The Tahoe sat for 3 days last weekend and Monday I went out to start it up and no dice. The key fob unlocked the doors, the lights came on, click, it tried to start, the power seemed to be winding down, it was struggling aaaaand then it turned over and started up. But it wasn't right.
I let it sit for 2 hours and the same scenario repeated. So I took the 5 year old Interstate battery to O’Reily’s and left it with them overnight to charge and test as it was almost closing time when I got there.
The next day I called to get the results and was told that it had 1/4 life and I was good to go.
That wasn’t a good enough result for me to keep that battery as it wasn’t starting the truck properly.
I had already purchased another Champion AGM battery (the same type that I had put in the Suburban a few months earlier, just a different size and the Tahoe is a side mount set up) from Pep Boys on Cyber Monday as it was 25% off.
I picked up the AGM battery and left the Interstate one behind as the core and headed home. I did a quick hook up and the truck fired right up multiple times and the next morning without hesitation. Winning!!
But the battery tray and area were dirty and had some rust, so of course I pulled the battery back out and cleaned that area. I gave the battery tray, fender brace bar, all bolts and small piece in the engine bay a quick sand and fresh coat of paint.
There was a little reaction on the tray during the top coat, but I let it slide as it cannot be seen under the battery anyways.
I used Tef Gel in the threads so they wouldn’t seize, unlike one bolt that sheared off when I hit it with the socket wrench and some of the Pasco tape I have used before to create a barrier between the bolts and the tray to reduce the corrosion.
I know it's overkill on something that you cannot see, but nothing new on this thread to take a little extra time to put it back in clean and/or painted.