Hello,

I purchased a Duralast Gold battery, desperate measures when OEM is dead, from autozone not too long ago and when I left on a 2 week vacation I came home to realize that my TRUNK was opened just enough to leave the light on (lifts are dead ).

So the battery went down the crapper and I jump started it and let it charge.

Worked fine for a few weeks. Sold my V2 bumper and didn't drive the car for about three days. Wouldn't start. If I leave the car alone for a day or so it will not start and I have to jump start it everytime.

I took it back to autozone for the "3 year warranty". The guy did the test and said my alternator is fine and the battery is charging fine. I asked him if he could charge it fully anyway, he refused (probably saw the difficulty of the install). Said it's something else and go see a technician for it (of course).

I'm getting rather frustrated and checked everywhere for anything that could possibly be draining it. Nothing is on. It's at the a shop right now and I just got a call back that the battery is once again dead and it's only been 2 days since he last turned it on.

So my options are:

-Take it to a different autozone
-Buy a optima battery anyway cause i'm getting a sound system soon (moderate power)
-Take it to a shop to see what's draining

Open to suggestions and advice

 

And if it helps anymore, that morning that I left my car alone for three days. NOTHING turned on. It was COMPLETELY dead. As soon as I clamped the battery the siren went haywire.

I left it on for awhile and let it charge. Does fine for a day but if you leave it alone then it's a goner.

 

Everytime a lead acid battery discharges fully, damage is caused to the plates. This damage prevents the battery from charging fully, or if bad enough, not at all. Chances are the battery is no good anymore.

If you are going to have more occasions where you aren't going to be driving the car and possibly the battery might drain, I would recommend a deep cycle battery (Exide Orbital or Optima Yellow Top) and a battery tender.

 

my car does this with optima batteries. I think the Z just has a lot of pull on a battery while in storage.

 

My battery actually died on me 2 days ago. Im sure it was because sound system + 60k miles on oem battery. Scared the chit out of my because it was making a REALLY loud popping noise while trying to turn the car on. Id just get a new battery. I bought a autocraft battery for $100 bucks, 650 CCA and its working great so far.

 

you never fully charged your battery after it was completely drained. When shopping for a batt to run acc cca means nothing its amps per hour reserve you need to be concerned about. Also thats a crap battery you bought. Stick with optima yt, deka intimidator, oddessey(spelling),Stinger, kinetics etc etc...You get what you pay for when it comes to batts..the cheaper ones arent deep cycled either meaning they can safely be brought down to a certain voltage without harming them which makes them good for car audio and acc.

 

Sounds like you have a dead cell in the battery. Take it to another Autozone and get it replaced.

 

Many thanks guys. As soon as the car gets out of the shop, hopefully soon, I will do that. Will let you guys know how it goes.

 

Decided to call the other Autozone anyway....

"You'd have to bring in the battery and let us take a look at it"

From the looks of it i'm going to be getting the "It's charging just fine".

^^Where did you find this?

 

Hey man. Are you sure you don't have something drawing your battery? Seems odd that it'll just die like that.

 

Autozone. Davidv posted a chart awhile ago saying autocraft batteries are great for southern climates hence why I bought this one. Make sure you take your old battery and youll get 12 bucks.

 

Looked high and low. I don't exactly have a technician's eye either but the least I can do is ask them to fully charge it before I buy another battery because this is becoming a PITA to jump start it all the damn time.

But if you read above there are some pretty legitimate answers and it's very possible that this battery may have been damaged. Good looking vthao.

Donutss, thank you very much. This or a optima will be the next choice if all else fails.

 

Yeah I had to replace mine as well and I too am running the autocraft battery from Autozone, great battery. Which Autozone are you going to? I have some customers that work for Autozone and might be able to see if they can help. Mine was doing the same thing and a cell was dead in the battery. I have a slow charge battery charger if you want to borrow it(I just have to find it in the mess I call a garage)

 

Yup happened to me with the OEM battery just have to get it replaced. Sucks especially since they will argue that it still charges.

 

with everything turned off pull off the negative battery connector and take a test light and bridge the connection. If you have a light on your test light something is pulling current.

 

PM Sent.

Globalscan I will try that.

 

Just make sure everything is off... key out and doors closed.

 

Take the battery back and tell them that the plates are bad, most Autozone do not have the tools to test this, in fact with my wifes car they ended up ordering one in to start testing the amperage as well as voltage. If they refuse and you really want to stick them just go up the chain until someone cracks. If it were me, I'd get a full refund and buy a good battery, just due to the lack of faith I have in any product they sell.

 

Just my two cents, if you are going to get a gel cell battery, I would suggest an Exide Orbital. I have one in each of my 3 cars (as well as had one in my Xterra that I sold) and they are excellent batteries. Cheaper than the Optima yellow tops too.

Select Orbital (gel cell):
http://links.exide.com/products/auto...t_orbital.html
http://links.exide.com/pdf/orbital_g...d_features.pdf

Select Orbital XCD (gel cell deep cycle):
http://links.exide.com/products/auto...bital_XCD.html
http://links.exide.com/pdf/orbital_x...d_features.pdf

 

autozone is awful with their battery exchange. Pepboys is the same. They all default to 'well its charging just fine'. And their diagnostic machine takes like an hour to complete/ All a scam to make customers just go buy a new battery.

I need another new battery bc i have that same drain (left the car sitting for a few weeks) and now a dead cell.