Not sure if this is normal. I have a 2006 Duramax LBZ with 15K miles. I live in Colorado and drive the vehicle on the weekends. It is garaged during the week, while out of town.

A few months ago, batteries were dead and purchaced (2) Optima Red Tops for the truck. After a few weeks, the new batteries were dead, also. Please note, the truck is bone stock with no additional electronics added.

My question is: Is this a normal condition? (Seems this did not occure the first two years of ownership on original batteries) Is there something recently that may be draining my batteries?

What are my options?

Thank you in advance for your advise.

Sounds like there is something wrong,that truck should be able to sit a month or longer with no battery going dead.You did right by replacing the batterys in pairs.Guess I have been lucky with the factory delcos as I never had one go bad even after 5 years .

did you shut your doors all the way? :lol:

I haven't had anything but problems with the Optima Red Tops. I have another truck I drive every few days, and it seems to go through the Red Top quite quickly. I had a yellow top in it for years though. And the battery dealers will argue to the opposite.

I have over 87,000 miles on my LBZ now and still am running the original AC Delcos without a problem.

my truck was doing the samething except i drive mine everyday for work. and then the morning i came out and my truck was dead. so i took the batteries to my buddies shop and had them load tested and they both tested bad so i bought new batteries and hopefully that fixes the problem. i have heard that if you leave the truck locked and the alarm is set that it will drain the batterys but i am not so sure thats the truth tho

I was having similar issues with multiple stock Delcos - Finally went with the new Diehard P4 AGM Batts (880 cca) and all is good..

I agree with GotMeDa1Ton. I have been using the Red Top in my 4x4 which doesn't get used much, and I haven't had one last over a year yet. I have considered changing to a different brand, but as long as Sam's keeps replacing them free, I'll keep using them.

A few years ago on this site there was a lot a bragging about how good the Optima brand was.

Yep, batteries are a difficult consumable to predict life span. I've tried many different brands and types in my daily drivers, hot rods and race cars. And, I've had such varying results that I don't hang my hat on any particular brand or type. I've had some last way beyond their rating, as well as others fail at less than half their rating - same brands and types. So, these days, I either purchase the OE equivalent or the type of battery (cca and reserve rating, etc.) I need for my application on sale and hope it lasts as long as it's advertised rating.

I would check to see if there is just a light that is staying on somewhere, glovebox, rear dome light, an overhead light, etc... and about the optima batteries they rarely die. In the sense that if you drain them and they don't want to take a charge you can fix them. If you turn the charger on boost for 5-10 minutes at a time you can usually get them to "fix" themselves and take a full charge.

Try pulling the fuses one at a time and do an amp draw at each.

Thanks for the info. This is good stuff.

I am a big proponant of OE parts but had good luck with the Optima I had in my 94 Chev. What's so puzzling is that these two Red Tops are less than two months old and the problem started two weeks after I installed them.

I understand that any battery will not last long, with as little as I drive this truck. But two weeks? Should have got two cheep one for that.

As I mentioned, the truck is garaged and not locked with no alarm active. Can anyone say if there might be something else draining the bateries?

MAYBE you got a bad Red Top. Load checking both of the new batteries is easy.
Otherwise, if you have the same failure with two different sets of batteries, you may have a parasetic draw on batteries after shutdown, that is discharging them. This problem is magnified in winter, (battery capacity is only 40% @ 0 deg F., and starting a cold engine needs approximatly double the current). As mentioned, make sure you don't have a light bulb left on somewhere.
If this is a repeatable problem, you could remove battery cable from both batteries, let sit for a week, and then see if problem goes away. If problem is gone, you have a parasetic draw problem.
Below is a post where someone had this issue and apparently traced it down to the Bose amplifier circuit. If you have this option, you could pull appropriate radio/amp fuses and maybe narrow problem down to the radio circuit.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275928&highlight=battery

I find the same thing on my trucks if I don't drive them much. My 03 sits a lot so I put a trickle charger on it, that solves the battery going bad problem.

Ken

There is almost always a parasitic draw on all later model vehicles. What makes one battery better than an another is its ability to "keep up" with a certain amount of draw. I have experimented with all types of batteries over the years, as being in the RV business we are really hard on batteries. The red tops have not been good for us. The all out worse battery (for us) is any thing that says Die Hard on it! The only thing with batteries these days is buy the one that has the longest FREE REPLACEMENT warranty on it. Auto Zone Gold has a pretty good warranty and there is one all over the country. We have very good luck with the Napa Gold for our 1100 cca Group 31 batteries. On the other hand we have the best luck with Trojans for 6V applications and Life Line AGM for 4D applications. When my factory batteries die (will be soon as I'm tired of the leaking pass side bat) I will be getting the Auto Zone or the Napa Gold. Sorry for the long post, just bored I guess:D:)

buy the one that has the longest FREE REPLACEMENT warranty on it.

That, my friend, is a damned good pce of advice...I'll definitely remember that.!! I'm still running OEM's at 116k, but I know the issue will come up. Agreed on the Trojans: Totally awesome Deep Cycle 6V's..have a pair on my trailer..3 yrs now..tons of Amp/Hrs.

As for the issue in this thread. All I can say is that I have a cpl items that are always drawing power...albeit light, they still draw. A gps, a palm & a bluetooth hdset. Yet I have left the unit sit for longer than a week never any issues starting/cranking. And it gets darned cold up here... -35C on more than one occasion in the winter.

As noted, could it be the batts..?? the issue started when you installed them right..?

cheers

Disconnect one battery completly. Disconnect the positive cable on the other battery and clamp a test light in-line between the battery terminal and the cable. If you have a current draw the test light will light up. Start pulling fuses untill the light goes out or gets more dim. If the light changes then you found one draw. If it goes out completly then you found the draw.

Sounds like something is drawing off the battery when the truck is off. My truck did this and I found out that the ignition switch somehow got indexed wrong and when it was in the off position it was sticking in the aux position. Killed a battery within a couple days before I noticed it. Its worth checking but it is a good example of how just a few little lights and things can drain a battery. Get out your amp meter and happy searching!

I don't have any insight as to what the draw is, but my '06 LBZ can go four to six weeks without running and the batteries are still strong. I do what Stingrea does with my other vehicles. I am sometimes gone for two months (or longer) at a time, so I have a battery tender on them. My wife has an '08 BMW--newer BMWs are notorious for draining the battery due to computers, etc. that stay on. I haven't had a problem with drained batteries on any of those vehicles. I don't have one on the truck, because that's the one I travel in.:D

Whenever mine is garaged for more than a couple of days I connect a Battery Tender Automatic Battery Charger to one of the batteries. It can be left connected to the battery indefinitely.

My last two optimas were crap,my money says the truck is fine;batteries were junk to begin with

I myself absolutely hate Interstate Batteries. Complete junk. Some how Delco's have always been good.

I myself absolutely hate Interstate Batteries. Complete junk. Some how Delco's have always been good.X2 on Interstates! They used to be good but for the past 10 or so years completely suck!

My last two optimas were crap,my money says the truck is fine;batteries were junk to begin with

I've never had any trouble with Optimas. I have had trouble with Delcos. The new Delco battery in my new Safari van leaked acid and ruined the battery tray and the paint in the engine bay shortly after I bought the van. The dealer replaced the battery but that was all they would do. When the new replacement Delco battery started to bulge at the sides I threw it away and replaced it with an Optima red top. The first thing I did after buying my new truck was to get rid of the Delco batteries and replace them with Optimas.

There is almost always a parasitic draw on all later model vehicles. What makes one battery better than an another is its ability to "keep up" with a certain amount of draw. I have experimented with all types of batteries over the years, as being in the RV business we are really hard on batteries. The red tops have not been good for us. The all out worse battery (for us) is any thing that says Die Hard on it! The only thing with batteries these days is buy the one that has the longest FREE REPLACEMENT warranty on it. Auto Zone Gold has a pretty good warranty and there is one all over the country. We have very good luck with the Napa Gold for our 1100 cca Group 31 batteries. On the other hand we have the best luck with Trojans for 6V applications and Life Line AGM for 4D applications. When my factory batteries die (will be soon as I'm tired of the leaking pass side bat) I will be getting the Auto Zone or the Napa Gold. Sorry for the long post, just bored I guess:D:)

Don't let it leak for too long... the acid runs down the firewall and gets into the insulation behind it. I spent about 4 hours scraping the blistered paint and pulling the insulation off after the first ac delcrapo battery began leaking. The tray and bracket that bolts to the firewall will have to be cleaned and painted also.

I agree with Vin63 but I have had my best luck with delco batteries. i have never had one die before it's time and have had 1 last 6 years in a tahoe and 1 last 7 years in a trans am. these also were factory installed batteries.
also as to leaving a door open as suggested by hondarider552, or an interior dome light as i have done by accident' my 06 lbz electrical system shuts down after about 10 minutes to preserve battery life.

sounds weird but it was draining my batteries for and i fought it for almost a week and almost bought new batteries.... But my passenger seat adjustment switch/button whatever was stuck on wife must have kicked it getting out of whatever and it kept draining the batteries, i finallly found it and the power seats draw a lot more amps than you would think... not saying that that is the problem but look around for little things like that in your truck as well... as far as the truck locked and alarm on, that is not true

I have a 2006 Crew Cab 3500 Dually and my batteries are now acting up. I don't drive truck everyday and now if it sits for 2 weeks the batteires are dead. It never did this before this year. I have had the batteries load tested at two different shops and both are saying that the batteries are good. Doors are shut, no inside lights on, that I can find. I have no idea what is happening. Now I have started putting battery maintainers on them, but if I leave them off for 2 weeks, the truck will not crank.
wwc

Am I reading it right, you replaced your 2 batteries then a week or 2 later they where dead again? Have you tested your alternator?

After a few sets of Delcos, I went with the new DieHard P4 AGM batts & could not be happier!