Issue with Battery Dying

I had the year old Interstate battery die on my 2008 Tundra recently. I took the battery back to Interstate and they warrantied it, but with the new battery, I am having the same issue unless I drive it every day. If I go 3 or more days without driving it, it will not start and the battery has to be charged up.

I don't have any accessories that would be drawing power when the truck is not running. I've changed the alternator to battery terminal posts, but that has not fixed this either. Is it too soon for the alternator to be going bad? It reads over 14v when running, so the alternator seems to be working just fine.

Trying to find what to check next.

 

Make sure your battery connections are clean and corrosion free, good electrical contact, if you know how to use a voltmeter, you can check for parasitic draw, if you see more than 50mA of draw, then something is wrong. You can then pull fuses till you find what circuit is causing it. It would prob take a couple amps to kill a battery in a day.

 

I have brand new terminals on it. I’m getting 14.3v according g to my voltmeter.

 

no new headlights or anything aftermarket installed recently ?

 

The fact the truck keeps running and starting day after day tells me the alternator is probably fine. Your issue only arises when you let the truck sit for 3 days or more with out turning the truck/alternator on.

You need to be measuring current draw on the truck while it is sitting. A user on here just went through this and finally found that he had somthing plugged into the OBD2 port that was not allowing the trucks electrical system to go to sleep.

After turning the key off, let the truck sit for 15-20 mins. It should time out and put the system to sleep. Then measure current use. Seems you have some kind of draw while the truck is parked.

Your sure all dome, cargo lights ect are turned off? No aftermarket radio/amp that could be staying on?

 

No, nothing new installed.

I did this, but I did not wait. I have nothing plugged into the OBD2 port and nothing plugged into the 12v ports either. I'll give this a try and see what I find.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Remote Start?

 

If you have no accessories or aftermarket components, run a parasitic draw test on the alternator. Just because it charges does not mean it is good. If a diode fails, it will allow power to move both ways. This would allow it to charge while running but also draw while not.

 

slap a dc clamp meter on the battery cable and see if anything is drawing after the truck has been off for 10+min

 

I had a problem like you are describing. I found that I had one leg of a 3 phase alternator that both diodes burned out and caused a direct short to ground. With key off and sitting over night it would kill the battery. I never had an alternator light saying something was wrong, just the battery going dead. You could pull the alternator out and have it bench tested at any auto store to see if that is the problem.

 

No remote start.

This could very well be what's going on. I will have to check this out and see if this is the problem. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

Make sure your terminals are super tight on, to the point you need to pry them off... Been there done that... Slayed enough batteries to sorta figure it out... OEM wiring and alternator.

 

Get an multi-meter, and clamps for it. disconnect the positive and connect the meter between the battery post and wire. close the doors and set the hood latch closed with a screwdriver. you should start seeing the car put modules to sleep as the amps go down. after about 2-5 minutes your car should be below 0.05 amps. if not, start pulling fuses until you see a drop. when you do. TADA that's your offending module.