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The Duralast battery in my 1995 F-350 appears to be completely dead. It is only 3 months old. I got it in February at AutoZone. It was fine until I inadvertently left the ignition switch on for several days and it discharged completely. I have placed it on charge in various charger settings: 12v 12amp automatic; 12v 2amp automatic; 12v Activate. The charger needle barely moves above zero in any of these settings..

I left the charger on 12v 2amp overnight but there is no increase of charge rate and no sign of power to any component, i.e., the dome lights still don't come on and the charger needle still indicates little to no charge. I removed the battery cables to make sure the terminals and charger cables were getting good contact.

Would leaving it on charge for a longer period bring it back to life or is it gone?

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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 18:54
  • Sometimes a complete discharge kills the battery.
    – Moab
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 19:25

1 Answer 1

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If you discharge a battery to absolute flat - as you have done - then it may not be able to be revived.

So, given you have tried to charge it for a decent period of time then it looks as if you need to replace it.

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  • Thank you. This battery was a no-cost replacement for an identical Duralast that went bad before warranty expired. Do you think this one would be covered as well or did I somehow violate the warranty terms?
    – Vicente
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 18:26
  • @Vicente - My suggestion is to take it back. If it still falls under the time limit for the original battery purchase, they will most likely cover it. They are pretty good about warranty replacements.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 18:53
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    If you take it back - don't tell them what you did... :)
    – Solar Mike
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 19:11
  • UPDATE: took it back to Auto Zone and they determined that the "cells were dead". Got a new one but had to pay a pro-rated price. They knocked off $55 but it still cost me $122. I figure it was fair enough since it was my fault for leaving ignition switch on for days n days ( even though I didn't admit to it :) ) Thanks for the advice guys. I learned a little more about batteries.
    – Vicente
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 21:39

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