Weird battery behavior

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Justin Allen

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So back in the winter, my 2013 LR4's battery died sitting for a period of time with me going in and out of it on a regular basis. Battery is the standard LR4 battery put in in 2019. So I reconditioned/recharged it to full and it was fine after that. Well, truck has been in the garage for 4 months straight now while I've done coolant pipes, and various other ins/outs. Last week, I finished up everything and then hooked my charger up to it and let it sit overnight. Came out the next morning to the status saying "fully charged". I had to do some things with the Gap tool so I left the charger hooked up while I was doing that. Well within a minute or so of being in the truck, it gave me the low battery warning with shut off in 3m. Found that odd since the charger up front was saying fully charged. My GAP too was showing 12.0V in the top left. So I proceeded to do some things with the tool. Everything went fine. But all the while the low battery message would come up on the screen. Finished up, got back out and charger still saying fully charged. My multimeter is reading 12.15v with the truck off. That's low right? If the battery is going, 2019 to now is rather pitiful.
 

jlglr4

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11.9 is dead. 12.6-12.7 is full. 12.15 is very low - like maybe 25-30%. You should see about 12.6v resting and 14.4v or so running. Possible your charger is not working properly? Or possible the battery drained too far when in storage? The AGM batteries don’t like being drained too far.
 

ryanjl

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The OEM batteries in LR4s are garbage. 2 years is not uncommon with those. I'm surprised the original owner found one. Most dealers replace them with Interstate.
 

Justin Allen

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Thanks guys. I know the charger works because most of the time it’s on my other car and that battery stays full. I guess this is all the more reason to go ahead and upgrade to an H8 AGM.
 

gsxr

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+1 on AGM H8. EverStart has a 4-year warranty and the lowest price I'm currently aware of.

Also make sure your charger, and alternator, are working properly. However some chargers may show fully charged on a defective battery. The only way to check is with a load tester.
 

Jhgrn3

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Sitting without a battery tender wreaks havoc on the battery. Just had a similar problem. Battery was fine when I took it out, sat 3-4 weeks, and it was junk. Recharged and tested, load test said good but wouldn’t hold a charge.
 

PoorLifeDecisions

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Any updates? My truck is experiencing something similar. Didn't drive it for a day and even though the battery is reading 12.5V resting, I got the low battery warning on the IP when I opened the door. Battery is a one month old Interstate from Costco. FWIW, it had trouble starting a week ago and the IP LCD was stuck on this mostly blank screen (pic attached). Didn't even get to the point of trying to crank, seemed electrical. Can't remember if I even heard a click. Anyways, I tried to wiggle the battery cables, but they were on tight and the truck started after I tried again. Ever since then the dome and door puddle lights also flicker whenever I put the truck in park with the engine running after a drive. They're swapped LED's, but never flickered prior to No Start occurrence.

dash.jpg
 

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