Battery dying on 1.5 year old TRD ORP

Hello, hoping to get some advice.

I’ve woken up to a completely dead battery about 5 times in the last month or so.

About 2 months ago, it was in the body shop. The front bumper cover and the front driver side head lamp assembly had to be replaced. It was also in the dealership for its 15,000 mile service about a week after that.

About 2 weeks after its visit to the body shop, I wake up to a dead battery. Doors won’t even unlock.

The battery has been charged using a 6A charger when it dies.

What are the odds my battery is bad after ~1 year?

I took it to my local dealer about 2 weeks ago, they said they found nothing wrong. They also asked me about this small device installed under my dash. Turned out to be a KARR third party alarm that I’m guessing was installed by the dealer I purchased it from.

Battery died again this morning after sitting for 3 days, I made an appointment with the dealer I purchased it from.

Any advice or similar experiences?

 

I replaced my OEM battery after 6-7yrs when bought new in 2015. Could've went longer but thought it was a good idea to replace.

Do you have any other electrical mods other than the alarm?

There may be a setting in the alarm system that keeps something on even when the vehicle is off causing a parasitic drain on your battery.

 

I’ve had new batteries last for less than one year .

 

Sometimes batteries die early. It may be covered or partially covered.

 

I would disconnect any aftermarket stuff - like that alarm - first and see if that makes a difference. A simple test to see what kind of current flow you have when everything is shut down will point you in a general direction too.

 

That is my only thinking as of now, somehow the alarm is staying on for some reason.

The alarm is wired in to a bunch of stuff under the dash. I am going to ask the dealer to remove it tomorrow.


I did do a parasitic drain test and am reading ~700mA after sitting for 30 minutes, so way over spec.

 

"Usually" that factory Panasonic goes quite a few years (at least mine did in my 2013).

 

Good plan and yes, that's a pretty decent draw.

Looking forward to when you get this problem solved, remember that killing the battery multiple times like that shortens the life of the battery. So even if you fix the problem of what's drawing the battery down, you may still have to replace the battery.

 

I never had mine die that quickly but sitting for a few days she would usually have a slow crank. Removing the KARR alarm fixed some of it.

After a couple more nearly dead batteries while being out in the middle of nowhere for a week and lots of research I pressed the sos button and asked them to turn off the emergency services. Completely fixed the issue, she can sit for weeks now and crank perfectly fine.

 

I'd try to make it a bumper-to-bumper warranty issue assuming it doesn't call out the battery itself as a specific issue. (I'd expect the factory battery to easily make it three years anyway...)

 

Should be around 70mA, not 700. That's insane.

I had an issue as well, but diagnosed it down the the LTE on my remote start/alarm. But i was pulling maybe 120mA and got it down to 75mA when i removed the LTE antenna.

 

Got an update for everyone.

It seems the first dealership I took it to was somewhat incompetent. They checked out the vehicle and did a parasitic draw test, but found nothing wrong.

I took it back to the dealership I bought it from, and they confirmed the 700mA draw.

They then confirmed that the draw went away after disconnecting the Karr Bluetooth security system they installed before delivery. They completely removed the system and confirmed again that the draw was around 30mA.

I now have to screw holes in my lower dash….

Vehicle is back home now. Letting it sit a few days to confirm it’s fixed.

 

Those Karr systems must be big profit makers as dealer add-ons. Why would it be installed on your 4R anyway? It already came with an OEM secure system.

 

I am not sure, I certainly didn’t ask for them to install it.

 

Had a dealer tell me it’s required for their insurance (not that I necessarily believe them) and it’s put on every car that get. (which I do believe)

 

Aftermarket product strikes again. Thanks for the update.

 

Glad they found the issue.

Ahhhhhh, since you didn't ask for anyone to install the alarm, inform them now you need them to order a new lower dash and have then replace it,,,,at their expense.

 

Also, once a battery dies once they typically dont charge well so after having the issue the one time it was going to happen a lot easier and more often

 

I am surprised they didn’t replace the battery.

 

The karr alarm is the stupidest dirtiest tactic stealerships use, they hack up your wiring as soon as it rolls off the truck and they install it right away so they can charge the customer whether they want to buy it or not and of course the mark it up and charge you $2,000 for it

when I got my rig I told the sales guy if they touched it all as soon as it rolled off the truck except for pdi they would lose my sale I specifically popped the pannel to make sure they didn’t install it or any other stupid crap (I’ve seen them install an 80 cent resistor in the 3rd brake light to make it pulsate and charge the customers $1800) fuck stealerships

in ops case they might refuse to remove it or in the very least charge him to remove the device he never wanted

also your battery is under warranty you can buy a new one and submit the receipt to corporate for a reimbursement

 

An alarm will always be on or it can't be an alarm. You can look up the spec for the model but that's a totally normal draw with an aftermarket alarm in my experience. Doubly so if you have one of those dealer GPS units too. It's a great reason to remove them because they can draw enough to kill a battery in a month and can leave you stranded even sooner.

I'm assuming that body shop work on left front means it was damaged? It's possible an impact damaged the battery as well which can cause it to self-discharge. You can charge it fully with it sitting on a workbench (keep it off cold concrete) and check the voltage after a few days. If it self-discharges below 12v you probably need to replace it.

edit: just saw the update but gonna leave this.

 

Now i'm worried why yours is at 30mA now, that way too low for a new 4R. lol

 

alarms drawing it down?

 

Dealers install these cheap Karr alarms as a key management system to make it easy for them to show cars to customers.
They are programmable to a master fob by inserting a dealer module in the alarm control unit, so any sales person can open any car on the lot. When a customer buys the car the module is replaced to program it to only one key fob.

You can search for more info such as this:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2016/08/never-buy-car-alarm-dealership/