TitansFan

Saturday, I drove my truck in our local 4th of July parade. After the parade, I started smelling a rotten egg smell and my Check Guages and Check Engine Light both came on. I then noticed my battery guage needle was getting low. I drove home, turned it off and tried to restart, but no go. I raised the hood and saw the passenger battery leaking acid.

Do I have to replace both batteries at once? The truck is just 2 yrs old. I didn't know I would have to worry about battery replacement this soon.

Thanks

Guardrail

I'd check with your dealer for warranty replacement. They should be covered under the 3 year/36000.

To answer your question, no it's not normal. I wouldn't run it without replacing the battery. If it's leaking acid, wash the battery very good to make sure it doesn't damage anything below it. Sounds like the battery shorted out and caused it to cook.

No you don't have to replace the other battery. I would just for the fact that the batteries were both taken from the same batch so why risk another problem?

If you don't replace the other battery, have it tested. I would also test the alternator to make sure it's not over charging.

TitansFan

Thanks, Guardrail. I hope the charging system isn't over charging the battery. If the alternator was overcharging, would the driver's side battery be affected too?

.boB

If it's leaking acid, that usually means it's boiling out the vent caps. That's either a short or overcharging. Take it back to the dealer and have them check all that.

If the battery failed on it's own, I'm not sure it's covered under the warrently. I think (but could be wrong) that it's like brake pads and belts - a wear item. But if the failure is caused by overcharging, then it should be covered.

In the meantime, sprinkle a bunch of baking soda around the battery, and rinse thouroughly. Otherwise the acid will damage everything it touches.

TitansFan

I picked up another battery for the passenger side. I tried to start the truck, but its just "clicking". I'm getting two codes...P2509 and P2503. I've been using a Superchips programmer with the Tow Program. I searched and found a post from vzdude on this forum. He says:

"Check all the cable connections between the batteries. And Definately check the battery terminals. Power Down Data Loss, means that the PCM lost power while the truck was running. There are several other issues that people have with bad connections or splices in the battery cables......blowing up the passenger side battery is one of them! The pcm reads battery voltage from the drivers side battery, but the alt charges the pass side directly. charging the drivers side from the connector cables. When a badd connection occurs, the alt tries to charge the pass side battery enough to get the drivers side up....it can't because of the bad connection! Thus, overcharging and exploding the pass battery. FYI"

Before having it towed to dealer, is there anything I can do on my own?

TitansFan

I took the driver's side battery out to get it checked to make sure it was ok. It came back as good, but needing a recharge. I put it back in the truck and used a portable battery jumper, turned the key and the truck started up fine. I cleared the codes and gave driven it around and so far no more codes. Hopefully it was just a bad passenger side battery. My neighbor loaned me a voltage meter so I checked both batteries while the truck was running and not running. Volts not running: 12.9 Volts running: 14.6

JP-4.5

Be careful if you put baking soda on the battery. A guy at work did that while cleaning his car and the baking soda neutralized his battery. Dead the next morning he came out.

surfram

This is what happened on my truck. Your alternator will boil the passenger side battery if there is a loose connection to the driver's side battery. Check all positive/negative battery cables. On my truck the positive cable from the passenger side battery that crosses over to the driver's side battery was loose at the driver's side battery. Once the connection was cleaned and tightened, no more problems.

TitansFan

Thanks. I will check all connections to make sure nothing is loose.

BLACKBEAR

It is best to replace both battery's at the same time.For your alt will want to charge the weakest battery this will over charge the new one.

billie

Actually, that is a myth. Proper charging voltage will provide current input to each battery as it needs it, until each are fully charged.

8mpg

just a FYI...batteries are pro-rated under the warranty. They are usually covered 100% for the first year, then its pro-rated. I think they are normally 5 or 6year from the factory...

Rednecktastic

I really hope they aren't pro-rated because if so the dealer lied to me because I had one go bad at around 37000 miles and I asked.



I'd replace both because my passenger side was bad and both ended up being bad. I kept my driver's side as a spare for my boat because I thought it was still good (tested good without a load on it) and it was dead within a week just sitting on a work bench. If I hadn't replaced it I'd be in the same shape within a few months or a year with the truck throwing codes and having to take off early from work to get new batteries.



Load test that driver's side.






Also, IIRC someone said you can get size 65 batteries from the dealer for like $75. I bought Plantinums from Sears for $180 a piece with a 4 year free replacement 8 year pro rated warranty .

MikesB12

X2. This exact thing happened to me. I was out of town working when this happened to my wife (yes, she drives my truck some). Took it to the dealer, they replaced the battery at no charge (IIRC, it had 15K miles at the time). Fast forward a week, it happens again while I'm driving. Take it to a different dealer, they put two new batterys in and found the connections on the drivers side battery way loose. Good Luck.

dieselthunder

Check the connections on the passenger side battery. There is a wire running off that side to a small round black solenoid type thing. Looks like it is power for the fuel system in some way. There is a connection in the middle of that cable that is suspect. I noticed a lot of corrosion on the positive battery post. Felt the wire while the truck was running and it was almost to hot to touch. I would assume that it could easily have caused the battery to fail. Luckily I caught it in time.