My 2013 Tundra battery died, a sudden death

Just had the 2013 maintenance done and according to them the battery was in good health, 3 years old. One night I get a call from my kid the truck is not starting and lucky I had one of these battery starter charging and ready to go. He managed to start it, drive it to Autozone and get a Duralast Gold installed as he had no other options at the time.

Is there a better way to measure the health of the battery? besides the age? I mean 3 years is not that old.

 

3 years is the standard battery life span.

 

I've had lots of luck with Interstate - have one at nearly 8 yrs of age - going strong. Whereas other brands Tundra234 said only last 3 yrs at best in central texas' high heat.

 

Yes I have Interstates in all my cars and indeed they last in the 8 years range. This truck had the stock OEM , 3 years old and if I had the early warning I would've replace it with an Interstate from Costco for sure. My kid ended up stuck and had to do an Autozone swap and Duralast Gold is the best they had.

 

My first battery only lasted 3 years, just like yours and same thing, no indication it was going. It just went.

My second battery went out slowly and caused a bunch of weird stuff to happen, lights all over the dash and my seatbelt chime would come on randomly.

I don't know how or why they do it, stock consumables on new trucks are just junk, whether it be batteries or tires.

You might just get it load tested every six months for peace of mind.

 

Occasionally a battery does not slowly slip into oblivion shedding its CCAs along the way. It will simply drop a cell or two internally and be dead as a door nail. Vibration and heat are the main culprits. I’ve had two Autozone batteries bite the dust in this fashion, my Interstates and my Energizers from Walmart have yet to show this type of failure.

edit: makes sense

 

It had a load test at the dealer 3 weeks before it died So much for the test I guess

 

If you're worried about it, you could always check/top up the distilled water every 6 months or so.

I do not personally do this except with the rv batteries before putting them away for winter. For our motor vehicles, I've strictly used Interstate batteries which tend to last a very long time without me messing with them. Especially if you drive the vehicles fairly regularly.