On my F-150 If I didn't start it during the week by the time the weekend came it wouldn't start after sitting for 5-6 days. Never figured out what was causing it.

 

I didn't take it to the dealer because it started right up this morning. I drove to the gas station and filled up, then picked up McDonald's breakfast for everyone, and it seemed to do fine. I have another month before my 36-month BTB warranty is up. I will see what it does over the next couple weeks. I didn't want to take a chance of being stuck at the dealer today and missing the football game.

 

I swung by my dealer about an hour ago. The service writer said that the batteries were probably bad, but that they would have to run diagnostics on the batteries and alternator before replacing anything. I guess a bad alternator could cause the batteries to fail, so they want to make sure that they check everything. They couldn't get me in today, so they set up an appointment for me to take it in on Monday morning. I will let you guys know what happens when I take it in on Monday.

 

I just dropped off my truck at the dealer. He gave me a dissertation on how a red indicator on a Motorcraft battery doesn't mean that the battery is bad. He said that after a certain amount of time, the indicator no longer turns green, but stays red to "indicate the shelf life" of the battery, so that they "can tell which batteries have been replaced". I'm not sure I understand, but what I can gather from the lecture is that a red indicator on a new battery indicates that the battery needs to be charged. A red indicator on an old battery indicates that the battery is old. The only way you can tell if the battery is old or bad is by charging it, then seeing if the eye turns green or stays red. If it turns green, it's a good battery. If it stays red, it's an old battery. I left the truck so that they could test the alternator and batteries. We'll see what happens, but I figure they are going to tell me that the batteries are fine, then a few months from now, after my warranty expires, the batteries will fail, and I will have to buy new ones.

 

I just picked the truck up from the dealer, and as I expected, they really did nothing. They said they checked everything out and charged the batteries a little, but that it all checked out fine. I can't imagine why they would have had to charge the batteries. The truck was on the battery charger all night last night (actually the past two days) until I drove it to the dealer. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that I can get another year out of these batteries. I still think it's BS about it being normal for the indicator on the battery to be RED, but that's fine. We've bought six brand new vehicles from this dealer. If my batteries fail any time soon, then we have bought our last vehicle from them.

 

Holy smokes! If a Tennessee winter kills your batteries, how would those batteries fair up here in a frigid cold New England winter? It's 17 degrees out right now, yesterday morning when I got up to go to work it was 6 degrees at 0600Hrs! I don't think that your diesel would get me to work every morning! (LOL)

 

My truck got three years out of the stock batteries before they took a crap here in Upper Michigan.

 

I am not surprised at your dealership experience. I had hoped you would get a better answer, but went battery shopping for my son this weekend anyway. A couple MAXX 65S's will cost him about $150 and I have officially stopped worrying about his truck.

 

I'm sure all they did was hook up they're little electric battery tester and it tested good, then attached volt meter leads to see if the alt was charging. It can be a pain to get a descent diagnosis with out you standing there watching...

But it isn't impossible for your batteries to still be good

 

Yeah, I agree. It could just be that my little eight mile drive to work just isn't enough to keep a good charge on the batteries, especially during the winter. I guess the battery charger may become part of my routine. I only work four days a week, and the truck sits for three days every week. The only time I ever have any issues is when it has been sitting for a few days. The day it wouldn't start, it had been sitting for six days. Fortunately, I have a really good 100-amp battery charger that goes into maintenance mode as soon as the battery reaches 100% charge. I may just have to start hooking it up once a month during my three days off.

 

Diesels in the winter are never very fun to get started.

 

First if you get new batteries the Platinum is excellent. I have one in my Expedition. They are actually made by Odyssey, and Odyssey sells them under there name for close to 300.00.
If you want a good reliable charger/ maintainer, go with a battery tender. With two batteries I would get a dual outlet ,( http://batterytender.com/2-bank-inte...emisphere.html ) and hard wire it, with longer wires you could run it out through the grill making it simple plug and play. Check Amazon for a lot better price than retail.
I currently have a dual outlet charging both batteries on my boat, and a junior on each of my motorcycles. I have had zero issues with any of them.

 

Well, I guess my batteries are fine. I drove the truck the last three days. Today, I hooked it up to the charger, and the batteries were still sitting at 95% charge level. It took about 30 minutes to bring them both up to 100% charge, and this was after brining the truck into the garage from 30 degree weather. I'm glad they seem to be fine. I am thinking that I will occasionally hook it up to the charger, just to keep track of what's going on.

 

From what I have seen three years is about the norm for batteries out of diesels. I bought two new ones from ford when i first bought my truck in 07 and just had to have them replaced. Ford pro-rates their batteries based on a (i think) 37 or 40 month scheduale. So you will get some $$ knocked off based on how many months is left. And I don't think the 6.4's are like my 6.0, but if you don't have enought juice to fire the FICM it won't start either!!

 

If I get four years out of my stock batteries, I will be happy. I've had the truck for 36 months right now, and I am just hoping to get another year out of them. I am going to start putting the truck on a battery charger/maintainer every weekend, since I don't drive it much during the weekend. Maybe the battery sulfation removal cycle will keep them from going bad for another year.