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Woke up to a dead battery today

RevN3

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So, that's odd. Was going to go exploring out in the woods today and once I got myself and the big dog loaded...dang thing wouldn't turn over. The battery is the one that came with it but I hadn't noticed any issues up until now. It's on the charger. It was reading at 2% I assume it got drained but I'm nor sure what would drain it. The lights turn off automatically. I keep a ODB2 Bluetooth sensor plugging in all the time but it doesn't do anything except show a red light when the truck is off. I also have the VooDoo back up camera always on kit and the LED on that can stay on if I forget to switch it off. But it was switched off and it's just an LED. Both have been in place for a long time though with no issue. The battery is close to 2 years old. Still, not driving the truck for 2 or 3 days, I wouldn't expect it to just die like that. What's the life span on the stock battery? Maybe it just was it's time. I have Costco batteries in my other vehicles so I'm used to 90 months without issue.

EDIT: And now after 40 minutes or so my charger is reporting 86%? That seems...fast.

EDIT: 10 minutes later is said 100% so I disconnected and reconnected. Now after an hour of charging it says 47%...My charger is a PITA.
 
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So the fix was to have Toyota give me a new one.

I went down to the parts department and they told me I had to go to service and service told me I had to go get in line at the garage. I said, it's just a battery. I get that you have to test it but I can just carry it in. Apparently this was baffling to the service folks who need a technician to understand how to breath. They were also totally baffled that I had removed the battery and put another one in. I had to explain to them, several times, that the battery wouldn't start the truck. How did they think I got the truck to the dealership? (Yeah, I could have started it by popping the clutch but I expect that's just as alien of a concept.) The tech took 30 seconds to test the battery. It was at 34 and 500 something was normal, so it was super dead. The techs there are good, I'm cool with them.

After another 10 minutes of the service guy typing away at his Ipad they finally got me a new battery (you really don't want it installed?!?!) and I was on my way. All in all it took me 30 minutes to get out of there. It seems that 90% of the problem with Toyota service is just the Service desk bureaucracy. It's just a poorly organized organization. Maybe that's just my dealership though. We have another one on the other side of town and I need to do a service checkup as well as a recall, I think I might go over there to see if they are better. Ah well, battery is installed and it was free, lets see how many of these 84 months I actually get out of it.
 

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So the fix was to have Toyota give me a new one.

I went down to the parts department and they told me I had to go to service and service told me I had to go get in line at the garage. I said, it's just a battery. I get that you have to test it but I can just carry it in. Apparently this was baffling to the service folks who need a technician to understand how to breath. They were also totally baffled that I had removed the battery and put another one in. I had to explain to them, several times, that the battery wouldn't start the truck. How did they think I got the truck to the dealership? (Yeah, I could have started it by popping the clutch but I expect that's just as alien of a concept.) The tech took 30 seconds to test the battery. It was at 34 and 500 something was normal, so it was super dead. The techs there are good, I'm cool with them.

After another 10 minutes of the service guy typing away at his Ipad they finally got me a new battery (you really don't want it installed?!?!) and I was on my way. All in all it took me 30 minutes to get out of there. It seems that 90% of the problem with Toyota service is just the Service desk bureaucracy. It's just a poorly organized organization. Maybe that's just my dealership though. We have another one on the other side of town and I need to do a service checkup as well as a recall, I think I might go over there to see if they are better. Ah well, battery is installed and it was free, lets see how many of these 84 months I actually get out of it.


they can't get reimbursed through Toyota corporate unless they "do it properly". corporate bureaucracy at its finest.

glad they got you a new one w/out much hassle. most dealers wouldn't have touched it if it wasn't in the truck.
 
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they can't get reimbursed through Toyota corporate unless they "do it properly". corporate bureaucracy at its finest.

glad they got you a new one w/out much hassle. most dealers wouldn't have touched it if it wasn't in the truck.

I mean, I get that they need to fill out the paperwork but do they need to hold me there while they do it? It's a dead battery. It's not swapping out the drivetrain. Also, it was in the truck, just not under the hood :)
 
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