Truck Sits for 2 more more days, batteries are drained!

[C. Harlan]

I do not know what the deal is. . I drive Black Betty to work daily, and go to start Mighty Whitey today. . Mind you I was out all weekend in the white truck this whole weekend. 2 days, or better yet a day and a half, and it will not even start. . Could it be a bad battery, or bad batteries?? I have one battery that is 'sweating' pretty bad, and think this may be a problem. . Anyone had this happen?



-Chris-

 

[MStrain]

I haven't had this happen but why don't you swap both batteries from each truck and then you should know if its the batteries or something else.

 

[MMeier]

Chris, original batteries still? How many miles, I know some lose them pretty quick, others, go forever. I have 184k on my originals in the dually and still working. Still have 2 red top optimas waiting to go in, yes, same ones I told you about when you were here.

 

[jwilliams3]

Mine does it to. My 04. 5 has had a battery drain for the last 2 years or so.

Basically let it set more than 2 days in the summer and it wont start. Winter more than 12 hours and it probably wont start.



I have narrowed it down to the gauge cluster drawing after the truck is shut off. Basically it never shuts down completely. If you have a warranty get it fixed, if not get a switch in the cab that will cut or turn on power to the cluster.

Dont buy new batteries because you will be wasting money.

 

[wneubauer]

Mine sits for a week or more sometimes, no problem... . Definitely sounds like a electrical issue, probably not the batteries.

 

[jelag]

Find someone with a Sun Vat 40 or other type tester that uses an induction amp meter that will read down to the 10ths of amps... . clamp the induction probe across one battery and disconnect the other batter..... read the draw... for the truck to go dead in 2 or 3 days it would have to be in the 15 to 20 amp range...

I own a fridge that cycles when plug into 12 v and it will run over a week before the battery runs down and the truck won't start... . if we know the truck won't run for that long we unplug the fridge... .

You state by understanding how much load there is. . and than unplug one fuse at a time until the load goes to zero and than check that circuit... .

If when you test it there is no draw than its something that is cycling on and off... . and you have to wait for it to happen to find it... .

 

[WM-300]

I had this problem with my 03. Batteries would last about a month and go dead. Under warantee both batteries were changed two times. The third time they changed the batteries and changed the alternator. No more problems. The first two times. after charging the batteries everything checked out good. The last time was the same, all checked good, but they said they had seen the alternator act up and cause this problem. They were right. I have now been almost a year with no problems/

Paul

 

[jelag]

What Paul is saying is that there is a diode treo, and a diode bridge in the alternator... . the alternator makes 3 phase ac voltage and the diode bridge of 6 diodes makes this 3 phase into a pulse dc. . the diode treo is used by the regulator either in the alternator or later by the computer to monitor the circuit voltage... . If any of these diodes lead... . in other words pass voltage (current) in the other direction it can lead to batter drain...

What is important here is the test I suggested above... any good auto electric shop should understand this test and be able to run it for finding the drain...

 

[kompressor]

I had a similar problem. One battery had a dead cell and that would draw the good battery down and since my truck sits a lot it wouldn't start. Disconnect the batteries and measure the voltage on each one and see what it is.

 

[JDerrick]

jelag hit it on the nose. A very good test. If you dont want to go that far, at the very least go have your batteries load tested.