Defective Battery or did my vehicle fry it?

[wormwood1978]

2008 4.2 Trailblazer, 118k. I believe this was the fourth battery in this vehicle over its life, all replaced for preventative reasons. 1st was original, 2nd and 3rd were Advance Auto Autocraft Gold 800cca.

Five month old battery, in Oct I replaced it with an Advance Auto Diehard Gold 800cca (I think Autocraft was rebranded to Diehard). I last ran the vehicle two days ago, today vehicle was dead dead. Wouldn't take a jump and wouldn't charge. Autel Battery Tester wouldn't it test because of no battery power and multimeter read 10.5 amps. Advance Auto excahnged it out after they tested it.

I didn't have anything plugged in overnight, didn't leave my lights on, vehicle had been starting fine.

Do you think this was a defective battery? Could my alternator or a parasitic draw have killed the battery?

 

[Rogueman2016s]

2008 4.2 Trailblazer, 118k. I believe this was the fourth battery in this vehicle over its life, all replaced for preventative reasons. 1st was original, 2nd and 3rd were Advance Auto Autocraft Gold 800cca.

Five month old battery, in Oct I replaced it with an Advance Auto Diehard Gold 800cca (I think Autocraft was rebranded to Diehard). I last ran the vehicle two days ago, today vehicle was dead dead. Wouldn't take a jump and wouldn't charge. Autel Battery Tester wouldn't it test because of no battery power and multimeter read 10.5 amps. Advance Auto excahnged it out after they tested it.

I didn't have anything plugged in overnight, didn't leave my lights on, vehicle had been starting fine.

Do you think this was a defective battery? Could my alternator or a parasitic draw have killed the battery?

Probably the battery. Sounds like it shorted out

 

[Escape08]

Yes there are defective new batteries. Happened to me when I bought an H7 AGM at WM several years ago. It drove me nuts, I thought it was the alternator. Multimeter indicated it's fully charged but does not have the juice to start the car

 

[willbur]

2008 4.2 Trailblazer, 118k. I believe this was the fourth battery in this vehicle over its life, all replaced for preventative reasons. 1st was original, 2nd and 3rd were Advance Auto Autocraft Gold 800cca.

Five month old battery, in Oct I replaced it with an Advance Auto Diehard Gold 800cca (I think Autocraft was rebranded to Diehard). I last ran the vehicle two days ago, today vehicle was dead dead. Wouldn't take a jump and wouldn't charge. Autel Battery Tester wouldn't it test because of no battery power and multimeter read 10.5 amps. Advance Auto excahnged it out after they tested it.

I didn't have anything plugged in overnight, didn't leave my lights on, vehicle had been starting fine.

Do you think this was a defective battery? Could my alternator or a parasitic draw have killed the battery?

Both or neither. No data. Parasitic draw and charging volts easy to do with your multimeter.

 

[Lubener]

That's why I do not buy batteries from an auto parts store. Low turn around sitting on the shelf for a long time equals possible short life.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Had a Nissan OEM battery replaced in warranty and the new one lasted 3 weeks.

Test the new one in a few days. If it’s ok forget about it.

 

[FordSVTGuy]

Not to hijack, but our son’s 2012 Focus has gone through too many batteries too quickly. In a moment of clarity I’m thinking that the aftermarket remote starter combined with his infrequent driving pattern probably is to blame… I’ll have to learn how to check for the parasitic draw…

 

[Donald]

The way to tell for sure is to disconnect battery from vehicle, charge with decent plug-in charger. Test and wait 24 hours and test. The second test is kind of optional.

The best tester is a carbon pile load test where you can dial in the load for your specific battery. Apply the load until you hear a beep quickly read voltage and dial back the load. The smell from the load tester should give you confidence it was a good test. The smell is "hot".

 

[BigCahuna]

I had an issue with my motorcycle battery about 6 months ago. I bought the bike 2 months before the issue showed up . The bike ran fine until the day I took it for a long ride. I keep it on a tender and it showed 100% charge when I left out. About halfway thru the ride, the bike started popping and backfiring, then quit running altogether. I pulled over thinking something came loose, or I blew a fuse. The bike had no power at all when the ignition was turned on, Nothing. Then after a few minutes of playing around with it, I turned the ignition back on and it was fine and started up. It ran fine for about 5 minutes, then started running crappy again. After the third time I decided to tow it home. When I tried to charge it at home, the charger would not recognise it was hooked to a battery. Then a while later I checked it with my meter, and it read fine. Then the next day it showed like 8.5 volts. I determined there was a internal break in the battery. Sometimes it would connect, then it wouldn't. I replaced it with a known good battery, and haven't had a problem in 6 months. Those kind of problems will drive you nuts.,,,

 

[wormwood1978]

That's why I do not buy batteries from an auto parts store. Low turn around sitting on the shelf for a long time equals possible short life.

I do check the date sticker on the batter when I buy them. I don't recall how old from date of manufacture it was when I bought it, but it was not more than 4 months old. My replacement battery which I'm putting in has a date of Nov 23, so four months old again.

 

[GMBoy]

That's why I do not buy batteries from an auto parts store. Low turn around sitting on the shelf for a long time equals possible short life.

I don't think I completely agree with that. Autozone and Orielly etc sell TONS of batteries everyday and they are always fresh. However, to your point perhaps a lesser sold battery type could get older sitting and that can happen anywhere. They are supposed to rotate and charge batteries as necessary. I have a battery rack in my shop provided by and stocked by Autozone. They come every week and dust them off and check charges - anything low they replace with a new and I guess they charge the ones they take back. I only stock 8-10 batteries, 1 each of the most popular group sizes. When I sell one they replace it. The store manager tell me that they always have batteries fresher than 6mos and they charge them.

 

[Chris142]

if the battery was good they would have charged it and gave it back to you

 

[wormwood1978]

I used my mutlimeter to see if there was a parasitic load. What started with a 1.6amp draw quickly drew back to 0.02 but I'll check that again if I have problems with this new battery. My scan tool shows the alternator charging at 14.9 so I think my alternator is good. I'm not showing any codes either. I'm hoping this was just a crap battery.