Battery Woes

[JCrank]

My job sent me out of town for a week. When I got ready to fire up my truck Saturday morning, the battery was dead. I have a NAPA 31c battery which was purchased in October 2004. To the best of my knowledge everything on my truck was turned off before I left for work last Monday morning.

I went back to NAPA this morning as the battery claims "18 month free replacement" on it's label. NAPA gave me a hard time... . said the battery only had 4. 17 volts and that it needed to be fully charged for them to test it. I told them that was the problem the battery not maintaining a charge. The NAPA staff then tried to tell me that there is something on my truck drawing down the battery. There was just no way the battery could have lost so much voltage in a week on it's own. They told me that sometimes the glove box light stays on even when the glove box is closed. I told them my truck doesn't have one. The ythe ntried the same excuse, this time with the under hood light, I told them I don't have one of those either. It proceeded on down the line with to the courtesy light in hte cab. I told them I knew that light had not stayed on because I had removed the bulb from it .....

What I would like to know is has anyone else had a problem with battery draw down when their truck has been parked for several days and what was the cause of it ? I truly beleive my battery is the problem, but I want to hear what you all have to say.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Grey Wolf]

No problem here. I've left mine for over a couple of weeks and it still fires right up and all those items you've listed are all working and have bulbs in them... I use a Delco 31-900 battery, which still tests over 1000 CCA after two years. Have you checked your charging system and all battery and cable connections?

 

[AlK]

No problem here. My truck over the years has sat for over a month many times and she has always fired up.

 

[bgilbert]

Unfortunately, its more than likely not the battery. I'm not up on the IC'd trucks features, but just going on memory, if you have a bad crank position sensor, your alternator won't charge. . PCM maybe. . regulator in the alternator not right. . ??

 

[JCrank]

Thanks for the news... I know my charging system is working, as we have tested it. On mine the PCM had taken a dump before I bought the truck and thanks to some of my fellow TDR members, I fixed that problem with an external regulator mounted on the fender well. It couldn't have been the clock in the radio, as I've got my radio unplugged in prep for changing it out with a new radio/cd player. All my battery cables are in good shape, along with the grounds (I've replaced them to make sure they were not at fault for some other problems I was having. )

I'm still thinking along the lines of my battery being bad... ...