Ok, the title is a little loaded but hear me out. The symptoms are kind of weird and with batteries costing $200 a pop these days, I want to be sure I'm fixing the right problem.
So the battery is a few years old.
It will start the truck nice and easy most of the time. But then it starts to get weak. It still starts the truck but slowly over a period of days or even weeks, it gets weaker and weaker until suddenly one day, it's dead and won't start. So I jump it. Then I go home and a day or two later when I have to drive somewhere, it cranks right up like it's brand new.
I don't have a regular commute and the most common drive I do is between my current house and new house which is about a mile and a half.
Also I have aftermarket heated seats, but I'm usually driving alone. Low uses 1.5A and high uses 4.5A. Thats a lot of power but not enough that you would expect that to be the difference between charging or draining.
So I'm trying to figure out, is it just the battery? Or maybe is my alternator not creating enough power like it should? Or is something not turning off when it should, when I turn the truck off. So something is trickling down my power? But only sometimes.
The closest thing to a pattern I have noticed is that MAYBE it happens more when I'm using the heated seat on high more, when its 20° out.
I did have a 12v USB port charger for my phone I left plugged in, and I knwo those plugs are always on, so I stopped using that. It seemed to help for a while but lately not so much.
What do you think, any thoughts?
Maybe it's just a combination of the heated seats, the weak battery, and my short driving trips?
So the battery is a few years old.
It will start the truck nice and easy most of the time. But then it starts to get weak. It still starts the truck but slowly over a period of days or even weeks, it gets weaker and weaker until suddenly one day, it's dead and won't start. So I jump it. Then I go home and a day or two later when I have to drive somewhere, it cranks right up like it's brand new.
I don't have a regular commute and the most common drive I do is between my current house and new house which is about a mile and a half.
Also I have aftermarket heated seats, but I'm usually driving alone. Low uses 1.5A and high uses 4.5A. Thats a lot of power but not enough that you would expect that to be the difference between charging or draining.
So I'm trying to figure out, is it just the battery? Or maybe is my alternator not creating enough power like it should? Or is something not turning off when it should, when I turn the truck off. So something is trickling down my power? But only sometimes.
The closest thing to a pattern I have noticed is that MAYBE it happens more when I'm using the heated seat on high more, when its 20° out.
I did have a 12v USB port charger for my phone I left plugged in, and I knwo those plugs are always on, so I stopped using that. It seemed to help for a while but lately not so much.
What do you think, any thoughts?
Maybe it's just a combination of the heated seats, the weak battery, and my short driving trips?
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