Battery keeps going dead

[Outdoorsman]

Hello All,

I just recently purchased a used 2010 Yaris Sedan from a local Toyota dealership, and I was excited to get this car as I really love how it drives and the fuel efficiency, but the warranty had just expired at the time I purchased this car and now over the last couple of weeks I have had the battery die twice in the car, with this morning being the second time this happened and I had to drive my wife to work.

I don't have any accessories plugged up in the car and the radio is stock that came with the car, so I don't think I have anything that would be causing an electrical drain. The first time I had this happen, the battery was dead with a voltage of 11.5v, so I took it to Auto Zone and they recharged the battery for me thankfully, did a load test on the battery and said it was good. After installing the battery in the car, I drove it up to AutoZone to have them do a check of the alternator, and that all checked out, and I can confirm with the volt meter that I am getting a charge level voltage to the battery, so it appears the alternator is working.

So this morning about a week since the battery died the first time, my wife tried to start the car, and the same problem happened again. She drove it home just fine last night, and then this morning it is not starting. The battery does run the starter, just there is not enough juice to do anything and the starter just clicks. I am going to purchase a new battery to see if that solves the problem, as maybe this battery that is currently in it is just bad, and I'm hoping that is all it is, but honestly I'm feeling pretty sour at the moment that I just bought a fairly new car and I'm already saddled with car trouble already! :( The battery that is in it has a 2011 manufacture date and it is not the original battery, so hopefully it is just a defective battery.

If it turns out this new battery dies and I have this same problem, does anyone here have any ideas of what this might be, and has this come up in the forums before? Are there known issues that I should investigate? As a new Yaris owner, I'm not sure what I should be looking for just yet, and since the nearest dealership is out of town, I want to see what I can fix myself before having to take the car all the way over there and deal with that hassle.

Any thoughts or tips are much appreciated, and I have really enjoyed reading in the forums thus far, as this seems to be such a helpful place! :)