2012 Quest battery drain leading to starting issues

[dbailey]

Hi all - I have a 2012 Quest with a relatively new battery from a Nissan dealer (December 2018). In the last month we have had three mornings several days apart that the van would not start, just the really rapid electronics sounding clicking from the area of the fuse box under the hood (top, driver side). I cannot determine any pattern like temperature (mild), rain, or time sitting in the driveway (we drive it basically every day). Each time the battery is too dead for me to jump with my Costco jump starter - I have to use my Tundra.

Yesterday before jumping it, I read the voltage for the first time at under 2.58 V. After jumping while running its reading over 13.5 V. Drove it about 15 minutes and checked the voltage with the engine off at 12.29 V. Sat from 7pm-midnight and it read 12.22 V. Sat overnight and it read 11.99 V at 7 AM in the morning. I do not know "normal" behavior for how much a battery's charge drops sitting overnight.

Took the van to AutoZone and the guy told me the battery is healthy with 65% charge.

Am I looking at a parasitic drain here? Is it worth trying a new battery first? I have nothing aftermarket except the LED low beams and fog lights.

[amc49]

Charge the battery up FULLY, meaning at the least 6-8 hours but at a trickle NOT a fast charge rate. 15 minutes of charging after a 2 volt reading is NOT fully charged and the overnight fall off rate goes up with that because the battery is still sucking surface charge deeper into the plates. Until the entire plate inside and out is fully charged the battery will continue to drop slowly even if it is good.

If fully charged and the volt still drops then go to other remedy. They should drop some then stop, what a good one does. Below 12.3 volt for a stopped dropping state is going to likely give trouble. A good battery reads static at 12.3-12.7 volt. Higher side is one newer. ALL will show higher volt (13+ depending on the alt doing it) when freshly charged, the voltage has not evened out in the plates yet, a time based thing.

Tell the lunkhead at AZ that NO battery is considered healthy at only 65% charge......hilarious.

[daniel.iliev]

Hi, there, I had the same issue with a 2011 Quest (the first model year of the latest generation, same as your 2012). I had installed a new Nissan battery from the dealership. It kept draining, perhaps not as fast as yours, but my wife had to call a towing truck several times within a single year. Despite the fact that I charged that battery very often. I got tired of it and had the dealership check for phantom drainage. The only thing I was able to think of was the LED light of the phone charger that was lit up when the car was not running because it was always plugged into the power outlet. Which notoriously is always hot. I never understood cars that have power outlet that is always hot, even though the car is not running. For me, that is a no no. Well, I took out the charger when the car was not running to test it but that didn’t solve the issue. A second visit at the dealership revealed a defective battery, which they replaced. Since, everything has been working properly. The clicking you hear from the dashboard is most likely some relays etc. that are trying to kick in but there was no juice in the battery. When mine was drained, I kept hearing the same clicks. I’m sure those relays do the same noise now but since the engine cranks up, you can’t even hear them. Have the dealership inspect the battery. You obviously got the same bad batch of battery like mine. Also, I went on further to install a second accessory charger right next to the factory power outlet at the bottom of the middle console. The one I installed is a fast charger iQ (or whatever the technology is called) that also shows the current charging voltage and I connected it directly to a fuse that was available on the fuse box in the cabin. Now I have my dashcam and my phone connected to that and they turn on and off with the ignition key. Problem solved. Need pictures of the new accessory charger?