Battery advice needed

[rogersbra1]

My suv is a Sequoia with 4.7 V8.  I have a smaller Battery a Group24F thats 2 years old.  2 days ago we had cold weather down to 0* F with wind chill.  Went to start and it did but stopped, then the Battery was out, buzz and thats it. Terminals corroded or the + was,  brass on lead?   Cleaned it, Battery still showing 1/2 on the dashboard, clicks and makes that terrible sound like there's no hope of starting.

Put the battery on a good charger for 4 hours, showing just over 12v with the charger removed, I know 13v is full capacity.  It cranked then blah... 1/2 again and clicked.  Had someone jump start me, let it run and drove around 30 minutes, tight clean connections on the battery.  Parked it.  1 hour later tried to start? cranked then clicked.

 

This morning? nothing registered on the dashboard. Turn the key? was like no battery existed, silence, not a light or anything.  fully dead battery.  Well thats when I did another check of the terminals and cleaned both, scraping off down to metal, dry clean and tight.  

If I worked fulltime? I would go spend $100 on another battery. But now the Question, does this draining of charge and cold weather cause battery failure?  It held a charge and was 12v, so all the cells must be functional.   Can change out the battery electrolyte for $10 but any reason not to?

 

thanks!

 

 

[Machloop]

No good news im affraid to say.  If your Battery is around 12 to 12.5 volts even after a full charge and especially if its a cheap small non standard Toyota one older than as little as two years old.  If it will not crank fast enough it will have at least a cell down.  You could take it off recharge it and then use a drop tester on it.  However I would not recommend you do this unless you have electro experience.  So find out exactly from the manufacturer's spec what physical size you need,  what crank current, connection post type /configuration,  ammpere hour capacity you need and go and buy the best type your budget can stand.  Do not attempt to mess with acid or electrolyte.  It could be an alternator problem but get a new Battery for a 95% first fix chance!  Also see" Frostyballs "excellent blog on Covid flat batteries, I have commented on elsewhere.  Sorry sometimes bitting the bulit is the cheapest option !

Cheers