What's involved in battery check at service

[MrP]

I recently took my 3.5 year old RAV4 for a service. 2 days later my wife could not start the car at work. She called the NRMA. He tested the battery and found one of the cells was dead and it costed around $250 (labour $60).

I checked the service book and it has a inspect battery checkbox. Shouldn't the Toyota service centre have picked this up? What's involved in battery checking at the service. They recommend service every 6 months despite we don't travel much. 32000kms in 3.5 years. And that's ~$300 every 6 months. Should I get the labour cost back from Toyota service?

[Ozzcaddy]

If the battery was the type that you can take the caps off each cell to check the fluid levels in each cell, I imagine they would do this. Also check that the alternator is charging the battery at the correct voltage, and the battery is accepting the charge. If there are no caps and the battery is a sealed unit, you can check via a view window, where the colour is Green = Good, White = Recharge, Red = Battery fully discharged.

A dead cell could happen at any time, so if it has been in the car for 3.5 years, well, that is probably standard for the lif of the battery. Depends on car usage, stop and starting, or lengthy trips.