2001 Chevy Venture Third Replacement Battery Installed

Replacing The Battery - October 12, 2023
Mileage - 261608 Miles

For the third time since owning the van, it is battery replacement time! See the last time the battery was replaced HERE.   The symptoms were very similar - where the van had some slow cranking and the battery indicator would come on for a few seconds after starting.

The symptoms that occurred this time were SLOW cranking. But this time I was getting ready for a trip to the airport - to drop someone off - and when trying to start it, there was just the clicking under the hood, and the whole "lock-clicking" thing that happened last time. So after making the airport run in another car (good thing to have a backup), I did some checking to confirm that this was a worn out battery.

I DID measure the voltage at the battery that evening, and read about 12.2 volts, but dropped off rapidly when the lights were turned on. So I hooked up my old charger (rated at only 4 Amps) and left it on overnight. Unfortunately that was not enough to allow the van to start the next morning so I have to jump start it using jumper cables connected to the other car.

Once again I called my favorite mechanic shop asking if they could do the job of TESTING the charging system and replacing the battery. The tests did CONFIRM that the battery was worn out and the charging system was working fine. The last battery installed was a "5 year" battery, so getting 6 years of service sounds about right.
  Total cost of the job (battery & labor) was about $230 plus tax and hazardous material fees