Hi! I have a 95 Ford ranger. Battery purchased in June of this year, new starter, and new terminals just put in.

It's been to the shop twice now. First time, they put a new starter in and it turned on just fine, drove it home and the next morning it was dead. Jumped the battery that night and it works, gets me to work the next day and doesn't turn on after sitting for maybe 3 hours.

I put new terminals on cause I noticed the positive was cracking. Still nothing, so I send it back to the shop. They say the negative terminal wasn't tight enough, they do a diagnostic and charge the battery. Turns on and sounds great, voltage reading is good. I drive for about 15 minutes and park it back at work for an hour and now the battery is totally dead again.

What should I check next? Will update after I call the shop in the morning and ask what their diagnostic consisted of.

 

Welcome to the forum

With a $10 Volt meter you can do your own diagnostic

New batteries can have internal short, first test
Unhook 1 battery cable
Test battery voltage, 12.3v to 12.8v is acceptable range, 12.2v or lower is a drained or bad battery, write down voltage
Wait 1 hour retest battery voltage should be EXACTLY the same, longer the wait the better the test
If its lower then battery has internal short so is self draining, get it replaced

If its the same voltage Battery is OK, hook up battery cable, tight
Turn on Key, BATTERY LIGHT should be on, if not check fuse 15 in Cab Fuse Box

Start engine
Test battery voltage again, 13.5v to 14.8v is acceptable
If lower than 13.5v then Alternator is failing, weak
If its 12.3v to 12.8v then alternator is DEAD

If all is well shut off the engine and close the doors
Test battery voltage again
Wait an hour
Retest
If its dropped more than 0.5v then there is something on that shouldn't be, hard to track these things down

 

Mechanic who had just worked on it paid to have it towed back to the shop and the culprit is the gear shifter. The mechanics can get it into park, but I can't. They replaced the bolt that fell out and will be rebuilding it soon.

 

Yes, not going all the way into Park will cause a No Start/No Crank
Its a safety switch to prevent starting "in gear"

Jumping the battery wouldn't help that, so there are other issues