Our van has been have sporadic battery draining problems when left to sit in the driveway for seemingly random periods of time. It will start after a jump.

Sometime it could be overnight, but yesterday my wife even tried to start it before she had to go somewhere and it started fine. She turned it off, went back inside to pack up the kids, went back out, and it wouldn't start again. We're talking not more than 30 minutes, probably much less than that, and it was too low to start. How low would it have to be before it wouldn't start the car. I've seen it at 12.03 volts (its about 10 degrees here now) and it still started.

I have check a couple of time after running the van that its holding around 12-12.6 volts when off. When running its around 14.5 at idle. Seems like the alternator is charging it OK.

I have read a bit about the IOD fuse and the off draw that can happen, but how would it drain it enough to not start again in 30 minutes? I'll prob ably take it to AutoZone to have them do a check, but the battery is only 4 years old and seems like it is OK. They'll check the alternator too. Are there any other components i should be concerned about or can test?

 

is it original battery?
I have an 06 too
mine did that last year, went into sams came out started right up, drove over got gas, then would not start, needed a jump, drove to autozone, then ran the battery test, and told me it was fine, 2 weeks later same thing, I was going in for surgery in another week so i didn't mess around charging it, I just bought a new battery, no problem since


edit, I see it is original

also just to let you know autozone will want you to rev the engine, to like 3k rpms, but you van has a rev limiter which will prevent it, and the guy at my store didn't know what was going on

 

anything under 12V and you might not get it to start.
if you feel there is a parasitic drain on the battery connect a stoplightbulb in series to the neg battery cable it will be illuminated if its drawing, start pullin fuses till the light goes out, once the light goes out bingo! the fuse you pulled is the draining component

and your van should rev higher than 3k redline is higher than 3k

 

it has been a year, but I will check tomorrow for sure, but I think the rev limiter kicked in at 2800rpms in park or neutral

 

thats like a low speed diesel engine

 

Took it to both Autozone and Adv Auto Part. Both said something was wrong with the battery. I don't like to pay retail for anything if i dont have to. Wentout to my car, popped open the laptop and ordered it online with a $30 off coupon and selected pick up instead of shipping. Walked back in to the same store after grabbing some food and had them install the battery.

The battery was original, but we'll see if there's any problems now. I suspect if their tested saw a problem it was legit.

 

hope that fixes it, you got 1 year more then I got,
and I am like you, I always order my stuff on line, you can always do a search for at least 20%-40% off advance auto and get it cheaper,


Also Hemi5spd, I went out and my rev Limiter kicks in at 2800rpms, and drops to 2700rpms, over and over again, the sound makes it sound like to drops even less then 2700rpms v6 3.8liter

 

wow. i donr have a tach in mine so I'll believe you lol
we got a guy who rebilds batteries up here 35 bucks and 2year warranty

havent bought a NEW battery in ages