A couple of months ago I was on a long business trip and the truck was parked for a month. Since then it takes longer for the car to crank. This past week I was gone again. When I came home the car will not start (also temp fell below 20 degrees). It cranks for a split second and then the dash goes black with one red light blinking. Both batteries have the green light (battery life) but after a few cranks the passenger side went black. I tried the search option for dead batteries without any good luck. I did a google search and it seems the batteries needs to be replaced at the same time. My truck is a 2004.5 with 130k miles. The batteries are stock. How long are they suppose to last?

Should I go with Maxx batteries from wallie world priced at $73 a piece or stay with stock batteries?

Thanks,

G

 

Battery are funny things you start and go and the next time nothing got ot love it. You should always replace diesel batterys in pairs.If the walmart battery have the correct cca as recomened and the cost is good go ahead. But they need to have the correct Cold Cranking Amps (cca)

 

Outside reached 50 degrees today and the truck started fine. I went for a 5 minute test drive and everything was fine. The passenger side battery green light is still black. So I guess new batteries is in the near future :-(.

Who has replaced batteries on their 2004.5 already or most people still has the stock batteries?

 

I bought the wally world batteries for my truck. They lasted less than a year. I was having the same symptoms you were with the cold weather. When I tried to bring them back, they said they would only replace one of them and that the other one was still charging. I asked for store credit because I didn't want to mess around with their batteries any more, but no luck. They would only replace the dead battery. Now I'm left with a new battery and one that will only charge less than 50%. I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for. At least most of the time. My advice to you is to throw down the money and get a pair of Interstate batteries. My truck starts in the freezing cold without a problem using the Interstates. Anybody want to buy a pair of Maxx batteries? One of em is brand new.

 

i've seen good things come from interstate batteries (they're the oem manufacturer for all dodge batteries). by the way that sight glass with the green ball, hydrometer. never trust the internal ones. completely useless, only full proff way of knowing a battery is good is load testing it.

 

I have not hooked the batteries yet, I may just take them back and get interstate batteries. I am not sure though. I had a battery in a car that I don't drive that often. I bought the battery about 18 months ago. The car has not been started since June of last year. Needless to say the battery was dead. I took it to walmart and the lady gave me a brand new battery. I did not have the receipt and she just asked me for my driver's license and that was it, lol. Maybe because its a small town that they don't care, lol.

Btw, how to replace the batteries? Do I have to remove the 4 bolts of the bracket and the hood shocks to remove the battery/bracket? It was too cold last night so I will replace them this weekend.

Thanks,

g

 

Where do they sell Interstate batteries?

 

yikes dude, far from that complicated. just pop the hood, disconnect the ground ( negative) cable first from the batteries, then pop off the positive leads, then on each battery, remove the tie down bolts and then the tie down rod/strap. then remove.

http://www.interstatebatteries.com/c...818-4294493584

just type in your zip code and it will tell you who sells them, or jsut go to the dealer if you wanna fork over the cash.

 

Thanks man. I replaced the batteries tonight and it was pretty easy. One bolt with bracket on each battery. The driver side battery has a 1 inch long cut/crack and about 2-3mm wide. The passenger side has another cut about 1/2" long and 1 mm wide. Both on the negative side. Maybe due to the vibration of the cummins engine?????

btw, I decided to go with the walmart batteries. I never had any problem returning anything to walmart. The battery offers 3 year free replacement and 84 months prorated warranty. And it also cost almost half of the Interstate battery.