Dead Battery

[slimjim2525]

I just got back from a 2 week snowmobile trip in Quebec.  I left my truck at my house in Vermont.  Got back, and the battery is totally dead.  Would not jump off of jumper cables.  Had to call AAA, and they double jumped it with a jump box, and jumper cables.  Drove it home 3.5 hours to my house in CT.  Shut it off, and sure enough, it wont start.  Put a voltmeter on it and is reading 3.3 volts.  So I bought a new battery.  Now I have a warning to service parking brake and a wrench symbol on the dash.  WTF GM??  Off to the dealer I go, and I'm out of warranty as the truck has 40k miles on it.

[Transient]

Do you have an OBD2 scan tool?  Might be able to clear those codes that are throwing the dash lights.  If they come back on you'll know there's a definite problem. 

[slimjim2525]

Just saw a video on youtube.  To clear this, just start the truck, press the brake, and hold the parking brake button for 10 seconds.  It cleared.  No trip to the dealer.  But still, batteries dying cuz the truck sat for a couple weeks.  This is the second time it happened actually.  Went on a cruise for a week, came home and same thing, but that time I was able to jump it off my car.

[AJMBLAZER]

Have the battery load tested.  Makes me wonder if you have a dead cell in it and the battery is showing enough volts across the good cells when charged but as soon as any load is on it battery drains down and fails

 

Also, with everything on modern vehicles having sensors and/or being electronic when the working voltage gets low all kinds of weird things happen and goofy errors happen.

[repairman54]

16 hours ago, AJMBLAZER said:

Have the battery load tested.  Makes me wonder if you have a dead cell in it and the battery is showing enough volts across the good cells when charged but as soon as any load is on it battery drains down and fails

 

Also, with everything on modern vehicles having sensors and/or being electronic when the working voltage gets low all kinds of weird things happen and goofy errors happen.

Spot on. I just went through this on my '20 Traverse. Load test showed battery borderline weak. Tossed all kinds of crazy codes on a cold start up yet cranked up strong. One would expect more than a few years out of a big AGM battery but not today. 

[AJMBLAZER]

Eh, manufacturing defects/COVID production issues/the high demand on the electrical systems of modern vehicles/GM probably didn't put in the highest grade batteries/etc.  He's also in a cold climate with a diesel.  Lots of demands on modern batteries and charging systems.

[redwngr]

Any accessory devices (radar detector, dashcams, etc.) connected that might increase the parasitic draw above the factory level? 

 

If not, there is a procedure to determine whatever it is that is causing the abnormal draw.

 

[GETGONE]

There was a TSB on something that was causing parasitic draw from the factory because it wasn't going to the proper shut down state and was sticking in standby mode. It's also helpful to randomly put a battery charger on the truck to top it off. If you're driving short distances and the vehicle sits a lot, it will drain the battery and never get fully charged.

[Ben_Drinking_Coffee]

What GETGONE said.  I had this issue on an F150 a while back.  It was a control module that never shut off properly.  We spend months hunting a parasitic drain only to find the transmission said awake all the time and drained the battery.  No faults thrown.  

 

Good luck.

[JohnH4260]

Maybe try using a Battery Tender?

[eppieguy]

Mine is at the dealer right now being tested for battery drain but the dealer is telling me if these trucks sit for 2 or more weeks the battery will be dead and to use a maintainer if it's going to be sitting for awhile. The only thing I have on mine is a dash cam in which has motion recording so I'm sure that's part of the problem but when it's sitting in my closed garage for a couple of week there isn't any movement to record but it's thinking about recording I guess. It has died 2 times, first time after sitting for a month in my garage the battery was so dead it wouldn't even take a charge, the second time it sat outside for 6 days, it started right up, I drove it home (12 miles on highway) and put it my garage and it sat for another 6 days and it was dead again, I was able to charge the battery this time though. I will report back as to what the dealer finds but I'm guessing they'll find nothing besides my dash cam.

[AJMBLAZER]

That’s BS. My truck is 5 years old with 113,000 miles on it. Original battery. In February it sat for over two weeks and started just fine. 
 

A newish, correctly functioning, factory original truck shouldn’t have any draws that would make a battery go dead in 2 weeks. 

[eppieguy]

Dealer said there is no above normal draw on battery, let it sit 2 days on a meter of some sort. I do agree with it should be able to sit longer than 2 weeks but I'm friends with the service manager at this dealer, I trust him and he said he's had a few of them come in with the same issue and they see no draw on the vehicle. My 2014 Corvette can only sit 3-4 weeks max without a maintainer otherwise it will be dead as well. Not much more I can do, If it's going to sit more than a week going forward I'll just put the maintainer on it. 

[eppieguy]

Oh, another thing to add, he said it's just on the refreshed trucks, my 19 didn't have that issue either. 

[slimjim2525]

Reviving this thread.  Again went on a 2 week snowmobile trip to Quebec, and again came homee to a dead battery.  Had to replace the battery in 4 degree weather in my driveway, that was fun.  It had been at the dealer for 5 days now.  They say there is a parasitic draw somewhere behind the dash.  Anyone have any insight so I can point them in the right direction?  All I can say is this truck has been nothing but a nightmare.  58k miles and it has been at the dealer 5 times now.