Car Battery Recommendations and Core return refunds, etc

[Daley]

Guys, guys! I know we all want to help @jeromedawg definitively track down the problem and fix it, but I think a little too much armchair internet diagnostics are getting in the way and overcomplicating things with talk of chasing down phantom power draws with someone who doesn't have the sufficient electrical/technical background to even own more than a $2 Harbor Freight multimeter.

What do we know?

-Jeromedawg lives in SoCal, and SoCal has gotten real winter this past week and there's symptoms of difficulty cranking with a cold engine.
-The one night after the battery was completely dead was after accidentally leaving a light on in the cabin.
-The car hasn't been driven much for long session runs and proper recharges the past year due to the pandemic, shortening the life of the battery further. Lead acid is forgiving, but it's still not that forgiving.
-The car has been serviced with a trusted mechanic within the past few months with a clean bill of health, and the previous owner was his brother, so it's not some used mystery machine haunted with gremlins.
-AutoZone sells crappy Exide batteries with known quality control issues to the point as has been pointed out they don't like to honor the warranty even when the batteries are testing bad.

Advanced Auto Parts does similar, so I assume it standard practice given my own experience nearly a decade ago when one of their cheap Exide batteries went bad and corroded out around the terminals less than 18 months in on a three year battery and they tried to blame my alternator without even hooking anything up while trying to dodge a warranty swap. The "bad" alternator is still on my car a decade later working fine, but not their batteries. Never their batteries again. All these chain shops source their parts from the same manufacturers, the only thing that changes is the packaging.

Sometimes, a duck is just a duck.

Jerry, just take the car to a Walmart service center and have them test the battery for you for free. These people will have no vested interest in lying to you given their pay, no warranty on the line, and no sales bonus for selling you something you don't need. They'll likely even give you a paper printout of the battery test results to take with you. If the thing tests bad or is on the way out, just go to Costco, eat the money, and replace it with something you know is decent from a seller who won't try and screw you on a warranty return. Then, be sure to take better care of your battery in the coming years by actually stretching and exercising your car every couple months to keep the seals wet, the carbon buildup burnt off, the battery happy, and the tires from developing flat spots. You've been fighting this for three days and destroyed two admittedly crappy multimeters already.

If there's still a phantom power draw causing problems after that? Then cross that bridge when you get to it, but if replacing the battery fixes the problem? You're done! Go home and rest easy knowing the job is done.

[jeromedawg]

Guys, guys! I know we all want to help @jeromedawg definitively track down the problem and fix it, but I think a little too much armchair internet diagnostics are getting in the way and overcomplicating things with talk of chasing down phantom power draws with someone who doesn't have the sufficient electrical/technical background to even own more than a $2 Harbor Freight multimeter.

What do we know?

-Jeromedawg lives in SoCal, and SoCal has gotten real winter this past week and there's symptoms of difficulty cranking with a cold engine.
-The one night after the battery was completely dead was after accidentally leaving a light on in the cabin.
-The car hasn't been driven much for long session runs and proper recharges the past year due to the pandemic, shortening the life of the battery further. Lead acid is forgiving, but it's still not that forgiving.
-The car has been serviced with a trusted mechanic within the past few months with a clean bill of health, and the previous owner was his brother, so it's not some used mystery machine haunted with gremlins.
-AutoZone sells crappy Exide batteries with known quality control issues to the point as has been pointed out they don't like to honor the warranty even when the batteries are testing bad.

Advanced Auto Parts does similar, so I assume it standard practice given my own experience nearly a decade ago when one of their cheap Exide batteries went bad and corroded out around the terminals less than 18 months in on a three year battery and they tried to blame my alternator without even hooking anything up while trying to dodge a warranty swap. The "bad" alternator is still on my car a decade later working fine, but not their batteries. Never their batteries again. All these chain shops source their parts from the same manufacturers, the only thing that changes is the packaging.

Sometimes, a duck is just a duck.

Jerry, just take the car to a Walmart service center and have them test the battery for you for free. These people will have no vested interest in lying to you given their pay, no warranty on the line, and no sales bonus for selling you something you don't need. They'll likely even give you a paper printout of the battery test results to take with you. If the thing tests bad or is on the way out, just go to Costco, eat the money, and replace it with something you know is decent from a seller who won't try and screw you on a warranty return. Then, be sure to take better care of your battery in the coming years by actually stretching and exercising your car every couple months to keep the seals wet, the carbon buildup burnt off, the battery happy, and the tires from developing flat spots. You've been fighting this for three days and destroyed two admittedly crappy multimeters already.

If there's still a phantom power draw causing problems after that? Then cross that bridge when you get to it, but if replacing the battery fixes the problem? You're done! Go home and rest easy knowing the job is done.

Haha thanks buddy. Good idea on taking it to a Walmart service center to get tested. Hopefully there's not a crazy wait. Couldn't I just do the same at a Costco service center? We have AAA as well so wondering if it's worth exercising having them come out to test the thing.

[dandarc]

Walmart has a more full-service service center (if the particular Walmart has one). Costco does tires and batteries, but not much else - not sure 'check the battery' is necessarily a separate service they provide there. And the Costco tire centers seem to always be very busy whenever I've been by, whereas Walmart is more often not as busy. But then I've never lived where you do - situation might be wholly different in your area.

[Daley]

Haha thanks buddy. Good idea on taking it to a Walmart service center to get tested. Hopefully there's not a crazy wait. Couldn't I just do the same at a Costco service center? We have AAA as well so wondering if it's worth exercising having them come out to test the thing.

Honestly, it's better to know than not, so getting the electrical system and battery tested first wouldn't hurt anything. This said, AutoZone already did a test, and though they think the battery is fine (it may be, may be borderline, may be bad and trying to dodge the exchange), I'm pretty sure they wouldn't pass up the chance to sell you an alternator. But, second opinions are never awful, Walmart has the lowest stakes basic free diagnostics for this stuff, and Costco doesn't test or install batteries - which helps with the no-questions warranty exchange. It's possible your AAA service center might be able to do likewise, but I've never dealt with them.

If the alternator is bad, you're probably looking at having to replace the battery anyway and your mechanic doing the work, better to have a battery in there with a no question warranty exchange. If there's more phantom power draw than normal with any car made in the past 40 years, having a new good battery lose enough charge after sitting two weeks is going to be a great diagnostics point for your mechanic, which I doubt you'll want to try and diagnose yourself anyway.

The battery is already pushing close to three years from manufacture at this point. It's a known shoddy brand. It's had a rough year with improper recharging with plenty of short trips in a warm/hot climate, and it's struggling to start a cold engine during an unusual snap of actual winter. The only ways to rehab a dying SLA battery involves trickle chargers you don't have and potentially turning your complex into a superfund site trying to clean out the lead scale while being careful not to melt the flesh off your fingers and face and going mad as a hatter from lead dust exposure, or starting a fire.

If it were me in your shoes at this point? I'd buy the felt pads and dielectric grease pack from my closest parts shop, grab my tools, and take the ten minutes to just replace the fool battery out in the Costco parking lot and stop worrying about it. If there's still problems after that, you can cross that bridge then with your trusted mechanic that you'd probably have do the work anyway, and if the problem's fixed just replacing the battery, you're done and your wife's happy.

Then, if you still want to learn all this basic vehicular electrical diagnostics stuff, you can do so on your own time while the car is actually working.

K.I.S.S., man, K.I.S.S.