I have the p0443 error and now my battery is dead after about every 2 days. I took out a multimeter and got 6.37 at the purge solenoid its self with the engine running and with it shut off. I checked the fuse in the dash and its good. The wires look good as far as I can tell. Can someone tell me what my next step should be or what other options there are. There is a recall for this problem but I cant remember the number. I called the dealership and they dont show it for my 99 durango. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

you can check the recalls yourself from the dodge website under the owners link.

based on what you are telling us your solenoid is always getting power, i would start by tracing wires to see if there is an damage in the wire loom/harness going to it. If you dont feel like doing that without knowing its the issue you could just unplug the solenoid and see if the battery drain goes away, if so then you found the problem, if not then the drain is unrelated.

 

ok, so I dont nescessrily have to have the purge solenoid plugged in? Ill try that then get back to you.

 

I unhooked the purge solenoid and it actually ran the battrey down in 1 day instead of 2-4 days. Anyways Im taking it to a shop Tuesday and they said they can diagnose it for 40-$60 so thats not bad. Ill post back when its diagnosed if I need any more help. Im starting to think that maybe it is the computer.

 

Well the shop couldnt find a drain and said my battery was no good. It was a new Duralast from Autozone and Autozone tested it and said it was good, but the shop said it wasnt. So I traded it in at Autozone for a Optima Yellow Top and the shop said if there was a drain it was intermittent so if I still have problems with my battery draining after about 4-5 days Im gonna take it in and the shop said they will rediagnose it for free since they didnt catch it the first timem but they are positive it was just a bad battery. I had to argue with autozone that it was a bad battery for about 20 minutes to get them to swap them out. They claimed their battery test showed it was good, but they can only do resistance tests and not check for a bad cell, so if you ever get your battery tested at autozone the results dont mean anything. The shop I went to said it had bad cells. Hopefully this battery works better than the Duralast and doesnt have any bad cells right off the shelf.

 

Surprised as this is the first Duralast battery that I have seen bad. Now you didn't say if it was the Gold line or regular line. I have seen the regular just not the Gold series and that is what I purchase.

A bad cell should be picked up on a load test but not all the time so if it was bad then it was bad. Sometimes a test will not show it. Nice to see they at least swapped you.

 

It was a Duralast Gold, but I still think there is a drain, but the shop couldnt find it so they said get a new battery and if I still have problems they will go from there, because they said the battery was toast and that Duralast was a bad battery and that he sees it about 10 times a day.

 

I've had a bad duralast off the shelf but the guys at my autozone were very helpful in swapping it for a new one. So yeah, sometimes there will be a bad one in the batch.

 

I don't know about 10 times per day......Thinking a little far fetched there!


Anyway, flat out the Duralast Gold gives you a 8 year warranty for an excellent price! 3 years full replacement and 5 years pro-rated after that! Nobody I know gives you a warranty THAT good!

Concitering a battery is only supposed to last 4 years I think it's a hell of a buy and they always have done great for me and many other people I've recommended. Like Dan said, "So yeah, sometimes there will be a bad one in the batch" I think that happens to everyone.

 

I agree Duralast is a good brand. My pontiac sunfire has had the same duralast for over 6 years. The optima batteries are worth the money in my opinion though so I thought I would get the best since everything else on my Durango is the best. The optimas are deep cycle and I had one in my Ford Ranger, one day the alternator went out and I was still able to drive home (70+ miles) just off the battery. The guy at the shop though thought Duralast was junk and wanted me to get a Decka battery from him, but my warranty was with AutoZone. He was probably just trying to make a quick buck.