Auto battery problem

Birddog, looks like that may be the culprit.

It happened to my Yukon, battery tested fine. Tested the started and found it shorting out. Had to replace it
it, the battery is still fine.

Ah ha.... We may have found the problem.The next door neighbor needed to haul some new furniture and borrowed me,the Liberty and my 4x8 utility trailer. Me to drive as I'm still on restriction from the hernia procedure. He and his son hooked up the trailer and as soon as they hooked up the lights, one of them came on and this was with the car turned off and the doors closed. OOppsss... I took my little tester light and clipped the ground to the hitch and nothing when I stuck it into the pin holes. I then moved the ground clip to the rear hatch latch and got the tester to light in all three holes. I figgered that since the hatch was open and the interior lites were on, I'd try it a different way, so clipped the clip to the ground wire on the plug and got a light on all three again. Sooo,it looks as if I must have some kind of a short or mis-wired trailer lights. The person that installed my hitch is out of business so I can't go back there. I'll betcha that if it's a bare wire somewhere,that may be what is causing my Brake Buddy to blow fuses. I probably have a hot car also and that's why I get shocked sometimes when I'm getting out.

We are having generator problems on a few models fact is some now have recall on them not sure if liberty is on the list or not. Yes it could be the battery but the alt needs checked the charge but duty cycle, you need to have put on scanner have the generator duty checked more than likely it will be at 100% if thats the case thegenerator needs replaced. If it is charging at 100% it is charing only volts not amps.
Check with dealer may be either covered under powertrain warrenty or posiably recall(i dont what models or years are covered) Make sure the battery is checked real good not bu just volt meter or a load tester as a bad battery will eat generators fast. We use a GR8 tester it will test the battery generator starter in a single operation.

Melvin Schwentner
Chrysler mastetech
A.S.E certified mastertech 30 years
2013 chrysler 200
2005 jeep liberty limited
1965 chrysler 300 sport
1951 desoto s15 custom
2015 viking FQ

I would disconnect the negative cable and put your multimeter on amps the leads between the post and cable and see what the parasitic draw is. On my motorhome starting battery it is .4amps just to give you an idea. When I started to trouble shoot this I had a 4 amp draw until I found the problem. 4 amps drew my battery down quickly.

Thanks for posting your findings. I would be very interested in your final results, these things can be hard to isolate and could happen to any one of us at some point.

... Eric

Borrowed a new battery and put it in last nite and guess what, deader yhan heck this morning. I checked the old one and it was still holding a full charge. I also checked the alternator output and it was where it was supposed to be. Sooooo, now I'll be borrowing a friends meter and check how much draw is on the battery when everything is turned off.

Four years out of a each battery on my last three vehicles. Just replace it and go through it again in 2019.

I think I agree with the post above that said replace the battery. By the time you take it to a mechanic you will have paid for a new battery.

I've owned many, many new vehicles and I've never had an OEM battery last more than 4 years (if I kept it that long) with the exception of one. That is my 2010 Toyota 4runner. The battery had never given me an ounce of trouble but I replaced it 4 days ago because it was over 4 years and I don't want the trouble of a dead battery when I don't expect it. My 2003 Ram 1500 was 3 years old when I went into the store on a 105 degree day and bought about $90 of fresh fish and seafood. Came out and the truck wouldn't unlock with the remote. Used the key and it wouldn't start. The truck was already roasting hot so I called Enterprise rentals, they came and got us and I rented a car overnite so the fish wouldn't spoil then came back the next day with a new battery....don't need that stuff.

You could have an internal short in the battery. There was a rash of bad Motorcraft batteries back in the '80's that would do this and the vehicle could not be jump started. Wife's Ford Taurus had one. A buddy at this time worked for a company that had a fleet of Tauruses and this was common at the time.