Bad Batteries-resulting symptoms.

[dodge man]

I just replaced the batteries in my 2004 Dodge with a 5.9 Cummins. They were the original batteries. About 2 months ago I noticed the trucks was surging while at highway speeds with the cruise on. Then lately it was getting worse, even if the cruise was off. It started fine and ran fine around town. Early last week I drove it out of town for work and it was worse and I was getting a check gauges light and a ding. The volt meter was showing a surge and going high, then back to normal. I though it might be a bad alt. or computer the controls the voltage. I didn't want to put batteries in it if they were going to overcharge and get ruined.

I took it to Autozone and had them load test the batteries. One tested poor but still working, the other tested bad. I put new batteries and it fixed all the symptoms 100%. I also had a 98 Dodge with a gas engine that started running poorly and it was nothing more than a bad battery. I guess my point of this post is I could have chased a lot of ghosts in trying to fix the reason my truck was running bad when it was something as simple as batteries. $330 and a half hour in the parking lot at Autozone fixed it.

 

[3930dave]

A good pre-winter check on a diesel is to load test the batteries every Fall.

Everything on a modern truck is electronically controlled, and some alternators have sophisticated load management controls built in. Batteries don't have to get that far out of spec, and the electronics can start getting weirded-out.

One guy down the road from me (fairly well off) just yanks batteries at 5 years and puts new ones in, regardless. He always has a buddy who needs a used battery, so he just give the still working one away. Says he finds his GM alternators last longer doing this. He may have a point.

I helped a friend do annual inspections on a rental RV fleet. We recorded the load test results of the batteries, and replaced downward drifting ones pro-actively. A tourist that flys in and lays down big bucks to rent an RV doesn't want to deal with a dead battery, esp. in the middle of nowhere. Virtually all of these RVs had gas motors.

Good post and points made Dodge Man.

Rgds, D.

 

[Soundguy]

a good tool to have is a carbon pile or reistance band laod tester for batteries. way better than just a meter. HF sells both styles. 0-150a and 100-600a testers. reasonable. a good investment for anyone with larger or lots of engines with bats to maintain.

 

[kenmac]

Wow , I'm impressed ! 04 and you are just replacing OEM batteries ? I had to replace mine last yr and mine is an 07. Have batteries gone up that much in a year ? I only paid $100.00 each for my batteries

 

[94BULLITT]

Bad batteries will make them do crazy things.

 

[dodge man]

I could have got by cheaper but got better batteries. I don't think I could have gotten by for much less than $250 though.

 

[Soundguy]

remember when a good truck battery could be had for 80$.

last set i put in my powerstroke were about 100$ each...

 

[clemsonfor]

I buy the good battery from advance auto i will always use a 30 or $40 off coupon reducing the cost by said amount. I buy online and pick up in the store. I get 2 or 3 year replacement store brand batteries from advance. I use to get the best deal but since finding advance coupons i have got the last 4 or so batteries from there. Some are several years old at this point and no trouble.

I use to go to walmart for thier batteries, which i have had good success with but they no longer prorate thier bad batteries. So when your 2yr free replacement battery goes bad at 27 months you get nothing!! At least at a place like advance auto i would get something like a 60% credit toward a new battery if that happened. No trouble with the walmart batteries, i have one in the saturn thats maybe 3 years old and took one out of my truck about a year ago that was 7 years old, it was getting weak and then eventually would not hold a charge.