. The truck was as normal, but Batteries were at 2. 88 volts. Got it running and took it to my Dodge Dealer. They checked out for almost 2 hrs and found nothing wrong. Has anyone had this problem on a 2003 ? I am gun shy that tommorrow morning it will be dead again. The day before it went dead, I drove it over 150 miles so I know the batteries were fully charged.



Thanks

WM-300

 

[K5IP]

If one battery developes a short, or becomes leaky (sounds like a short in your case) it will drain both batteries. If it happens again, you can isolate the problem by disconnecting the ground of one battery overnight. Then measure each battery seperately with a voltmeter in the morning. This should isolate the culprit!



The next step is not so obvous. Do you replaced both batteries, or only the bad one?

Normally both are replaced at the same time but yours are not very old.

Rog

 

[rbattelle]

I've heard that modern batteries tend to go bad suddenly and unexpectedly. Like one day they're fine and the next morning they're spent. I've not experienced this personally, but perhaps that's what happened? And Rog's comments sound pretty good too.



-Ryan

 

[WM-300]

Thanks Rog;

Good tips to isolate the problem. My guess is it will be dead in the morning. I guess I hope it is so I can find the problem before it hangs me up when on the road.

Thank You

WM-300

 

[PWelsh]

This happined on my Ford diesel. Cause: one battery had an internal short, the battery was one year old. It drew down the other battery over night and the truck would not start. Took it to Battery Warehouse and they determined which battery was bad and replaced it. End of problems.

 

[wyosteve]

Had it happen on a Ford truck and Explorer we used to own. On the truck, I drove to the restaurant, everything was fine. Went out after eating and the truck wouldn't start. Battery dead. Explorer was similar. Drove home, parked it, next a. m. wouldn't go. Battery dead.

 

[Bill Stockard]

It happened on my previously owned '00 3500. It was the driver side battery. The dealer replaced it under the warranty at N/C to me.



Bill

 

[Rotty]

I would replace both batteries. I know that is a big $$ hit.

Reason: you are paralleling two batteries, one new and one old. The older one will not be matched in electrical charateristics. The one with the lower impediances will do most of the work in starting (probably the new one) and ultimately hurt the good battery ( new one). You will have shorten life of the newer battery and not get full use out of it when you need it.

 

[WM-300]

This morning, the Ram started fine, batteries were fine. I hate this, now I will always wonder when its going to fail again. But I am now ready with some good testing to prove which battery is bad.



wm-300

 

[Patriot_RAM]

Some of the '03 trucks had a problem with the horn coming on by itself due to some problem. I think it was a problem with the ECM programming. I read a couple of threads where this was happening and the people didn't hear it or assumed it was somebody else. Either way, if it came on and was on all night, I suppose it could take it's toll on the batteries. I don't suppose this could be the case?

 

[WM-300]

For sure not the horn. The truck sits within 50 feet of my bedroom. And even if I slept thru the horn blowing all night ( ha ha ha) my 2 German Shepherds would not allow it.

My bet is I will have a battery failure that I can find in short order.

WM-300

 

[Dean Upson]

Last Thursday, my wife's 300C would not even turn over, called the Chrysler 24 hour service (25 minutes from call until they got into my driveway) and they came out and jumped it and I left it at the dealership overnight, they tested it and could not find any codes and the battery checked out okay. We all suspected the battery, but could not get it replaced if it checked out okay.

Tuesday afternoon, it was dead again and I called the dealer and in 10 minutes, the tech that worked on the car pulled into my yard. The battery was stone dead and wouldn't even start with the jump box. The battery was replaced. We got the car in September and it has about miles on it, btw, it is really a great car and she loves it after 3 new Acuras that she also loved.



Dean

 

[GregTaylor]

you should check your system for a drain. disconnect both batterys positive cables (assuming these batterys are parrellel) then with connect the positve termanl of one battery to your negitive termanal of your volt meter connect your positive volt meter cable to your disconnected positive battery cable. if there is a drain you should get 12 volts. if so you need to determine what is drawing the current by carfully removing fuses to find faulty circut. this is much more common than a "battery short" batterys that trully short cause fires or massive sparks. try it drop your wrench between your pos and neg termanls "now thats a short!"

 

[WM-300]

My dealer did that test. With eveything shut down, the only current draw was a few milliamps that the computer draws when shut down. My dealer is remote and small, yet 5 star. I really have trust with them, they do everything possible to help a customer. They are not like the large dealerships.



WM-300

 

[DieselB59]

Mine did the same thing about a year ago. It was eight months old and had 15,000 miles on it. Dead one morning, fine the night before. When I pulled the batteries out of the truck and got them to room temperature, one of them was at 12 volts, and one was at 10 volts. The 10 volt one failed a battery load test I did at my shop. I replaced both of them with Optima Red Tops. No problem since then.