So I just bought an 07 5.9 6 speed 3 weeks ago to the day and it's in the shop already!! I was headin back to Virginia this mornin from El Paso and about 100 miles out my check gauges light comes on and my battery indicator lowers to about 10 I'd say, so I pulled over to a gas station to check it out. Popped my hood and the battery near the intake was smokin. Called NAPA and they brought me one. Got her runnin and it felt like it had NO power at all. I mean a grandma pushin a buggy coulda passed me. Well about 15 min later it completly died and the new battery was leakiin and smokin, had to have a roll back come pick me up. What could thins be? Oh and it has 89k on it

 

you should always replace BOTH batteries at the same time. more than likely you dropped a cell in one and damaged the other.

 

Electrical short?

 

I know I should replace both at the same time but both batteries were brand spankin new. Not even in a month. So I figured it would hurt just to change the bad one. When we hooked it up a ground wire on the other battery was off so we hooked it back up and I was on my way then 15 min later it just quit.

 

Diesels are real hard on batteries, Im on my 4th set of batteries in 6 years. Im now trying out AC Delco 7 year batteries.

 

There are some hard working AGM batteries out there under the name of Odyssey. Supposedly designed by NASA, they are long life, deep cycle. I've run one on another diesel for two years and kept the battery when I traded the vehicle.
You need deep pockets to afford two at once but when I do have to replace the stock mopar batteries I will get these.

 

Optimas seem to be top dog in the battery world. Sounds like your alternator is overcharging. These are easy fixes don't feel bad about the truck it's just basic maintenance and occasionally a parts failure. Otherwise no worries for thousands of miles!

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. You do need deep pockets to do both, I mean one battery was 120 bucks. How much is an alternator? Anyone know?

 

Sounds like you have a short.

 

Yea a ground wire from the left battery came off the first time so i got her hooked back up then it crapped on me again