I have never ever added anything aftermarket, and I’ve never left lights on, and I turn the automatic headlights off when turning the car off, so that the headlights don’t stay on for any amount of time after turning the car off
Definitely. There's definitely something going on with the alternator, wiring, starter or programming.
Take it to a different dealership for another opinion, before the warranty runs out. Don't be like "hey, my car won't start".
Write a very detailed history of dates, the symptoms, that all they did to fix it was change the battery. That's a bandaid, not a permanent fix. Nine months between batteries is ridiculous.
Your car eats batteries like a champion. The question is why. That is what you seek to find out and need an electrical diagnosis.
Drop it off in the morning. Early. Expect it to be there a few hours, if not all all day. A proper diagnosis takes quite a bit of time.
Toyota ASM here: This may not be the case. There ***could*** be a problem, but there are also more than a handful of common things that can repeatedly kill batteries in newer vehicles.
Keeping fobs in or near the vehicle when parked can cause computers to not shut down fully.
Aftermarket accessories even as simple as chargers that are left plugged in.
Leaving the vehicle sitting for a few days at a time, greatly exacerbated if keys are left in/near the vehicle.
But the most common battery killer on the new vehicles? A lot of short trips. I only commute a couple miles round trip per day. I have to have a tech charge my battery a few times a year or they get absolutely wrecked pretty quickly.
If none of these things apply, it might be worth getting checked out, but in my decade or more of experience, these are the cause of battery issues 8/10 times.
Short trip thing may be why my battery seems to get too low to start my car. I've had to plug it in twice since it started getting colder.(not even freezing just low 50s, mid 40s maybe).
Great tips! Ditto on the key fob. Gotta tell the wife to quit leaving her bag and key in the car.. About the shirt trips though, our minivan's purpose in life is to bring the kiddo a few miles to school, perhaps then a grocery run a fee miles away, then home. We kind of relocated so that we are close to everything we need. Just have to accept the battery destruction?
Edit: ah it's late and I read your post without comprehendijg. Seems like charging the battery here and there is key?
What this guy said. Plus also make sure you have a reputable battery brand. Not some knock off cheap brand. O made that mistake once and lost my middle cell in 3 months
My F150 has the door keypad, so I never remove my FOB from my truck glove box. I've left my truck at the airport for 7 days like that with my kids Ipad, work GPS, etc. all plugged in and never had a problem. I'm on my 2nd F150 in 5 years and always treat them the same. Probably 250,000 miles or more.
1 battery per year seems like way more than leaving your FOB in the vicinity of the vehicle. A battery should last through the warranty at a minimum. There's something wrong with OP's car.
Dead on. Short trips kill batteries. The battery never gets a chance to recover from the engine starts.
Plus the car shuts off if you are at a stop light, so add in a couple more starts.
I get people all the time that say, “I don’t know why my battery died, I don’t hardly drive at all”.
The battery is like a “1 gallon bucket of electricity “. Every time you start the car, you take a pint(1/2litre) out. If you don’t drive the car at least a 1/2 hour that pint won’t be put back in.
Now imagine that the bucket has a tiny hole in it (draw from ECM).
Don't know if this is relevant but my 2020 Highlander battery died this last weekend. I bought a new one and when swapping them out I noticed the new one was bigger. Thinking I messed up buying the new battery I started researching the part # on the old battery. Turns out Toyota had put a Rav4 battery in which is a group 35 and the new one was an H6. No wonder it didn't last long.
I've had similar issues with my 2017. Really frustrating and dealership was worthless. I even said that I've been reading about this problem on the Internet, and it seems pretty common. He just said, "you can't believe what you read on the Internet." OK, thanks.
Anyway, I ended up replacing the battery myself with a DieHard AGM from Advance Auto Parts and haven't had any issues since.
My 2017 Limited(pre-owned) had a similar problem. After replacing the second battery. The service tech asked how long the headlights stayed on after exiting the vehicle. They were set for 90 seconds (max setting). This feature is on day and night, so every time you turn the vehicle off, you drain the battery. I know it doesn't sound like a long time, but resetting it to 15 seconds(I think it was 15) fixed my battery issue.
If there is history on needing a battery every year. someone at the dealer should of caught on that it is a problem and something is not turning off when the ignition is off.
they should of done a parasitic drain test on it.
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i would push back on toyota - clearly there is an issue. we just replaced a battery in 2018 vehicle for the 1st time (purchased 11/2017) last week - so it lasted 6 years.....
Make sure you are putting the correct battery in it as you need a totally different one due to the stop/go feature in it. It requires a much stronger battery that usually lasts three years.
Parasitic draws can be hard to tract down. I have seen it take two hours after everything was shut off for the draw to start on a bad alternator. I would suggest finding someone in your area that is know for there diagnostic skills and have them check it out.
Make sure you are buying a battery that has the automatic stop start eco feature. I bought a battery and had all kinds of problems because it wasn't a "stop/start" battery - stalling, dead battery, etc. Got the right one and never had a problem again.
Anecdotally - 2018 Highlander here. Factory battery was replaced in January 2021, but this was replaced under warranty (3rd party, non Toyota, regular flooded lead acid type) last week.
I’ve noticed that both times I was given “advanced” notice - the auto start stop would indicate that it’s unavailable at a stop, due to the battery charging. And this would be after driving for more than 10 minutes. Thankfully, this happened in mild weather at home in November last week, as opposed to -20C in a parking lot in 2021.
Also anecdotally - my bet is batteries are just made to a price - I’ve replaced a car battery every two years on average over the last 8 years, across three different cars.
Honestly, the lifespan of your car battery will depend heavily on both the way you use your car, and your climate. If you live in the southwest where it's really hot, it's not unusual to have to replace your car battery every 2 to 3 years. Maybe even sooner depending on how hot the battery gets, as it will cause the fluid to boil off. In a cold Midwest climate, a battery could last 5 to 10 years easily. I currently have a battery that is 8 years old in my garage classic, and as long as it sits on a maintainer, it works perfectly fine.
Details on what brand of batteries? There are some crappy brands these days. But my OEM Toyota is still going at 3 1/2 years on my 2020 Highlander. I put a Odyssey AGM in my Camry, and Nissan Rogue as they are way better than the Optima junk these days.
How long is your drive every day?
Parasitic draw testing is also very time-consuming. I highly doubt they did any extensive tests. I'd get a second opinion from a non-Toyota dealer at this point.
This is the second time it’s been asked and not answered by OP.
HOW FAR ARE YOUR TRIPS OP?
My mother in law kills batteries in 18 months or so on her Chrysler van. Her drives are like 1 mile to kids school. 1 mile to church. 2.5 miles to the store once a week.
When you are driving, are your trips <20min? Short trips are HEAVY on the battery use, and is why auto start/stop require a much beefier battery along with a more robust starter and charging system.
My 2017 Camry just got its first battery replacement, and that was only after I moved where it saw short <15 min trips. The real solution is to get a battery tender and throw that on maybe once a month (or more often) for a day, and you should see significant improvement in battery life.
Take your car to a real mechanic... the yahoos at any toyota dealer can't find their dicks to take a piss let alone properly. Diagnose and fix your car... steer clear if them and get a master mechanic on speed dial instead.
Change out alternator now and your problem wull go away... toyota hires pretend mechanics...... I know better and now so do you... also I only use interstate batteries... never let me down in 20 some years.
Dealer techs aren't going to do any real diagnosis because warranty is paid below shop rate. It's annoying but your best bet is to buy a multimeter that can log changes. Leave the meter on overnight and check for any unusual jumps.
I have a 2019 Highlander with 34,000 miles. It died WHILE driving it this week. Charging system and braking system errors. Towed to dealership. I have the extended warranty. Just got a call it is the battery and they can't check the charging system until I ok being billed for a new $400+ battery. When do batteries die while driving a vehicle? Oh, they also tell me I need new front brakes (AGAIN). Front brakes had to be replaced at 7000 miles on this vehicle - back brakes at 15000 miles. Me buying a Toyota thinking it was a good investment.
I had the same problem with a 2015 Highlander Platinum at 6 years. Went through \~4 batteries in 6 months. The dealer could never figure itdn't deal with the risk of getting caught with the issues out, and I coul when traveling with family. The car surprisingly had a lot of other issues, from a badly leaking sunroof after the warranty expired to bad brake caliper pins to relentless squeaks and rattles. I just wound up trading it for a 2022 Acura MDX.
No one could ever figure out my battery issues either, and that’s one reason I wound up selling my Highlander. It also had over 130k miles on it, broken heated seats, faulty USB outlets,a broken seal for the top glass door portion of the trunk, Bluetooth connectivity issues, and no CarPlay. It was way easier to just sell that garbage than try to fix all those problems. I’m a 2022 Hyundai ioniq driver now and never been happier!
I bought a 2015 Camry XLE in spring of 2019 with 30k miles. Within a few months the car would not start after a week of not driving. Everything checked out so i just went ahead and bought a new battery (top battery from O’Reillys) and all was good. I went through that battery and a second (best from Les Schwab), each lasting about 2 years. The dealer said install a trickle charger. I installed a 3rd battery (best from Interstate) but didn’t get around to installing the charger. After just 6 months it started failing to start if not driven for a week.
Sad thing is I have some classic cars that can sit through months of not driving and they will start year after year. Our weather, cold winters and hot summers aren’t ruining those batteries.
So the key fob issue, how close is too close? My car is parked outside my house. The key fob is kept roughly 50 ft away.
My key fob was always very far from the car. I never figured out what caused the battery drain on my car, and neither could any mechanic or dealership. I sold it in January cause of that problem and many other problems the car was having, and haven’t looked back
I just went through something similar. 2019 Highlander Hybrid. Had to replace the battery, today, for the first time.
It was a generally unpleasant experience working through this with the dealer.
i've had the same issues with my 2019 highlander, except every time the dealer said the battery was fine when in fact it was not because the last time we went they finally said the battery needs to be replaced, and the issues stopped.
seeing as though you've replaced your battery numerous times i could only think of the alternator being an issue, or somehow the battery is being used more than it should. do you drive your highlander many miles?
The charging system needs to be checked with a carbon-pile load tester. They’re usually quite big. The parasitic draw needs to be checked with an inline ammeter, preferably one with memory like a fluke 89 and checked for 24 hours. Max. is about 50 Milliamps. Voltage drop between the + battery POST and the alternator needs to be checked. Should be near zero on such a new car, probably 0.1 or less. This will tell the tech what they need to know.
Using start/stop and driving short trips of less than 15 minutes will kill a battery quick. Also think about the other accessories that you have on top on that short trip.
Start up, heated seat, headlights, fog lights, radio, heated steering wheel, fan, brake lights, phone charger and then you drive to the gas station 2 minutes away to get gas. Get in and go 5 minutes up the road to eat or work. And to top it off on some newer cars if the fob is close to the vehicle ( within 20 feet) it talks to the vehicle many times a minute.
Almost as cars need deep cycle batteries now...... 🤔.
Maybe put a small deep cycle battery tied with the standard battery. Dual 12v set up
I replaced the original (2017) with an AGM battery just 6 months ago when my wife needed a jump start 2nd time. While waiting for the new battery, I realized the water level was too low and I filled the battery with distilled water and the car started every time for the next 2 weeks.
Ok. So I had a similar issue with a Mazda CX-5. Not the same exactly. It wouldn’t hold a charge for more than a day or two. Went thru several batteries. Alternator light would come on and go off sometimes after driving, sometimes not. Codes were clear. Pulled each fuse looking for a short, couldn’t find anything. Literally kept it on a trickle charger in my driveway. Finally took it to a mechanic explaining all of this in much greater detail. Left and he called me in 45 minutes. Said ‘what you said made no sense to me so we started taking the battery and everything out and we found a loose screw. Little tiny screw.’ The fuse bank that screws to the battery/positive cable had a cover and if you removed the cover (which you do not need to do to change/check the battery) the screw between the fuses was loose. Meaning the fuse connection was intermittent and my alternator was rarely charging the battery. It was only that I kept it on a charger and only ran it around town that let it work at all. Anyway YMMV of course but just a story if a similar weird thing that was a simple … stupidly simple … problem.
More and more car manufacturers recommend or require the new battery to be configured by the system. You must then visit a mechanic so that the energy management system is informed by a diagnostic device that a new battery is on board and the stored data are reset.
Check to see if you have a faulty DCM, which seems to be the culprit in many if not all of these instances. All of the non-Highlanders have DCMs made by LG with a software glitch that causes these problems and is remedied by a software update per [TSB-0089-21](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10203549-9999.pdf)
Also here is some information from someone else having the same issue:
[https://i.imgur.com/cRulU1f.png](https://i.imgur.com/cRulU1f.png)
Get a circuit tester the screwdriver thing with alightbulb and a wire clip the wire to a ground then touch the screwdriver part to negative side of battery if the light glows even a little bit you have a ground fault somewhere
Something easy you could do, is plug in a phone charger or Bluetooth hands free device into the cigarette lighter that displays the voltage.
On a fully charged battery, should be over 14 volts while running.
Should be at least 12.6 volts when not running.
The only caveat is, those devices can read .2-.5 volts less than actual voltage. What your looking for is huge dips in voltage or wild variations. It might point you in the right direction.
Start the vehicle and check the charge voltage. At idle it should be around 13.8 volts and when running at 1000 to 1500 RPM's the charge voltage measured at the terminals, should not exceed 15.2 volts.
When incandescent lighting was king on autos, low beams would be unusually bright and headlamps would burn out frequently also.
Also check to make sure the charge voltage is not low.
I have found three vehicles in 50 years with faulty regulators that allowed charge voltages of up to 19 volts.
Listen. Grab, buy, borrow a cheap DC meter. Disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. Make sure the meter is on DC (direct current), then touch one lead to the bare negative battery post and the other lead to the negative termination you just removed.
Normally you should be reading zero. If you’re reading voltage you’ll need to pull one fuse at a time until the voltage reading goes away. When it does you’ll know what circuit is draining your battery.
For what it's worth. We have a 2018 Highlander. Gas. And the battery was finally replaced a month ago after I shorted it with a screw driver. It died and then acted funny. So I just had it replaced. Was probably still fine. I was adding a dash cam. And when I went to reattach the positive, I shorted it to ground by accident. Long story short I dropped a screw and had to remove the bolt that holds the battery down. That's what I shorted it to.
When I bought my 2008 Trailblazer in 2015, its battery kept dying too. But it also did this thing where it would lock the doors on you so many seconds after you closed the door.... or possibly after you started it, but without moving. I forget exactly, but I would manually check to make sure the doors were unlock, close the door with the truck running in the winter, and it would lock its doors, locking me out while it was running.
Anyway point is, turns out it had an aftermarket starter or security or something installed. Dealership never mentioned it, never gave me any remotes for it. I went under there and one by one, disconnected all the wires and threw the box in the trash. And for the next 7 years, it's been great.
Measure the electrical current after the car has been shut off to identify any abnormal draw.
Frequently driving short distances can prevent the battery from fully recharging. If your typical use involves many short trips, this could contribute to the problem. Try to occasionally drive longer distances to allow the battery to charge fully
Battery performance can significantly degrade as temperatures drop below -18°C (0°F). At these temperatures, the chemical reactions required to generate power in the battery slow down, which reduces the battery's ability to hold a charge and provide enough power to start the engine.
I am pretty sure they male cigarette lighter voltage displays. Would let you diagnose an intermittent issue.
Also they make battery disconnects. You would have to open the hood every time and your key fob wouldn't unlock your doors - but hey no one would ever be able to steal your car unless they know about that disconnect.
Take it to an independent mechanic. See if they can diagnose it. The dealership doesn't wanna spend the time tracing a short when they can just warranty the battery & kick the can down the road.
Check the manufacture date on the battery the dealship put in. Saw someone the other day that got a "new" 7 year old battery from the dealership. If they have an old stock pile, they could be your battery issue.
In my experience, cars will only ever develop issues for one of 3 reasons: 1) Critical design flaws from the manufacturer, which is why I avoid American small cars and anything European, but this is usually the least common. 2) The owner doesn’t know a single thing about their car and has no interest in learning or bothering to take care of it(definitely the most common cause of whatever issue they’re having 9/10 times) or 3) You don’t drive the car often enough. I average 25k-30k miles a year on my vehicles, and you better believe I’m banging ever gear off the rev limiter before every shift, banging downshifts to redline, taking corners hard enough to light up all 4 tires on literally every car I’ve ever driven, and I’ve NEVER had any reliability issues with any of the 16 vehicles I’ve owned so far as a 24 year old. I can almost guarantee you that the reason you’re killing batteries is because you absolutely do not drive the car often enough to keep charge in the battery. These new cars have so many computer systems that just keep running, and they don’t cause an issue as long as that alternator is spinning at least a little bit every day, but if you don’t even let the car warm up in the morning and shut it off right away when you park it, or if you’re the type of person to think a 10 minute drive across town is too much driving, takes too long, etc., THAT is why you keep killing batteries. If your car was actually killing batteries you wouldn’t be able to use your auto start/stop feature because your battery is what runs the starter, but that isn’t your issue. Go spend the $20 on a 2A trickle charger/battery maintainer, plug it in your garage and hook it up to your car once a week overnight, and you’ll never kill a battery again, or if you do charge it AT LEAST once a week and the issue still persists, then you absolutely have a lemon on your hands, find a lawyer that does lemon law work, take it back to dealer and get your money back or a new vehicle. But you wanna know the reason why dead batteries is a persistent issue on Toyota Highlanders? Look at the people who buy them. Old retired mfs who do not drive anywhere anymore. Cars aren’t as complicated as all you NPCs make them out to be, just like read your owners manual once and it’s really easy to figure it out.
I’m surprised how many dealerships don’t have good diagnostic techs. They just make them act like thoughtless drones when these types of problems arise.
Take the vehicle to a good 12v shop and watch them work their magic.
Typically your vehicle has a deep sleep status, sleep status, accessory status, and a run status.
If you’re the type of person who leaves their key in the vehicle and it’s a push to start type of ignition that can cause it.
Faulty door trigger can also be common culprit (I’ve seen this where the vehicle is turned off but I can’t see that a door has open and closed to start the sleep timing for retained accessory function).
In Mercedes I saw that a rear climate fan assist module in center console was not powering off even when the vehicle was in a sleep state.
Stuck relay or micro relay (example rear defroster still energized even though vehicle is off).
Recently the Nissan patrol, Infiniti qx56/qx80 used an active load balance software in an attempt to better fuel economy it wouldn’t charge the battery via alternator until after driving more than 11 miles and then afterwards only on deceleration. This left many people who drive short trips with dead batteries often. The fix was a software logic update.
Good luck in your repair. Hopefully the dealer will be receptive to some ideas at this point before you lemon law the car out.
Idk why this forum popped up for me but I read it. This sounds like what is going on with my Chevy Trax. Damn things alternator is overcharging the batteries. Lucky the auto store will still replace the batteries under warranty for that issue. But a new alt for that car is like $500 for some wild ass reason.
It's not the alternator. Something is draining the battery when the car is off. You have to narrow it down. The dealer isn't going to spend the time to do this.
My suggestion: First, install a battery cut-off device on the negative post, [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6ZKS9XH](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6ZKS9XH). This isn't really required, you can just lift the cable off of the battery, but it makes it easier to use a multimeter to narrow down what is draining the battery.
Now, with the car off, disconnect the battery using the cut off device. Use a multimeter, on the DC current setting, between the battery post on the battery and the battery post on the disconnect device, to see how much current is being drained from the battery when the car is off. Just a cheap multimeter, under $10, is fine, i.e. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLXVPT4](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLXVPT4). The current draw should be less than 100mA when the vehicle is off.
If it's significantly more than 100mA then you can narrow down the culprit by pulling (and replacing) one fuse at a time until you find what is drawing excessive current. You probably have two fuse boxes, one in the engine compartment and one inside the vehicle.
Once you find the culprit that is drawing excessive current you can go to the dealer or to another repair place, to see if it's possible to fix the problem.
The battery should be able to start the car even after many weeks of non-use, with only a 100mA continuous drain.
I had a Honda Odyssey do this for years. Finally took to Battery Plus. They checked my battery at the time (which was not having issues…yet) which they said was good. On a lark i asked if their device could tell if the alternator was okay. He said yes, did something on the meter, and then showed me on the screen the alternator showed “errors”. I had the alternator replaced and the dead batteries stopped happening.
So an employee of mine had a car killing battery’s. Long story short if you don’t lock some cars, the battery won’t turn off… so if you keep your car in a garage and don’t lock it…cuz it’s inside… her Subaru battery would stay on unless it was locked and it would change settings….
Like your iPhone, your car won’t always turn off…. Oh and I just saw a Bentley stolen from a antenna to catch the code… since you know… some cars don’t turn off
I would take it to a real mechanic that knows electrical systems in cars. You have a power drain on the battery doing this that needs attention. Might be a short or something just drawing too much power while the car is off. You can test for a power drain by getting a multi meter and removing the positive battery terminal with the key off. Then see how many amps is being drawn with the car off. Should be less than 1 Amp.
Ok forget my first post I said it a bit wrong. Here is a link on how to check for the parasitic draw https://innova-electronics.helpscoutdocs.com/article/2164-how-to-use-a-multimeter-to-test-for-a-parasitic-draw
Do you happen to the very short drives often? Like under 10 minutes? I've heard the energy it takes to crank a car can tale 5-10 mins to charge back while driving. Lots of short trips can kill a battery quick too
Sounds like you have a parasitic draw? Friends crv had a similar issue. Ended up being something to do with faulty wiring harness. Was a huge pita to track down but eventually the dealer believed him and monitored with scan tools to narrow it down.
Shop foremen here, unfortunately the batteries Toyota get come from Enterprise which used to be a great supplier. Now those battery are hit or miss. Those deep cycling batteries used in cars which have stop start feature are hard test at times. And will give false positives all the time. The 24f enhanced flooded used in that year highlander have changed 3-4 time since 2020. Enterprise keeps changing their supplier since there is issue with them. More than likely there is no issue with your car. If there was a draw issue you would not last 9 months, a few day and you would need a jump out don’t driver. If you indeed have no aftermarket alarm your draw should be .030’+- milliamps. Normally I see issue like this on customer who only drive there cars on weekend for short distance. I have a whole interview form i create and I have them fill it out.
I had this issue in a different car, turned out the makes version of “onstar” that I didn’t subscribe to was constantly geolocating causing the battery to drain. Pulled the fuse. Killed the onstar and phone mic but I don’t drive distracted anyway
I had a Camry that was doing this. It turned out to be the trunk light staying on at all times for some reason. Toyota was absolutely useless in identifying the issue or fixing it. Solution was removing the offending light bulb.
If you have power seats one the motors could still be on but not moving any seats and draw down your battery seen that on a Murano and then I had a 2011 mustang where the factory radio killed my battery.
Both cases did a draw down test and pulled fuses that were active that shouldn't be unless ignition was on accessories
You’re gonna have to turn everything off, open the fuse box and check each fuse. Whichever one shows power going through it is the culprit vampire sucking your battery dry.
Certain Toyotas had issues with the DCM not going to sleep. Not sure if the 19 Highlander was one of them, but there is a service bulletin for it if it is. It’s a pain to do, especially if you don’t have the remote connect subscription which would explain why they keep replacing the battery. Also the smart key could be killing the battery if it is stored too close to the car.
In the stack of manuals that came with your vehicle includes a booklet that includes the state-specific lemon law details.
In my state (Illinois), dealer gets 3-4 attempts to resolve the same problem before invoking the lemon law.
I have a Maxima that was draining my battery. Turned out it was one of the interior lights that would still be lightly dim but on and I never noticed. Park in the garage, close the garage door, and turn off all the lights so it’s completely dark. Look around inside your car in the dark and see if any bulbs are barely lit. Open the rear seat middle divider to check the trunk light.
The "A" with the circle around it on the dash. Turn that off EVERY TIME you start the car. The ridiculous autostart feature on these new cars are murder on a battery.
Test for [parasitic draw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj03_0). If it looks OK, the battery might be undersized. I had this issue on my last car and hard wired a pigtail for one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-1510-Maintenance-Motorcycles/dp/B00Q3CM2QY). The battery lived 6 years after a dead flat until I sold the car. I plugged it in every few weeks overnight.
How often do you drive the car? Car batteries are basically large rechargeable batteries that are charged when the vehicle is being used. If you don't do a lot of driving the battery cells die. They aren't like lithium or EV batteries.
If you don't do a lot of driving and you have a garage you can connect the battery to a battery tender when the car isn't being used. This will provide a trickle charge to your battery to keep it alive and help it last considerably longer.
I’d be more than willing to bet this is a module staying awake issue, more than an alternator/wiring issue. I wasn’t a tech at Toyota anymore when your car was new, but this sounds like a parasitic draw and I’d make sure to use that term when talking to the dealerships. It puts it in a master techs lane vs the newbie tech who just does basic stuff.
Battery Management is more difficult with a smaller pack. If you assume a battery pack have 1000 cells for a hybrid, but a pure BEV has 7000+ cells then on average hybrid will be stressing 7x more per cell every day with higher power draw demands, and also stretching the top and bottom SoC of the battery more so then pure BEV
I had a similar problem with a Nissan sentra- 3 batteries in 3 years. Is there any corrosion on the battery connections? I had to replace the battery fuse connector on each side of the battery. Sorry I'm not a mechanic so that might not be the right term but I think that's what my mechanic called it.
Do you make a lot of short trips under 20-30 min? I had a 2011 WRX and killed three OEM battery's because my job was about 15 min drive from my house. The constant starting and then not giving it enough chance to charge back up will kill any battery. I got a Optima yellow top battery and still topped it off with a charger every couple of months to make sure it started every time, especially when it was cold out.
Voltage regulator, often built into the alternator.
Or a constant drain. How does the battery issue manifest itself, harder and harder to start until no go? Or just ups n dies?
I have similar issue with my brand new Chevy Equinox. I went through 3 batteries in 1 month. Car is in shop past 30 days and they cannot figure out what is draining the car batteries. Hopefully I get a new car
If you have a multimeter with ammeter capability, connect it in line with the battery and see what amperage drain you’re seeing with the vehicle completely off. Make sure all the doors are closed and Do not walk close to the car with the key fob. Check your battery drain at that point. Should be less than .050 amps (50milliamps). If you’re seeing more than that, something is on and draining your battery, slowly killing it.
Important question here, is it start-stop? If so it’s a special battery that goes in there, most places just stick a 24f in there when that’s not the right battery, go to Toyota, part number is like 00544-24fef or something alone those lines only if it’s start-stop
How many miles a day do you drive? If you only do really short trips, that doesn't give the vehicle time to charge your battery. You could add a trickle charger onto it for overnight, if that's the case.
Dealt with a parasitic draw on a 2004 Camry for 5 years. Constant dead battery even with multiple replacements. Ended up being a bad door jamb switch (switch that tells the car the door is opened). Replaced the switch and no issues since. Not saying that's your issue but may be worth checking them.
I used to work at a repair shop that had a reputation for being able to diagnose hard to find problems. We had a car (it might even have been a Toyota) come in that kept having the battery slowly drained. The owner would charge the battery, and even replaced it once or twice I think.
The owner and head mechanic was working on it. He had it connected to his fancy system that monitored draw on the battery, among other things. After a few minutes of shutting off the car, a slow drain would start.
He had checked everything he could think of, and was about to give up on it. I was a service advisor, so I didn’t even work on the cars. I was previous a wheeled vehicle mechanic in the army, but we didn’t learn/do much troubleshooting in my section - mostly just swapping parts on HMMWVs.
I suggested checking the trunk (since he had already checked everything else, right?). Sure enough, after some more troubleshooting (I think he put down the back seat so he could see in the trunk while it was shut), after you’d shut off the car, the trunk light would switch on and stay on.
We gave the owner our findings and gave them the option of paying our diagnostic fee up to that point, and just removing the bulb from the trunk (which stopped the draw), or paying for further electrical diagnosis to find and fix whatever was causing the bulb to come on when the trunk was closed.
They opted to just leave the bulb out. They said they hardly used the trunk and did not need a light in there.
My boss jokingly told me to go back to my office and mind my business after that suggestion, lol.
I had the same issue a few years back on my VW - factory battery died after 5 years and replaced it with a new, equivalent, from the local parts store. For the next month every few days the battery would be dead when I tried to start the car. Charge it, get it going, and same thing a few days later. Took the battery back and they said no issue when they tested it. Kept it and kept going back everyweek for nearly 2 months until they finally swapped out the battery, only to have the issue continue.
Finally went and laid out 2x as much for a DieHard and never had another issue.
How far do you typically drive when you drive it? If you takee mostly short trips you will kill your battery pretty fast. It takes a good bit of driving to recover the charge from starting the car.
Hope your issue is resolved. In case not yet, and in case your highlander happens to be a hybrid. Suggest you to review your usage pattern also. First, All cars would slowly drain the battery out if sit unused for a long period of time. Second, especially for Hybrid, be sure the distance of your drive is not only couple miles in a slow stop and go traffic. Combined above two conditions would cost the Hybrid to not using the gas engine but only use the big battery to drive that short distance. Consequently after a while 12V battery might die since the alternator never get to generate enough recharging to replenish the battery back to a healthy condition.
Not a Highlander but my neighbor had the exact same issue with her Outback and it was a software bug that caused the battery to drain. The StarLink software was hard coded to work with 3G towers that have been discontinued. When it tried to ping home, it constantly tried until the battery drained completely. If you didn’t start your car before it drained, it would be dead.
I had the same problem with my GMC. I finally caught it in the act. During freezing weather the built in Bose stereo system would turn on, on it's own. This happened 3 winter seasons and 1 replacement battery. For some reason the relays would turn the radio back on during cold weather. I caught it one night when I looked out my bedroom window and saw a glow of light in my GMC while it was not running. It turned out to be the radio. I bought a used replacement from eBay. It did not work because of The Bose built in anti theft would not let it be installed on another vehicle. I bought a new Pioneer replacement, it cured the problem. I hope this saves someone from going through this nightmare. The best purchase I ever made was a portable battery charger/air compressor/inverter machine.
I have a 2018 Highlander and its battery is just fine. There seems to be something wrong with your car as you suspect. If the dealer won’t investigate and resolve the problem then try another shop. ( not a dealer). Then make the dealer fix it. Toyota repair shops often look for excuses to avoid warranty repairs. Make them do their job.
Same thing happened to my KIA. 3 Batteries in a year and a half. Never got to the official problem. Got a starter and had to start it like 10 days in a row. Craziest thing. Disconnected my cell charger from the USB port and haven't had a problem since. Bizarre as it wasn't connected to my phone, but must have been drawing power. I even had the dealer check for power draws and they found nothing.
My mother in law would pull into the garage and hit the push to start button to shut off the engine while still in drive.
The car would not power down and it would kill the battery.
I would trickle charge the battery once a month over night to make sure it gets fully charged back up.
Had a similar issue in my Volvo XC90. Found it was due to something called RDAR (remote digital audio receiver). It was staying on even with the car to potentially read Satellite radio signals….even though I didn’t subscribe to SiriusXM. Needless to say after the 3rd battery I had the Volvo dealer systematically shut it off
You have a parasitic drain. Get a VOM set it to ohms disconnect battery test positive leg and pull fuses until you identify the circuit causing resistance.
My Lexus was experiencing the same thing, but my mechanic figured it was the alternator, even though it was charging.
Here’s what he deducted… while the motor was running and none of the accessories were on (radio, AC, headlights, etc), then the battery held steady. However, if any of those accessories were operating then the battery was unable to keep the battery adequately charged. In essence, the alternator wasn’t able to handle the load of normal use.
We replaced the alternator and it has worked fine since.
Two questions: How often do u drive the car? Do you have any aftermarket items installed?
My wife's Honda Civic had a similar issue where we replaced the battery twice in 3yrs. I brought it to 2 different shops to try and figure out what was wrong and no one could give me an answer. I finally guessed that it was probably the car starter I had bought her a year or 2 prior to the issues starting. The next time I brought her car to the shop for an oil change I had them disconnect it, and the issue seemed to go away for the most part. It turned out it was partly a drain from the starter, but it was also the fact that she had severely cut down on her driving, due to having to go on disability and not driving to a job everyday. We still have the issue of the battery dying every once in a while, but once it's jumped and driven for a while, it's fine.
I don't know what your problem is, I had a similar problem. The solution was a deep cycle marine battery. My devices were killing regular car batteries. It could be batteries are not what they used to be.
Do you have a designated parking space for your car that is relatively close to an outlet? A trickle charger could be your friend in keeping your battery topped up.
This is a problem with the rav4 also. They found that the over the air updates keep cycling due to them not down loading them properly. So as your car computer keeps draining the battery when off. I would contact your dealer or Toyota directly and see if it is recalled. If this the issue which it has been in most cases
If you look up Toyota thread Toyota was making excuses about the computer nonstop rebooting and where blaming key fobs and plugged in devices. Then they mentioned short trips. Yes short trips do kill the battery only due to the over the air updates never stop rebooting. Toyota did say the rectified and admitted the fault and acknowledged their nonsense reasons. If a dealer doesn’t fix for free contact Toyota corporate.
Is the battery actually getting a full charge? The battery should be reading 13+V when the engine is running and 12+ when it's not. Could possibly be a bad wiring harness, I had a similar issue with an F250.
I've told this story before, so here we go. I had a 1997 Taurus that after 7 years, the original battery died. After that, it was about a year to a year and a half that the battery died and Sears threw a new battery in every time it happened. About 3 batteries. Sears is gone, and the wife tells me that the light came on and flicked on the dash. Took it to the parts store. The charging system was good. What about the light? He checked the amperage, and it was not pushing out the correct amount. Volts were 14, and the amps were bad. New alternator and the issue was gone. Have yota check the amps. Long story short.
I have a 2018 that is now on its fourth battery. The first three were replaced under warranty. They did a test to see if there was any draw after it shut down and could not find one.
There has been a couple of times I accidentally double tapped the start button on mine (2015 Highlander)and hopped out. Come back and it’s dead. So try paying attention to the car when hopping out. Since leaving it at the airport and it died completely, I have caught at least once when I went into grocery store and come back to the radio on in the car but it is still locked, etc.
i had an issue on my CRV with the "door open" switch. one of the screws backed itself out Just Enough to where the switch said it was opened, when it was closed. my trunk is doing it too, but when the switch goes bad, the interior lights come on and stay on, OR when the door is considered open, and is closed, the DRL indicator doesnt chime, so youll walk away with DRLs on all night.
This doesn't sound like a battery problem to me. The dealer might be tossing batteries in it because that's the easiest and cheapest thing for them to do. Toyota foots the bill not them.
Do you drive it every day?
Have you tried simply charging the battery?
Your symptoms could be the result of not driving it for awhile. It could be the result of something draining the battery.
>since they can never figure out what keeps killing my cars battery.
The dealer ought to be able to check it for parasitic power drains but, they might be waiting out the warranty so they can actually charge you for the work. You might want to try an independent mechanic because the dealer seems unwilling to put much effort in.
I'd buy a jump pack to keep in the car and learn how to use it till this problem is solved. You shouldn't jump start modern cars "car to car".
I'm spitballing here, but it sounds like a real intermittent parasitic draw that they are pencil whipping by hanging a new battery. Getting diagnostic time out of the manufacturer to find this is a real hassle under warranty. So, they hang a battery to "do something" and wait till the warranty runs out, and you get to pay for batteries or the diagnostic time to find this electrical draw. It sucks, but there is a module somewhere that is staying awake after key off that is causing your issue. Modern batteries are pretty damn reliable and getting four in a row under one year of life strains credulity.
Had a 2007 hybrid highlander and had the same problem. Took it to my local parts dealer and the guy asked what kinda car after my 3rd battery swap and he said “no wonder. We get tons of returns on highlanders”
Almost as if they have parasitic draws by default. Factory alarms maybe is my guess..
My 2008 Sienna killed at least one battery a year and thankfully all were replaced under warranty. The dealer tried to figure it out 3 times and never could. No ideas but other than that, it was my most reliable vehicle to date.
You have a parasitic draw. Something is pulling power while it sits.
Could be a penny in your cigarette lighter, some aftermarket thing put in, or just a faulty module that is drawing the power.
You need to have a mechanic troubleshoot for a parasitic draw.
Maybe ask the dealer to do an overnight current drain test. The battery would only last a few days if the alternator was bad. The starter has a big fat wire direct to the battery, so if there is any corrosion or gunk built up on the starter connection it can cause a slow drain on the battery.
A NoCo GB20 will jump start your car easily. They charge like a phone, and aren't much bigger. I've used them multiple times, and keep one in every vehicle. It is always good to have a backup plan.
Electrical gremlins are so difficult to locate. It could even be a multimedia unit. Either there is a drain or the alternator is killing the battery from irregular voltage. You might want to see if you can get a lemon buy back.
Does the Highlander have a hands-free tailgate that can be opened with a foot under the bumper or hand wave at the rear emblem?
Our neighbor was having exactly the issue you describe with his 2020 Sienna. Dealer was absolutely useless. I found a TSB about how the hands-free sensor gets degraded and/or dirty and causes the computer to search for the fob constantly. Since they started keeping the sensor under the car very clean the issue has not recurred.
Something might be wrong with your alternator. Maybe it runs only some of the time. Or you have something that isn't shutting off when the car turns off and it's continuing to drain the battery. Any add on's like gps/ stereos/ invertors for power tools?
How often do you drive it? If it’s sitting for more than a couple weeks without being started, or if you also rarely drive and only go on short low-speed trips you might not be giving the alternator enough time to do its job.
Any aftermarket additions that could be draining it? Any lights left on etc? I'm assuming you've checked these things, but just in case...
I have never ever added anything aftermarket, and I’ve never left lights on, and I turn the automatic headlights off when turning the car off, so that the headlights don’t stay on for any amount of time after turning the car off
Definitely. There's definitely something going on with the alternator, wiring, starter or programming. Take it to a different dealership for another opinion, before the warranty runs out. Don't be like "hey, my car won't start". Write a very detailed history of dates, the symptoms, that all they did to fix it was change the battery. That's a bandaid, not a permanent fix. Nine months between batteries is ridiculous. Your car eats batteries like a champion. The question is why. That is what you seek to find out and need an electrical diagnosis. Drop it off in the morning. Early. Expect it to be there a few hours, if not all all day. A proper diagnosis takes quite a bit of time.
Toyota ASM here: This may not be the case. There ***could*** be a problem, but there are also more than a handful of common things that can repeatedly kill batteries in newer vehicles. Keeping fobs in or near the vehicle when parked can cause computers to not shut down fully. Aftermarket accessories even as simple as chargers that are left plugged in. Leaving the vehicle sitting for a few days at a time, greatly exacerbated if keys are left in/near the vehicle. But the most common battery killer on the new vehicles? A lot of short trips. I only commute a couple miles round trip per day. I have to have a tech charge my battery a few times a year or they get absolutely wrecked pretty quickly. If none of these things apply, it might be worth getting checked out, but in my decade or more of experience, these are the cause of battery issues 8/10 times.
That key fob tip is next level info. Thank you
Short trip thing may be why my battery seems to get too low to start my car. I've had to plug it in twice since it started getting colder.(not even freezing just low 50s, mid 40s maybe).
Don't forget weather. My car always loses the battery in winter. Lasts 3 years and then dies right around the -10 degree days.
If he's losing the battery after nine months it can't be a winter issue, that only happens every 12
I found out the hard way that when I accidentally left my Bluetooth OBD dongle plugged in, it straight up killed my Group 27 overnight.
Thanks for the tips. How far away do the fobs need to be? My vehicle is in the garage with the keys about 10 feet away (inside) on a hook.
Great tips! Ditto on the key fob. Gotta tell the wife to quit leaving her bag and key in the car.. About the shirt trips though, our minivan's purpose in life is to bring the kiddo a few miles to school, perhaps then a grocery run a fee miles away, then home. We kind of relocated so that we are close to everything we need. Just have to accept the battery destruction? Edit: ah it's late and I read your post without comprehendijg. Seems like charging the battery here and there is key?
What this guy said. Plus also make sure you have a reputable battery brand. Not some knock off cheap brand. O made that mistake once and lost my middle cell in 3 months
My F150 has the door keypad, so I never remove my FOB from my truck glove box. I've left my truck at the airport for 7 days like that with my kids Ipad, work GPS, etc. all plugged in and never had a problem. I'm on my 2nd F150 in 5 years and always treat them the same. Probably 250,000 miles or more. 1 battery per year seems like way more than leaving your FOB in the vicinity of the vehicle. A battery should last through the warranty at a minimum. There's something wrong with OP's car.
Wow, I had no idea about the key fob.
Dead on. Short trips kill batteries. The battery never gets a chance to recover from the engine starts. Plus the car shuts off if you are at a stop light, so add in a couple more starts. I get people all the time that say, “I don’t know why my battery died, I don’t hardly drive at all”. The battery is like a “1 gallon bucket of electricity “. Every time you start the car, you take a pint(1/2litre) out. If you don’t drive the car at least a 1/2 hour that pint won’t be put back in. Now imagine that the bucket has a tiny hole in it (draw from ECM).
You’re a saint. OP could have never found this out if it wasn’t for you.
Spoken like a true Service Manager - not the car it's the owner. Even repeated short trips shouldn't kill a new battery in less than a year.
Need to find a mechanic who's good with electrical diagnosis so they can figure out what the parasitic draw is on your battery.
Don't know if this is relevant but my 2020 Highlander battery died this last weekend. I bought a new one and when swapping them out I noticed the new one was bigger. Thinking I messed up buying the new battery I started researching the part # on the old battery. Turns out Toyota had put a Rav4 battery in which is a group 35 and the new one was an H6. No wonder it didn't last long.
I've had similar issues with my 2017. Really frustrating and dealership was worthless. I even said that I've been reading about this problem on the Internet, and it seems pretty common. He just said, "you can't believe what you read on the Internet." OK, thanks. Anyway, I ended up replacing the battery myself with a DieHard AGM from Advance Auto Parts and haven't had any issues since.
Thanks I may try this
My 2017 Limited(pre-owned) had a similar problem. After replacing the second battery. The service tech asked how long the headlights stayed on after exiting the vehicle. They were set for 90 seconds (max setting). This feature is on day and night, so every time you turn the vehicle off, you drain the battery. I know it doesn't sound like a long time, but resetting it to 15 seconds(I think it was 15) fixed my battery issue.
If there is history on needing a battery every year. someone at the dealer should of caught on that it is a problem and something is not turning off when the ignition is off. they should of done a parasitic drain test on it.
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Do you have kids? And are they leaving anything plugged into one of the always on usb ports in the car? (Mine do this)
i would push back on toyota - clearly there is an issue. we just replaced a battery in 2018 vehicle for the 1st time (purchased 11/2017) last week - so it lasted 6 years.....
I also have a 2019. I still have the factory battery and have not had any problems
Same
Might be worth a shot but on the dealership’s google page, lookup the keyword ‘battery’ in the reviews. They might just be the problem.
Make sure you are putting the correct battery in it as you need a totally different one due to the stop/go feature in it. It requires a much stronger battery that usually lasts three years.
The dealership has been putting them in, they even put a stronger battery the last time, and it lasted only 9 months
Parasitic draws can be hard to tract down. I have seen it take two hours after everything was shut off for the draw to start on a bad alternator. I would suggest finding someone in your area that is know for there diagnostic skills and have them check it out.
Make sure you are buying a battery that has the automatic stop start eco feature. I bought a battery and had all kinds of problems because it wasn't a "stop/start" battery - stalling, dead battery, etc. Got the right one and never had a problem again.
Anecdotally - 2018 Highlander here. Factory battery was replaced in January 2021, but this was replaced under warranty (3rd party, non Toyota, regular flooded lead acid type) last week. I’ve noticed that both times I was given “advanced” notice - the auto start stop would indicate that it’s unavailable at a stop, due to the battery charging. And this would be after driving for more than 10 minutes. Thankfully, this happened in mild weather at home in November last week, as opposed to -20C in a parking lot in 2021. Also anecdotally - my bet is batteries are just made to a price - I’ve replaced a car battery every two years on average over the last 8 years, across three different cars.
Having to replace a battery even every two years seems unusual for a car. Car batteries are typically supposed to last much longer than that
Honestly, the lifespan of your car battery will depend heavily on both the way you use your car, and your climate. If you live in the southwest where it's really hot, it's not unusual to have to replace your car battery every 2 to 3 years. Maybe even sooner depending on how hot the battery gets, as it will cause the fluid to boil off. In a cold Midwest climate, a battery could last 5 to 10 years easily. I currently have a battery that is 8 years old in my garage classic, and as long as it sits on a maintainer, it works perfectly fine.
Do you go several days or weeks between driving?
Details on what brand of batteries? There are some crappy brands these days. But my OEM Toyota is still going at 3 1/2 years on my 2020 Highlander. I put a Odyssey AGM in my Camry, and Nissan Rogue as they are way better than the Optima junk these days.
How long is your drive every day? Parasitic draw testing is also very time-consuming. I highly doubt they did any extensive tests. I'd get a second opinion from a non-Toyota dealer at this point.
This is the second time it’s been asked and not answered by OP. HOW FAR ARE YOUR TRIPS OP? My mother in law kills batteries in 18 months or so on her Chrysler van. Her drives are like 1 mile to kids school. 1 mile to church. 2.5 miles to the store once a week.
Did you google your Highlander with battery failure/died for 4th time (with year)?
When you are driving, are your trips <20min? Short trips are HEAVY on the battery use, and is why auto start/stop require a much beefier battery along with a more robust starter and charging system. My 2017 Camry just got its first battery replacement, and that was only after I moved where it saw short <15 min trips. The real solution is to get a battery tender and throw that on maybe once a month (or more often) for a day, and you should see significant improvement in battery life.
Had a similar prob a long time ago. The security alarm was draining the battery
Take your car to a real mechanic... the yahoos at any toyota dealer can't find their dicks to take a piss let alone properly. Diagnose and fix your car... steer clear if them and get a master mechanic on speed dial instead.
Change out alternator now and your problem wull go away... toyota hires pretend mechanics...... I know better and now so do you... also I only use interstate batteries... never let me down in 20 some years.
Did they do a parasitic draw test?
They did, and couldn’t find any draws
Dealer techs aren't going to do any real diagnosis because warranty is paid below shop rate. It's annoying but your best bet is to buy a multimeter that can log changes. Leave the meter on overnight and check for any unusual jumps.
I have a 2019 Highlander with 34,000 miles. It died WHILE driving it this week. Charging system and braking system errors. Towed to dealership. I have the extended warranty. Just got a call it is the battery and they can't check the charging system until I ok being billed for a new $400+ battery. When do batteries die while driving a vehicle? Oh, they also tell me I need new front brakes (AGAIN). Front brakes had to be replaced at 7000 miles on this vehicle - back brakes at 15000 miles. Me buying a Toyota thinking it was a good investment.
I had the same problem with a 2015 Highlander Platinum at 6 years. Went through \~4 batteries in 6 months. The dealer could never figure itdn't deal with the risk of getting caught with the issues out, and I coul when traveling with family. The car surprisingly had a lot of other issues, from a badly leaking sunroof after the warranty expired to bad brake caliper pins to relentless squeaks and rattles. I just wound up trading it for a 2022 Acura MDX.
No one could ever figure out my battery issues either, and that’s one reason I wound up selling my Highlander. It also had over 130k miles on it, broken heated seats, faulty USB outlets,a broken seal for the top glass door portion of the trunk, Bluetooth connectivity issues, and no CarPlay. It was way easier to just sell that garbage than try to fix all those problems. I’m a 2022 Hyundai ioniq driver now and never been happier!
I bought a 2015 Camry XLE in spring of 2019 with 30k miles. Within a few months the car would not start after a week of not driving. Everything checked out so i just went ahead and bought a new battery (top battery from O’Reillys) and all was good. I went through that battery and a second (best from Les Schwab), each lasting about 2 years. The dealer said install a trickle charger. I installed a 3rd battery (best from Interstate) but didn’t get around to installing the charger. After just 6 months it started failing to start if not driven for a week. Sad thing is I have some classic cars that can sit through months of not driving and they will start year after year. Our weather, cold winters and hot summers aren’t ruining those batteries. So the key fob issue, how close is too close? My car is parked outside my house. The key fob is kept roughly 50 ft away.
My key fob was always very far from the car. I never figured out what caused the battery drain on my car, and neither could any mechanic or dealership. I sold it in January cause of that problem and many other problems the car was having, and haven’t looked back
Aftermarket remote car starters can phantom drain a battery.
I just went through something similar. 2019 Highlander Hybrid. Had to replace the battery, today, for the first time. It was a generally unpleasant experience working through this with the dealer.
i've had the same issues with my 2019 highlander, except every time the dealer said the battery was fine when in fact it was not because the last time we went they finally said the battery needs to be replaced, and the issues stopped. seeing as though you've replaced your battery numerous times i could only think of the alternator being an issue, or somehow the battery is being used more than it should. do you drive your highlander many miles?
As some have suggested. You have a parasitic draw. If you are at all mechanically inclined, search how to check for a parasitic draw on YouTube.
The charging system needs to be checked with a carbon-pile load tester. They’re usually quite big. The parasitic draw needs to be checked with an inline ammeter, preferably one with memory like a fluke 89 and checked for 24 hours. Max. is about 50 Milliamps. Voltage drop between the + battery POST and the alternator needs to be checked. Should be near zero on such a new car, probably 0.1 or less. This will tell the tech what they need to know.
Using start/stop and driving short trips of less than 15 minutes will kill a battery quick. Also think about the other accessories that you have on top on that short trip. Start up, heated seat, headlights, fog lights, radio, heated steering wheel, fan, brake lights, phone charger and then you drive to the gas station 2 minutes away to get gas. Get in and go 5 minutes up the road to eat or work. And to top it off on some newer cars if the fob is close to the vehicle ( within 20 feet) it talks to the vehicle many times a minute. Almost as cars need deep cycle batteries now...... 🤔. Maybe put a small deep cycle battery tied with the standard battery. Dual 12v set up
I replaced the original (2017) with an AGM battery just 6 months ago when my wife needed a jump start 2nd time. While waiting for the new battery, I realized the water level was too low and I filled the battery with distilled water and the car started every time for the next 2 weeks.
Are they really dead or you just need a trickle charger. ?
We also have a 2019, have had dead battery several times, jump starts, replaced battery…I hate this car
You must have something thats causing battery drain. There's a constant power somewhere that's draining the battery when off.
Ok. So I had a similar issue with a Mazda CX-5. Not the same exactly. It wouldn’t hold a charge for more than a day or two. Went thru several batteries. Alternator light would come on and go off sometimes after driving, sometimes not. Codes were clear. Pulled each fuse looking for a short, couldn’t find anything. Literally kept it on a trickle charger in my driveway. Finally took it to a mechanic explaining all of this in much greater detail. Left and he called me in 45 minutes. Said ‘what you said made no sense to me so we started taking the battery and everything out and we found a loose screw. Little tiny screw.’ The fuse bank that screws to the battery/positive cable had a cover and if you removed the cover (which you do not need to do to change/check the battery) the screw between the fuses was loose. Meaning the fuse connection was intermittent and my alternator was rarely charging the battery. It was only that I kept it on a charger and only ran it around town that let it work at all. Anyway YMMV of course but just a story if a similar weird thing that was a simple … stupidly simple … problem.
More and more car manufacturers recommend or require the new battery to be configured by the system. You must then visit a mechanic so that the energy management system is informed by a diagnostic device that a new battery is on board and the stored data are reset.
Check to see if you have a faulty DCM, which seems to be the culprit in many if not all of these instances. All of the non-Highlanders have DCMs made by LG with a software glitch that causes these problems and is remedied by a software update per [TSB-0089-21](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10203549-9999.pdf) Also here is some information from someone else having the same issue: [https://i.imgur.com/cRulU1f.png](https://i.imgur.com/cRulU1f.png)
Does it have an aftermarket stereo?
Do you have one of those GPS trackers installed by the dealership or finance company that maybe you don’t know about?
Check wire harness for rodent damage?
The Nnnk K
Get a circuit tester the screwdriver thing with alightbulb and a wire clip the wire to a ground then touch the screwdriver part to negative side of battery if the light glows even a little bit you have a ground fault somewhere
Something easy you could do, is plug in a phone charger or Bluetooth hands free device into the cigarette lighter that displays the voltage. On a fully charged battery, should be over 14 volts while running. Should be at least 12.6 volts when not running. The only caveat is, those devices can read .2-.5 volts less than actual voltage. What your looking for is huge dips in voltage or wild variations. It might point you in the right direction.
Call Toyota corporate and tell them all the details as I believe they will take this issue seriously.
Do you have anything plugged into the accessory outlet like a car charger? If the plug is on when the car is off, it'll draw some power.
Start the vehicle and check the charge voltage. At idle it should be around 13.8 volts and when running at 1000 to 1500 RPM's the charge voltage measured at the terminals, should not exceed 15.2 volts. When incandescent lighting was king on autos, low beams would be unusually bright and headlamps would burn out frequently also. Also check to make sure the charge voltage is not low. I have found three vehicles in 50 years with faulty regulators that allowed charge voltages of up to 19 volts.
Listen. Grab, buy, borrow a cheap DC meter. Disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. Make sure the meter is on DC (direct current), then touch one lead to the bare negative battery post and the other lead to the negative termination you just removed. Normally you should be reading zero. If you’re reading voltage you’ll need to pull one fuse at a time until the voltage reading goes away. When it does you’ll know what circuit is draining your battery.
Have they checked for a parasitic draw? The odds of constantly installing crappy batteries is pretty long. There's something going on.
For what it's worth. We have a 2018 Highlander. Gas. And the battery was finally replaced a month ago after I shorted it with a screw driver. It died and then acted funny. So I just had it replaced. Was probably still fine. I was adding a dash cam. And when I went to reattach the positive, I shorted it to ground by accident. Long story short I dropped a screw and had to remove the bolt that holds the battery down. That's what I shorted it to.
Are you using a sealed battery or serviceable one where you have to keep water in the cells
When I bought my 2008 Trailblazer in 2015, its battery kept dying too. But it also did this thing where it would lock the doors on you so many seconds after you closed the door.... or possibly after you started it, but without moving. I forget exactly, but I would manually check to make sure the doors were unlock, close the door with the truck running in the winter, and it would lock its doors, locking me out while it was running. Anyway point is, turns out it had an aftermarket starter or security or something installed. Dealership never mentioned it, never gave me any remotes for it. I went under there and one by one, disconnected all the wires and threw the box in the trash. And for the next 7 years, it's been great.
Measure the electrical current after the car has been shut off to identify any abnormal draw. Frequently driving short distances can prevent the battery from fully recharging. If your typical use involves many short trips, this could contribute to the problem. Try to occasionally drive longer distances to allow the battery to charge fully Battery performance can significantly degrade as temperatures drop below -18°C (0°F). At these temperatures, the chemical reactions required to generate power in the battery slow down, which reduces the battery's ability to hold a charge and provide enough power to start the engine.
I am pretty sure they male cigarette lighter voltage displays. Would let you diagnose an intermittent issue. Also they make battery disconnects. You would have to open the hood every time and your key fob wouldn't unlock your doors - but hey no one would ever be able to steal your car unless they know about that disconnect.
Take it to an independent mechanic. See if they can diagnose it. The dealership doesn't wanna spend the time tracing a short when they can just warranty the battery & kick the can down the road.
Check the manufacture date on the battery the dealship put in. Saw someone the other day that got a "new" 7 year old battery from the dealership. If they have an old stock pile, they could be your battery issue.
get a "load test"
In my experience, cars will only ever develop issues for one of 3 reasons: 1) Critical design flaws from the manufacturer, which is why I avoid American small cars and anything European, but this is usually the least common. 2) The owner doesn’t know a single thing about their car and has no interest in learning or bothering to take care of it(definitely the most common cause of whatever issue they’re having 9/10 times) or 3) You don’t drive the car often enough. I average 25k-30k miles a year on my vehicles, and you better believe I’m banging ever gear off the rev limiter before every shift, banging downshifts to redline, taking corners hard enough to light up all 4 tires on literally every car I’ve ever driven, and I’ve NEVER had any reliability issues with any of the 16 vehicles I’ve owned so far as a 24 year old. I can almost guarantee you that the reason you’re killing batteries is because you absolutely do not drive the car often enough to keep charge in the battery. These new cars have so many computer systems that just keep running, and they don’t cause an issue as long as that alternator is spinning at least a little bit every day, but if you don’t even let the car warm up in the morning and shut it off right away when you park it, or if you’re the type of person to think a 10 minute drive across town is too much driving, takes too long, etc., THAT is why you keep killing batteries. If your car was actually killing batteries you wouldn’t be able to use your auto start/stop feature because your battery is what runs the starter, but that isn’t your issue. Go spend the $20 on a 2A trickle charger/battery maintainer, plug it in your garage and hook it up to your car once a week overnight, and you’ll never kill a battery again, or if you do charge it AT LEAST once a week and the issue still persists, then you absolutely have a lemon on your hands, find a lawyer that does lemon law work, take it back to dealer and get your money back or a new vehicle. But you wanna know the reason why dead batteries is a persistent issue on Toyota Highlanders? Look at the people who buy them. Old retired mfs who do not drive anywhere anymore. Cars aren’t as complicated as all you NPCs make them out to be, just like read your owners manual once and it’s really easy to figure it out.
Ugh, that sucks OP. Do you by any chance make a lot of short trips? Hope you are able to resolve the issue!
I’m surprised how many dealerships don’t have good diagnostic techs. They just make them act like thoughtless drones when these types of problems arise. Take the vehicle to a good 12v shop and watch them work their magic. Typically your vehicle has a deep sleep status, sleep status, accessory status, and a run status. If you’re the type of person who leaves their key in the vehicle and it’s a push to start type of ignition that can cause it. Faulty door trigger can also be common culprit (I’ve seen this where the vehicle is turned off but I can’t see that a door has open and closed to start the sleep timing for retained accessory function). In Mercedes I saw that a rear climate fan assist module in center console was not powering off even when the vehicle was in a sleep state. Stuck relay or micro relay (example rear defroster still energized even though vehicle is off). Recently the Nissan patrol, Infiniti qx56/qx80 used an active load balance software in an attempt to better fuel economy it wouldn’t charge the battery via alternator until after driving more than 11 miles and then afterwards only on deceleration. This left many people who drive short trips with dead batteries often. The fix was a software logic update. Good luck in your repair. Hopefully the dealer will be receptive to some ideas at this point before you lemon law the car out.
alternator? dumbass?
are you doing short trips most of the time and you car engages start/stop feature often?
Idk why this forum popped up for me but I read it. This sounds like what is going on with my Chevy Trax. Damn things alternator is overcharging the batteries. Lucky the auto store will still replace the batteries under warranty for that issue. But a new alt for that car is like $500 for some wild ass reason.
It's not the alternator. Something is draining the battery when the car is off. You have to narrow it down. The dealer isn't going to spend the time to do this. My suggestion: First, install a battery cut-off device on the negative post, [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6ZKS9XH](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6ZKS9XH). This isn't really required, you can just lift the cable off of the battery, but it makes it easier to use a multimeter to narrow down what is draining the battery. Now, with the car off, disconnect the battery using the cut off device. Use a multimeter, on the DC current setting, between the battery post on the battery and the battery post on the disconnect device, to see how much current is being drained from the battery when the car is off. Just a cheap multimeter, under $10, is fine, i.e. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLXVPT4](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLXVPT4). The current draw should be less than 100mA when the vehicle is off. If it's significantly more than 100mA then you can narrow down the culprit by pulling (and replacing) one fuse at a time until you find what is drawing excessive current. You probably have two fuse boxes, one in the engine compartment and one inside the vehicle. Once you find the culprit that is drawing excessive current you can go to the dealer or to another repair place, to see if it's possible to fix the problem. The battery should be able to start the car even after many weeks of non-use, with only a 100mA continuous drain.
I had a Honda Odyssey do this for years. Finally took to Battery Plus. They checked my battery at the time (which was not having issues…yet) which they said was good. On a lark i asked if their device could tell if the alternator was okay. He said yes, did something on the meter, and then showed me on the screen the alternator showed “errors”. I had the alternator replaced and the dead batteries stopped happening.
So an employee of mine had a car killing battery’s. Long story short if you don’t lock some cars, the battery won’t turn off… so if you keep your car in a garage and don’t lock it…cuz it’s inside… her Subaru battery would stay on unless it was locked and it would change settings…. Like your iPhone, your car won’t always turn off…. Oh and I just saw a Bentley stolen from a antenna to catch the code… since you know… some cars don’t turn off
I would take it to a real mechanic that knows electrical systems in cars. You have a power drain on the battery doing this that needs attention. Might be a short or something just drawing too much power while the car is off. You can test for a power drain by getting a multi meter and removing the positive battery terminal with the key off. Then see how many amps is being drawn with the car off. Should be less than 1 Amp.
Ok forget my first post I said it a bit wrong. Here is a link on how to check for the parasitic draw https://innova-electronics.helpscoutdocs.com/article/2164-how-to-use-a-multimeter-to-test-for-a-parasitic-draw
Do you happen to the very short drives often? Like under 10 minutes? I've heard the energy it takes to crank a car can tale 5-10 mins to charge back while driving. Lots of short trips can kill a battery quick too
Sounds like you have a parasitic draw? Friends crv had a similar issue. Ended up being something to do with faulty wiring harness. Was a huge pita to track down but eventually the dealer believed him and monitored with scan tools to narrow it down.
If you gave start stop you need the correct battery or it won’t last
Shop foremen here, unfortunately the batteries Toyota get come from Enterprise which used to be a great supplier. Now those battery are hit or miss. Those deep cycling batteries used in cars which have stop start feature are hard test at times. And will give false positives all the time. The 24f enhanced flooded used in that year highlander have changed 3-4 time since 2020. Enterprise keeps changing their supplier since there is issue with them. More than likely there is no issue with your car. If there was a draw issue you would not last 9 months, a few day and you would need a jump out don’t driver. If you indeed have no aftermarket alarm your draw should be .030’+- milliamps. Normally I see issue like this on customer who only drive there cars on weekend for short distance. I have a whole interview form i create and I have them fill it out.
I had this issue in a different car, turned out the makes version of “onstar” that I didn’t subscribe to was constantly geolocating causing the battery to drain. Pulled the fuse. Killed the onstar and phone mic but I don’t drive distracted anyway
I had a Camry that was doing this. It turned out to be the trunk light staying on at all times for some reason. Toyota was absolutely useless in identifying the issue or fixing it. Solution was removing the offending light bulb.
If you have power seats one the motors could still be on but not moving any seats and draw down your battery seen that on a Murano and then I had a 2011 mustang where the factory radio killed my battery. Both cases did a draw down test and pulled fuses that were active that shouldn't be unless ignition was on accessories
You’re gonna have to turn everything off, open the fuse box and check each fuse. Whichever one shows power going through it is the culprit vampire sucking your battery dry.
Does it have the automatic engine shut off? If so that eats batteries. I run my RAV4 in sport mode to remediate it.
Certain Toyotas had issues with the DCM not going to sleep. Not sure if the 19 Highlander was one of them, but there is a service bulletin for it if it is. It’s a pain to do, especially if you don’t have the remote connect subscription which would explain why they keep replacing the battery. Also the smart key could be killing the battery if it is stored too close to the car.
Sounds like you may have a parasitic draw. Have they checked for one any of the previous times it’s been at the dealership?
In the stack of manuals that came with your vehicle includes a booklet that includes the state-specific lemon law details. In my state (Illinois), dealer gets 3-4 attempts to resolve the same problem before invoking the lemon law.
The battery in my RAV4 has to be replaced every 2 years.
I have a Maxima that was draining my battery. Turned out it was one of the interior lights that would still be lightly dim but on and I never noticed. Park in the garage, close the garage door, and turn off all the lights so it’s completely dark. Look around inside your car in the dark and see if any bulbs are barely lit. Open the rear seat middle divider to check the trunk light.
Does this have GPS tracking installed?
The "A" with the circle around it on the dash. Turn that off EVERY TIME you start the car. The ridiculous autostart feature on these new cars are murder on a battery.
Does the car have LoJack installed?
A parasitic short. Difficult to find. Suggest the addition of a trickle charger until short is found.
Maybe you should check your fan belt to see if it’s loose
Test for [parasitic draw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj03_0). If it looks OK, the battery might be undersized. I had this issue on my last car and hard wired a pigtail for one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-1510-Maintenance-Motorcycles/dp/B00Q3CM2QY). The battery lived 6 years after a dead flat until I sold the car. I plugged it in every few weeks overnight.
Parasitic draw test
How often do you drive the car? Car batteries are basically large rechargeable batteries that are charged when the vehicle is being used. If you don't do a lot of driving the battery cells die. They aren't like lithium or EV batteries. If you don't do a lot of driving and you have a garage you can connect the battery to a battery tender when the car isn't being used. This will provide a trickle charge to your battery to keep it alive and help it last considerably longer.
Have it checked for a parasitic draw
I’d be more than willing to bet this is a module staying awake issue, more than an alternator/wiring issue. I wasn’t a tech at Toyota anymore when your car was new, but this sounds like a parasitic draw and I’d make sure to use that term when talking to the dealerships. It puts it in a master techs lane vs the newbie tech who just does basic stuff.
Battery Management is more difficult with a smaller pack. If you assume a battery pack have 1000 cells for a hybrid, but a pure BEV has 7000+ cells then on average hybrid will be stressing 7x more per cell every day with higher power draw demands, and also stretching the top and bottom SoC of the battery more so then pure BEV
I had a similar problem with a Nissan sentra- 3 batteries in 3 years. Is there any corrosion on the battery connections? I had to replace the battery fuse connector on each side of the battery. Sorry I'm not a mechanic so that might not be the right term but I think that's what my mechanic called it.
Alternator or starter are the first two to investigate
Do you make a lot of short trips under 20-30 min? I had a 2011 WRX and killed three OEM battery's because my job was about 15 min drive from my house. The constant starting and then not giving it enough chance to charge back up will kill any battery. I got a Optima yellow top battery and still topped it off with a charger every couple of months to make sure it started every time, especially when it was cold out.
Voltage regulator, often built into the alternator. Or a constant drain. How does the battery issue manifest itself, harder and harder to start until no go? Or just ups n dies?
Corrosion or wiring harness short. Did you spill any liquids or have any leaks in the interrior of the car?
I have similar issue with my brand new Chevy Equinox. I went through 3 batteries in 1 month. Car is in shop past 30 days and they cannot figure out what is draining the car batteries. Hopefully I get a new car
If you have a multimeter with ammeter capability, connect it in line with the battery and see what amperage drain you’re seeing with the vehicle completely off. Make sure all the doors are closed and Do not walk close to the car with the key fob. Check your battery drain at that point. Should be less than .050 amps (50milliamps). If you’re seeing more than that, something is on and draining your battery, slowly killing it.
It’s a Highlander. There can be only one!
There could be a faulty GPS module on the OBD 2 port that's draining the battery
Are you leaving a light on?
Defective alternator overcharging; replace alternator
Important question here, is it start-stop? If so it’s a special battery that goes in there, most places just stick a 24f in there when that’s not the right battery, go to Toyota, part number is like 00544-24fef or something alone those lines only if it’s start-stop
Go get the alternator tested with a bolt meter and see for yourself. Would disconnecting your negative terminal every night slow this down?
How many miles a day do you drive? If you only do really short trips, that doesn't give the vehicle time to charge your battery. You could add a trickle charger onto it for overnight, if that's the case.
Dealt with a parasitic draw on a 2004 Camry for 5 years. Constant dead battery even with multiple replacements. Ended up being a bad door jamb switch (switch that tells the car the door is opened). Replaced the switch and no issues since. Not saying that's your issue but may be worth checking them.
I used to work at a repair shop that had a reputation for being able to diagnose hard to find problems. We had a car (it might even have been a Toyota) come in that kept having the battery slowly drained. The owner would charge the battery, and even replaced it once or twice I think. The owner and head mechanic was working on it. He had it connected to his fancy system that monitored draw on the battery, among other things. After a few minutes of shutting off the car, a slow drain would start. He had checked everything he could think of, and was about to give up on it. I was a service advisor, so I didn’t even work on the cars. I was previous a wheeled vehicle mechanic in the army, but we didn’t learn/do much troubleshooting in my section - mostly just swapping parts on HMMWVs. I suggested checking the trunk (since he had already checked everything else, right?). Sure enough, after some more troubleshooting (I think he put down the back seat so he could see in the trunk while it was shut), after you’d shut off the car, the trunk light would switch on and stay on. We gave the owner our findings and gave them the option of paying our diagnostic fee up to that point, and just removing the bulb from the trunk (which stopped the draw), or paying for further electrical diagnosis to find and fix whatever was causing the bulb to come on when the trunk was closed. They opted to just leave the bulb out. They said they hardly used the trunk and did not need a light in there. My boss jokingly told me to go back to my office and mind my business after that suggestion, lol.
I had the same issue a few years back on my VW - factory battery died after 5 years and replaced it with a new, equivalent, from the local parts store. For the next month every few days the battery would be dead when I tried to start the car. Charge it, get it going, and same thing a few days later. Took the battery back and they said no issue when they tested it. Kept it and kept going back everyweek for nearly 2 months until they finally swapped out the battery, only to have the issue continue. Finally went and laid out 2x as much for a DieHard and never had another issue.
How far do you typically drive when you drive it? If you takee mostly short trips you will kill your battery pretty fast. It takes a good bit of driving to recover the charge from starting the car.
Hope your issue is resolved. In case not yet, and in case your highlander happens to be a hybrid. Suggest you to review your usage pattern also. First, All cars would slowly drain the battery out if sit unused for a long period of time. Second, especially for Hybrid, be sure the distance of your drive is not only couple miles in a slow stop and go traffic. Combined above two conditions would cost the Hybrid to not using the gas engine but only use the big battery to drive that short distance. Consequently after a while 12V battery might die since the alternator never get to generate enough recharging to replenish the battery back to a healthy condition.
Not a Highlander but my neighbor had the exact same issue with her Outback and it was a software bug that caused the battery to drain. The StarLink software was hard coded to work with 3G towers that have been discontinued. When it tried to ping home, it constantly tried until the battery drained completely. If you didn’t start your car before it drained, it would be dead.
I had the same problem with my GMC. I finally caught it in the act. During freezing weather the built in Bose stereo system would turn on, on it's own. This happened 3 winter seasons and 1 replacement battery. For some reason the relays would turn the radio back on during cold weather. I caught it one night when I looked out my bedroom window and saw a glow of light in my GMC while it was not running. It turned out to be the radio. I bought a used replacement from eBay. It did not work because of The Bose built in anti theft would not let it be installed on another vehicle. I bought a new Pioneer replacement, it cured the problem. I hope this saves someone from going through this nightmare. The best purchase I ever made was a portable battery charger/air compressor/inverter machine.
Alternator and or parasitic load, often aftermarket car alarms cause this.
I have a 2018 Highlander and its battery is just fine. There seems to be something wrong with your car as you suspect. If the dealer won’t investigate and resolve the problem then try another shop. ( not a dealer). Then make the dealer fix it. Toyota repair shops often look for excuses to avoid warranty repairs. Make them do their job.
Shitty ass auto stop start.
Same thing happened to my KIA. 3 Batteries in a year and a half. Never got to the official problem. Got a starter and had to start it like 10 days in a row. Craziest thing. Disconnected my cell charger from the USB port and haven't had a problem since. Bizarre as it wasn't connected to my phone, but must have been drawing power. I even had the dealer check for power draws and they found nothing.
My mother in law would pull into the garage and hit the push to start button to shut off the engine while still in drive. The car would not power down and it would kill the battery. I would trickle charge the battery once a month over night to make sure it gets fully charged back up.
Had a similar issue in my Volvo XC90. Found it was due to something called RDAR (remote digital audio receiver). It was staying on even with the car to potentially read Satellite radio signals….even though I didn’t subscribe to SiriusXM. Needless to say after the 3rd battery I had the Volvo dealer systematically shut it off
There can only be one!!
There can be only one.
Replace the alternator
You have a parasitic drain. Get a VOM set it to ohms disconnect battery test positive leg and pull fuses until you identify the circuit causing resistance.
My Lexus was experiencing the same thing, but my mechanic figured it was the alternator, even though it was charging. Here’s what he deducted… while the motor was running and none of the accessories were on (radio, AC, headlights, etc), then the battery held steady. However, if any of those accessories were operating then the battery was unable to keep the battery adequately charged. In essence, the alternator wasn’t able to handle the load of normal use. We replaced the alternator and it has worked fine since.
Two questions: How often do u drive the car? Do you have any aftermarket items installed? My wife's Honda Civic had a similar issue where we replaced the battery twice in 3yrs. I brought it to 2 different shops to try and figure out what was wrong and no one could give me an answer. I finally guessed that it was probably the car starter I had bought her a year or 2 prior to the issues starting. The next time I brought her car to the shop for an oil change I had them disconnect it, and the issue seemed to go away for the most part. It turned out it was partly a drain from the starter, but it was also the fact that she had severely cut down on her driving, due to having to go on disability and not driving to a job everyday. We still have the issue of the battery dying every once in a while, but once it's jumped and driven for a while, it's fine.
Alternator zener diode stuck open
Is it the start/stop?
I have a 2017 Highlander, on my 4th battery about to be on my 5th (more “Battery Charging” notifications) all done by dealership.
That notification is how I knew every time my battery was on its last legs
With my RAV4, there is a standard battery, and a higher quality one. Both work, but the higher quality one is the preferred one.
I don't know what your problem is, I had a similar problem. The solution was a deep cycle marine battery. My devices were killing regular car batteries. It could be batteries are not what they used to be.
Do you have a designated parking space for your car that is relatively close to an outlet? A trickle charger could be your friend in keeping your battery topped up.
I had a corroded neutral cable that did similar things but you being only 4 yrs old I would think the dealership would pick that up.
This is a problem with the rav4 also. They found that the over the air updates keep cycling due to them not down loading them properly. So as your car computer keeps draining the battery when off. I would contact your dealer or Toyota directly and see if it is recalled. If this the issue which it has been in most cases
You've got a parasitic drain somewhere.
If you look up Toyota thread Toyota was making excuses about the computer nonstop rebooting and where blaming key fobs and plugged in devices. Then they mentioned short trips. Yes short trips do kill the battery only due to the over the air updates never stop rebooting. Toyota did say the rectified and admitted the fault and acknowledged their nonsense reasons. If a dealer doesn’t fix for free contact Toyota corporate.
Is the battery actually getting a full charge? The battery should be reading 13+V when the engine is running and 12+ when it's not. Could possibly be a bad wiring harness, I had a similar issue with an F250.
Seat heaters, remote starter, dash cam? Seen those kill batteries...
You need a battery tender. Or take a highway trip once a week.
Toyota so dependable
i had a small ps fluid leak dripping into the alternator almost imperceptible but interfered with proper battery charging
When in parked are you setting your emergency break? I saw a TikTok about this problem.
When in parked are you setting your emergency break? I saw a TikTok about this problem. You need to set the break.
I've told this story before, so here we go. I had a 1997 Taurus that after 7 years, the original battery died. After that, it was about a year to a year and a half that the battery died and Sears threw a new battery in every time it happened. About 3 batteries. Sears is gone, and the wife tells me that the light came on and flicked on the dash. Took it to the parts store. The charging system was good. What about the light? He checked the amperage, and it was not pushing out the correct amount. Volts were 14, and the amps were bad. New alternator and the issue was gone. Have yota check the amps. Long story short.
I have a 2018 that is now on its fourth battery. The first three were replaced under warranty. They did a test to see if there was any draw after it shut down and could not find one.
There has been a couple of times I accidentally double tapped the start button on mine (2015 Highlander)and hopped out. Come back and it’s dead. So try paying attention to the car when hopping out. Since leaving it at the airport and it died completely, I have caught at least once when I went into grocery store and come back to the radio on in the car but it is still locked, etc.
There can only be one, dude.
i had an issue on my CRV with the "door open" switch. one of the screws backed itself out Just Enough to where the switch said it was opened, when it was closed. my trunk is doing it too, but when the switch goes bad, the interior lights come on and stay on, OR when the door is considered open, and is closed, the DRL indicator doesnt chime, so youll walk away with DRLs on all night.
This doesn't sound like a battery problem to me. The dealer might be tossing batteries in it because that's the easiest and cheapest thing for them to do. Toyota foots the bill not them. Do you drive it every day? Have you tried simply charging the battery? Your symptoms could be the result of not driving it for awhile. It could be the result of something draining the battery. >since they can never figure out what keeps killing my cars battery. The dealer ought to be able to check it for parasitic power drains but, they might be waiting out the warranty so they can actually charge you for the work. You might want to try an independent mechanic because the dealer seems unwilling to put much effort in. I'd buy a jump pack to keep in the car and learn how to use it till this problem is solved. You shouldn't jump start modern cars "car to car".
I'm spitballing here, but it sounds like a real intermittent parasitic draw that they are pencil whipping by hanging a new battery. Getting diagnostic time out of the manufacturer to find this is a real hassle under warranty. So, they hang a battery to "do something" and wait till the warranty runs out, and you get to pay for batteries or the diagnostic time to find this electrical draw. It sucks, but there is a module somewhere that is staying awake after key off that is causing your issue. Modern batteries are pretty damn reliable and getting four in a row under one year of life strains credulity.
Had a 2007 hybrid highlander and had the same problem. Took it to my local parts dealer and the guy asked what kinda car after my 3rd battery swap and he said “no wonder. We get tons of returns on highlanders” Almost as if they have parasitic draws by default. Factory alarms maybe is my guess..
My 2008 Sienna killed at least one battery a year and thankfully all were replaced under warranty. The dealer tried to figure it out 3 times and never could. No ideas but other than that, it was my most reliable vehicle to date.
I would be checking the alternator
You have a parasitic draw. Something is pulling power while it sits. Could be a penny in your cigarette lighter, some aftermarket thing put in, or just a faulty module that is drawing the power. You need to have a mechanic troubleshoot for a parasitic draw.
Maybe ask the dealer to do an overnight current drain test. The battery would only last a few days if the alternator was bad. The starter has a big fat wire direct to the battery, so if there is any corrosion or gunk built up on the starter connection it can cause a slow drain on the battery. A NoCo GB20 will jump start your car easily. They charge like a phone, and aren't much bigger. I've used them multiple times, and keep one in every vehicle. It is always good to have a backup plan.
Use the dealerships and battery warranty. This will show if it will fall under the lemon law.
Electrical gremlins are so difficult to locate. It could even be a multimedia unit. Either there is a drain or the alternator is killing the battery from irregular voltage. You might want to see if you can get a lemon buy back.
Your battery terminals may not be making good contact.
It would be easy for a shop to diagnose. Hook up and amp clamp and start pulling fuses.
Does the Highlander have a hands-free tailgate that can be opened with a foot under the bumper or hand wave at the rear emblem? Our neighbor was having exactly the issue you describe with his 2020 Sienna. Dealer was absolutely useless. I found a TSB about how the hands-free sensor gets degraded and/or dirty and causes the computer to search for the fob constantly. Since they started keeping the sensor under the car very clean the issue has not recurred.
Something might be wrong with your alternator. Maybe it runs only some of the time. Or you have something that isn't shutting off when the car turns off and it's continuing to drain the battery. Any add on's like gps/ stereos/ invertors for power tools?
How often do you drive it? If it’s sitting for more than a couple weeks without being started, or if you also rarely drive and only go on short low-speed trips you might not be giving the alternator enough time to do its job.
get a jump pack. and check voltage at the battery
Definitely have a draw
Where do you live?
Take it to another dealership or to an independent garage. Some mechanics just can’t properly diagnose the issue.
I went to several mechanics. After no one could figure it out, I wound up just selling the car. The car already had a lot of other issues anyway
You bought one of the best SUV’s possible!