A year and a half ago I bought my first Walmart battery. Now I know that 3 or 4 battery companies make most batteries and that Walmart batteries are rated ok but this battery was slow to start. I took it back to Walmart and the total output rated ok. They said I could drive it and see if it would do it again or they could put a fast charge on it and check the cells. I said check it further because I would never trust it again. They found a bad cell and replaced it. Two days later my AC failed. Electrical issues, $400. I think I am into a $600 battery. Next time I am going to Costco for a $180 AGM battery with the Interstate Brand.
Walmart Battery - failed cell
- Thread starter demento
- Start date
Are you adding the cost of the AC repair to the cost of the defective battery to reach this $600 figure?
I don't think a failed battery can cause electrical damage to an AC system.
What year, model and trim level (engine) is your vehicle?
How long before you returned it?
What failed on the “AC” (guessing you mean “A/C”)-was it the compressor clutch coil? If so, you might want to check your charging voltage- if it’s really high, like over 14.2 VDC, you may have an alternator or voltage regulator problem.
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- Oct 30, 2021
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The interstate from Costco are no better from what I’m hearing . Just get a DieHard from Advance Auto.
What grade Walmart battery? If it's their cheapest one, they're only warranted for a year. And realistically I never expect a car battery to last longer than the (FULL replacement) warranty period .
I agree with the other posters, it's very unlikely that your other electrical problems weren't due to the battery. And it's very possible that the battery failure was due to the other electrical problems. Too high of a charging voltage will cause the material on the battery plates to flake off and fall into the bottom of the battery and short out individual cells.
The vehicle charging system should ALWAYS be tested before installing a new battery. Most auto parts store will test the battery and/or the charging system for free so there's no excuse not to test them.
FYI I've been buying nothing but WM brand batteries for about 25 years now and all but one of them have lasted beyond their warranty. I don't spend the money for the AGM batteries unless that's what the car manufacturer requires but I do buy WM's longest warrantied battery (typically 3 years for non-AGM batteries). I've bought probably 20 batteries and only had to replace one under warranty and WM swapped it out with no arugments.
I agree with the other posters, it's very unlikely that your other electrical problems weren't due to the battery. And it's very possible that the battery failure was due to the other electrical problems. Too high of a charging voltage will cause the material on the battery plates to flake off and fall into the bottom of the battery and short out individual cells.
The vehicle charging system should ALWAYS be tested before installing a new battery. Most auto parts store will test the battery and/or the charging system for free so there's no excuse not to test them.
FYI I've been buying nothing but WM brand batteries for about 25 years now and all but one of them have lasted beyond their warranty. I don't spend the money for the AGM batteries unless that's what the car manufacturer requires but I do buy WM's longest warrantied battery (typically 3 years for non-AGM batteries). I've bought probably 20 batteries and only had to replace one under warranty and WM swapped it out with no arugments.
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AAP is Clarios too…
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2024
Is this Highlander infrequently driven? That is odd to replace the original battery so early, though it may have had a manufacturing defect. If infrequently driven (once or twice a week, short trips), that can cause a short life to the battery...if so, consider using a battery maintainer. I have them on my two "fun" cars that are driven only occasionally.
I replaced two original batteries for family members this week, one in a 2015 Hyundai and another in 2014 Mazda. So we got nearly 8 years out of the first one and 8+ out of the second one. I assume that you had to replace your 2018 a couple of years ago so it sounds like it only lasted about 2 or 3 years which is a very short life span, unless something else caused the battery to fail.
Who charged you to re-test the battery? And was it WM that charged you $47 for the replacement battery ??? They should have replaced it for free if it was within the full replacement time frame.
The times that you're stating just aren't adding up for me. Your original battery came with the vehicle in ~2018. It should have been warrantied by Toyota for several (3?) years which takes up to ~2021. But you've replaced it with a "top" WM battery which should have been fully warrantied for 3 years so we're up to roughly 2024. However you're saying that you've already had to replace it and they (presumably WM) charged you an additional $47.
But it's only been roughly 5 years since you bought the vehicle so this just isn't adding up.
you mean you paid them to test the battery?
and then they charged it while still in vehicle??
while I'd assume any testing/charging equipment they use is idiot proof, I still wouldn't let a walmart employee touch my car. while it's doubtful anything they did would cause the A/C electrical failure, it's also *highly* doubtful a 5yr old Toyota would suffer a catastrophic electrical failure in the A/C system without some external cause.
tell us again why you replaced the OEM battery when it hadn't yet failed? have you ever done a battery replacement before? did anything go wrong (eg did you accidentally touch the wrench to the frame while taking off the POS terminal before removing the NEG terminal). did you do anything else to the vehicle at that time?
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