Bad batteries or something else?

[Pizzon]

So my Ford Taurus 99 has either been killing batteries, or Wal-Mart is giving us bad batteries back.

We had a Wally battery for around 4 months, then it died. EVentually they just gave us a new one (after we got the altenator checked - it was fine). Now, after a couple weeks, it died! The brand new one!

Anyone have any suggestions on what the hell it could be? THe only thing i can see is maybe hooking up my MP3 player through the cassett player is draining it... i highly doubt it though. (ive used it alot beforehand)

SOrry my first post is requestion help.. but thanks for any advice.


- Pizzon

[shorod]

Does the car get driven on a regular basis (ie: daily)? It may start in the morning to get you to work/school, but when you come out a few hours later the battery is too dead to start the car? Will the engine crank, just too slowly indicating a weak battery, or the engine doesn't click? If you try to start the car with the headlights on, do the headlights severely dim when the engine should be cranking?

You should start by making sure the battery cables are clean and tight, both at the battery and at the terminating end. Also, if your car has the temporary bolt-on battery post connectors, replace the cables with molded OEM type cables. The bolt-on type allow the cable to corrode which can cause all sorts of other problems.

If the cables are good, then you may be having issues with a bad lot or lots of batteries. I ran in to that with a couple of batteries from AutoZone. The original battery was getting weak, so just before winter I replaced it with a DuraLast. The vehicle was driven at least a couple times a week. After about a month with the new battery, it failed to start one morning. I used my portable jump start pack to get it started and it was fine for the rest of the day and the following morning. However, if it sat for 3 days or more without being started, the battery would be dead. I charged it up and verified the alternator was working properly. I checked the current draw with and without the alarm set and both were well within the acceptable limits (worst case was 70 mA which should not drain a healthy battery in 3 days!). Armed with this info, I went back to AutoZone. They load tested the battery and checked the charging system, battery failed, charging system passed. I opted to upgrade for a small fee to the DuraLast Gold battery. Same deal, the new battery failed after a couple of weeks. Returned the battery, listened to their story about how there are only 3 battery manufacturers in the US, yada, yada, yada. Added a few more dollars to the battery fund and got a battery from Interstate Batteries. Didn't have any more problems.

I'm not saying not to get DuraLast batteries, I just had bad luck and after listening to the guys behind the counter telling me the problem was not the batteries but rather some other problem and "...70 mA is WAY too high of a draw, the limit is more like a quarter of an amp..." I decided I didn't want to deal with them. They didn't seem to believe me that a quarter of an amp is 250 mA, so I was well under their "limit."

FWIW, the third Interstate Battery that I bought (for another vehicle) gave me a similar problem to the DuraLast story. Interstate accepted my verbal explanation of current draws, and swapped it for me. I didn't have problems with the replacement.

Moral of the story: Yes, it is possible that you have received two bad batteries. Make the effort to ensure the problem is not the charging system or a drain on the battery, then kindly explain to them the situation and ask for either a replacement or a refund.

-Rod

[Pizzon]

THanks a ton Shorod.

After checking EVERYTHING (wires were fine and everything, as well as the amps and whatnot), we forced wal-mart to pickup the car from where it died and fix the problem.

THe engine was cranking - for a bit- till the battery completley died. AS well as whe nI cranked it, the windsheild whipers slowly moved back and forth ,and a couple other electronics acted goofy.

So walmart looked to see what the hell the problem was, and they found out this. (Its quite funny, actually)

The trunk light was faulty and never turned off. THerefor, it was draining the batteries (completely killing the first one). They fixed it for free for not noticing that before, which was pretty nice.


SO if you're having battery problems, check the trunk light! lol.

THanks aton again for your help!

[shorod]

And thank you for posting a follow-up on what it took to fix the issue. Glad you are back on the road. Sounds like Wal-Mart treated you right.

-Rod