Update on my battery woes
To get you up to speed, I bought a Duracell battery (East Penn manufacturing) a little over a year ago because my old one in the GX was dead. I recently noted that the battery has been leaking acid like a sieve all over the engine bay.
Causing undesirable results
yeah its actually worse than it looks. Anyway, I took the battery back to where I bought it and they replaced it with the one at the top...hilariously mislabeled as a golf car battery (there is no HP27f golf car battery in their catalog, btw).
I took it home, put it on the charger to top it off and lo and behold...leaking from the caps...the same place I suspected it was leaking from before.
Yeah...im not putting that in my car. So I email Duracell and asked what they wanted me to do since the replacement battery is just as bad as the first.
I said:
“I need to know what to do about a battery issue. I bought a 27F battery for my Lexus GX470 and a year later noticed that battery leakage has severely damaged the pain and metal underneath the battery. I pulled the battery out and noted that it was leaking from the caps. I took it back to my retailed who replaced it with an HP27F that was surprisingly mislabeled as a “GOLF CAR HP27F” Which as far as I can tell...doesn’t exist. More importantly when I charged it (6 amps, digital charger) it started leaking from the caps. I can’t put this back in my car obviously. Please advice on what I should do next.”
Here is the HILARIOUS response I got back from them:
“Wondering Why you charged the battery you just bought. That battery should have come fully charged. No reason to charge, just install.
As far as the first battery goes my initial thought would be your vehicle’s charging system is overcharging the battery creating gassing thus the moisture you witnessed.
I noticed that you live in Sandy, UT which has a humid subtropical climate. This type of climate may have a bearing on this if your voltage regulator is malfunctioning.
To rule this out the vehicle’s charging system should be checked out.”
So many crap ideas here. So here is what I wrote back.
My retailer is my Land Cruiser speciality shop called State Automotive. They are a decent sized trustworthy shop
I always make sure my batteries are at full absorption, when dormant they settle to a float charge and I want them to have full voltage before I install them. I use a Schauer CM12A, which is a digital charger recommended by Odyssey battery that I bought and have used for over a year on a variety of batteries with no issues. It hasn’t been installed in my vehicle yet
I track my vehicle’s charge system with an OBDII reader and logging app, voltages are nominal and float voltages are within spec. i.e. its wouldn’t have overcharged it even if I had installed it.
Sandy Utah is in the desert, I don’t know where you got your information from but we are the 2nd driest state in the US on average and the driest state in the country in the summer. The average humidity in Utah is ~0% so Im confident that has no bearing on it. The charging system is in spec, I have zero doubt about that.
Please advise.
“I noticed that you live in Sandy, UT which has a humid subtropical climate” This alone made me laugh my ass off. A Humid Subtropical climate? Are you for real?
This is very revealing all around.