So I had my new battery die on me today, only after a month or two later.
When I bought the car it had another battery in it, but after 2 years it died. Now this summer I changed it at costco where it died on me and I expected it since it showed symptoms before hand.
Now today with the new battery only a month or two old it died on me, I have been driving it recently doing door dash with ac on and listening to music through aux so it is a strain on the battery, while also driving in hot weather around 98+ and that could have affected it.

What happened was that I had it in park and in idle and I noticed the battery light pop up red and I lost steering slowly after that, is the costco battery just cheap trash? Or is my alternator dying on me? I drove the car home, and when going over 2500 rpm the battery light goes away. The cars parked and dead now.

 

Extra Info, I recently started doing doordash.... so I think thats had an affect on my battery, I would stop the car at most places when getting food and hop back in and restart it while also using ac and listening to music... so I believe that is my issue. It only has 130k miles so I dont think its the alternator yet...

 

Sounds like an alternator problem. I'd get the battery load tested too.

 

I was planning to just replace the battery from costco, and if it died again then I would have the alternator replaced.

 

Do you have a multimeter?

 

No I do not, should I have an indy perform tests?

 

From the sound of it, your alternator is toast. Go to an Auto store and get you charging voltage checked, it is free. Sounds like your alternator is toast.

 

Get the battery load tested with a printout of what was the battery capacity stock, and what did it pull now. Then get the indy to load test the alternator. If you want to skip the indy, get either a obd scanner to see the voltage at running. (if your know how to use a multimeter do that at your own risk of course).

Usually a completely failed alternator would flash the battery warning light, however if its not fully there yet OR something is pulling power when it shouldnt be (could be as simple as a dc phone charger, recent stereo addition, DVR, vehicle ECU).

 

First, there is no such thing as a "battery light" or "battery warning light". As explained in the owners manual (in your glove box or online), the indicator with the battery icon is the "electric charging system warning light", and indicates that there is a malfunction somewhere in the charging system.

Also a loss of power steering while driving is almost always a failed alternator, not a bad battery. Judging from your symptoms, I'm guessing that the alternator is putting out low output, and hasn't failed completely yet. As others have suggested, a load test of the complete charging system would be a good next step.

 

Yes thats correct when I drove the car with higher rpms the battery icon disappeared, and it did almost die out in idle so that does lead me to believe it is the alternator since it cant hold a good charge anymore.

 

Yep, I would be leaning towards the ALT as well. MANY auto parts store offer testing to see if it is the battery and/or ALT. I believe it was my local Advance Auto Parts store that checked mine years ago.

 

Any chain stores usually offers the test for free (YMMV with the folks at the store saying the machine is missing or etc). If you have a dc inverter for charging electronics in the car (with a live Volts gauge) or an obd scanner the crude method would be to look at the volts at idle and while your driving down normally. You usually want to be at 13.8-14.2 V.

 

So looking back at the battery I got installed 2 months ago, it seems that the positive battery cable wasnt properly seated on the battery itself, it ran for two months but it had wiggle room and it wasnt fully seated on the batterys terminal. Will see how long this new battery lasts, if it fails again then im sure its the alternator and not the "loose" or should I say unseated positive cable.
I can also take it to run some tests as well so will do that too.

 

A loose battery terminal could most likely be the cause in this case. I had a 2000 Toyota Camry, it was having issues with the headlights flickering as well as idling and driving issues where the engine would seem to stutter. The battery was also constantly weak. I took it the dealership and they found one of the terminals had corroded to the point where it was loose and not making proper contact with the batter. Changed the terminal, the problem went away

 

I now have a weird super charge kind of noise when accelerating...... whats the cause of that?