2003 discovery - battery lasts 6 months

[bcrawford]

About one year ago I replaced the battery in my discovery. Nothing specific, just an autozone battery, low cost (duramax I think). It lasted about 6 months and died. Weird I thought, but just bad luck. Warranty swap at no cost and i'm running again. Now 6 months later and another dead battery. I remember talk about batteries somewhere that mentioned a low quality battery will last about that long. Is this a known issue? Should I suspect something other than just a cheap battery? I'm going out tomorrow to fix it, but was hoping to have a little better knowledge than what I have now.

 

[joey]

Have the Alternator checked, also look at the battery cables for corrosion or over stiffness in the cable with indicates corrosion under the wire coating.

I would also check to make sure you don't have something draining the battery a lot. How often do you drive the rover?

 

[bcrawford]

Joey,
cables aren't terribly stiff, would like to check the alternator, but its not starting right now. I drive the rover fairly often. Not daily, but it does get probably 100-150 miles a week. I had been driving it all day Saturday and Sunday and it didn't start for the drive home on Sunday.

OK, so I checked the battery at Autozone and the told me its good. It sat on the charger for 30 min at autozone before it tested. Took it back after testing the battery and it still wouldn't turn over (cleaned posts and contacts although they looked pretty good). When I turn the key the motor tries to turn over but bogs down quick and I lose lights/gauges that jump to life when the key is on. The battery cables looked good on the battery end, didn't have time to chase them down to the other end.

Could this be related to a starter motor? Any starter motor failure i have had just clicks and the lights/gauges stay on. I'm tempted to say its battery cables or something of the like, but at this point maybe its something fairly obvious to someone with more experience than me.

 

[joey]

With this description I would say the starter is having issues. If you charge the battery or jump with another battery and it starts I would say your starter is going bad.

 

[bcrawford]

So now I have a real issue. My discovery is not starting. What I originally thought may be a battery issue is not. I also pulled the starter and the test at the part store came back inconclusive, the tester wouldn't take it (saying no good connections). So now it has a new starter but still wont start. Tries to crank and the battery seems to be getting pulled down.
Any thoughts on what it could be? Fuel pump and crank position sensor have seemed to be common issues. Can someone walk me through a diagnostic process for those things, or any other suggestion?

 

[joey]

Neither the fuel pump of the Crank Position Sensor will cause the battery to feel like it is dead. Unless something is shorting out, Battery - Wires - Starter... Don't get me wrong a ton of computer crap between but as far as causing the battery to seem dead there isn't anything I can think of.

Have you gone through the RAVE manual and looked at the wiring Diagram?

 

[bcrawford]

Turns out that the starter I bought was also bad, so after a $150 diagnosis and 40 min I have a working disco.

 

[joey]

Glad to hear you found the issue.