Liberty Battery

Maximum Carnage · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:17 pm

Back in August 2006 I bought a replacement battery for my Liberty the OEM has run its course, over 5 years. I bought a Sears DieHard Gold. Ever since then I need a jump once in a while. I know it’s still under warranty I just need to take it off next time is decides to die on me. I’ve looked at consumer reports to see if they had anything negative to say about them but found nothing. I've always bought DieHard and never had problems with them.

Did you buy a DieHard battery and had trouble with it?

BVCRD · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:20 pm

Maximum Carnage wrote:

Back in August 2006 I bought a replacement battery for my Liberty the OEM has run its course, over 5 years. I bought a Sears DieHard Gold. Ever since then I need a jump once in a while. I know it’s still under warranty I just need to take it off next time is decides to die on me. I’ve looked at consumer reports to see if they had anything negative to say about them but found nothing. I've always bought DieHard and never had problems with them.

Did you buy a DieHard battery and had trouble with it?

Many years ago I had aproblem with one. (1981) Dead short. Don't know if it was wide spread or not back then. I got my money back and bought a Walmart for $30 that lasted 4 years.

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:43 pm

48 hrs or 20/20 or MSNBC did a special on Sears and their Diehard batterys.

They caught stores cleaning up old Diehard batterys and selling them new. Caught on film. Not just one Sears store but a few.

It is possible you got caught in this.

Maximum Carnage · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:52 pm

It's still well under free replacement. I went in last Saturday and it was installed on the Liberty but the guy wanted to charge me $15 to take it off and test it. He said testing is free but the labor is $1500 Anyways he told me “next time it looses charge take it off and bring it in”. It’s easier said than done being that I notice this when I’m on my way out. The weird thing is I always have left my light on and wait for them to turn off by themselves, which is 5 minutes I think. But once I replaced the OEM battery with the DieHard the battery doesn’t seem to hold the juice. I know I got a defective one. I just want to find out if other have had similar or same problem.

What batteries are you guys running?

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:53 pm

Ive had the same thing happen with my optima red-top. Ive found out the lights come on inside the Jeep at random times and run the battery down. The dealer looked at me like I was retarted when I explained the problem to them.

They said they could keep it over night. Wth would that do? :roll:

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:56 pm

Maximum Carnage wrote:

It's still well under free replacement. I went in last Saturday and it was installed on the Liberty but the guy wanted to charge me $15 to take it off and test it. He said testing is free but the labor is $1500 Anyways he told me “next time it looses charge take it off and bring it in”. It’s easier said than done being that I notice this when I’m on my way out. The weird thing is I always have left my light on and wait for them to turn off by themselves, which is 5 minutes I think. But once I replaced the OEM battery with the DieHard the battery doesn’t seem to hold the juice. I know I got a defective one. I just want to find out if other have had similar or same problem.

What batteries are you guys running?

HOLY MACARONI!!!!! $1500?

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:10 pm

Bring your battery in, tell them its bad, get a new one, put it in and see if the problem continues.

Maximum Carnage · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:50 pm

Tokyojoe wrote:

Maximum Carnage wrote:

the guy wanted to charge me $15 to take it off and test it. He said testing is free but the labor is $1500

HOLY MACARONI!!!!! $1500?

Oh TokyoJoe you are too funny :lol:

Maximum Carnage · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:53 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Ive had the same thing happen with my optima red-top. Ive found out the lights come on inside the Jeep at random times and run the battery down. The dealer looked at me like I was retarted when I explained the problem to them.

They said they could keep it over night. Wth would that do? :roll:

That would teach you a lesson, that you should not take it to the dealer :-)r

Seriously what were they thinking?

scoobybri · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:10 pm

Die Hard is a good brand, but like anything else, there are lemons. Plus batteries can sit on the shelf for years and sold as new which can lead to charging problems. Kill the battery by leaving on your headlights and then bring it in for testing. That way you are controlling when it's dying, not waiting to be stranded somewhere.

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:38 pm

I don't think leaving the lights on will work. I know in my Liberty the headlights automatically turn off after 8 minutes in case they are accidentally left on. I would imagine they are all the same in this respect. Try plugging something into your power outlet, or run an inverter directly off the battery with a light or a small TV running to kill the battery.

I agree with TokyoJoe, however. I've seen many a report that 20/20 did on how Sears rips people off in their auto stores, including the one where the reporters made a very small brand on the case of the battery. They brought the car in to have the battery replaced. When they checked the battery after the "service" was performed, it was the same one they had originally. All they did was clean it up to make it look new. It's for this reason and many more I'll NEVER bring my car into Sears to have work done. I wouldn't trust them to check my oil.

chefdab · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:42 pm

That's funny cause I got a Die hard once for like ten bucks. This was on my first car. The battery seemed dead so I got a jump start and took it in for them to test. When the tested it they said the battery was too dead to test the rest of the electrical system (alternator etc.) so they would have to put a new one in to test it. Then the guy comes back out and tells me the charging system is fine and it's just the battery. I was kinda broke and lived close enough to work that I could walk and be without the car for a while, so I told him the new battery would have to wait a little while. He said fine but they would have to charge me for the test which was like ten bucks at the time. So I paid and walked out. The car started right up! I was like wow, they must have charged it or something. When I got home I popped the hood and lo and behold was a shiny new Die Hard. Apparently the tech had forgotten to put the old crappy battery in after running the electrical system check.

Maximum Carnage · **Posted:** Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:06 am

scoobybri wrote:

Kill the battery by leaving on your headlights and then bring it in for testing. That way you are controlling when it's dying, not waiting to be stranded somewhere.

I did just that yesterday. I sat inside the Liberty for about 15 minutes with the radio one the doors open, rolled my windows up/down a few times and I left my light on but on high beam. Sure enough 15 or so minutes later I tried cranking it and it wouldn't even turn over. When I was taking the battery off I notice a sticker on it that said Jun/06, I bought it in Aug/06 took it to Sears. The guy took it to the back 5 minutes later "you have a bad battery" and started the paperwork for a new one. With all that said and done I now have a new battery with the "Born On Date" of Mar/07. Thanks for your feed back.

KY Liberty · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2005 1:46 pm **Posts:** 1195

The ignition switch has to be in the OFF position for the battery saver to kick in. That's what turns off your lights after 8 minutes. I got tired of trying to find anyone that had a battery that would mount in the tray of my very early KJ, that I ended up just going over to the parts counter at the big 5 star dealership here and bought one. It didn't have as high of cranking amps as I normally would like, but I must say it really works well.

Liberty Battery

Who is online