Sudden death of battery

Last Saturday I drove out to a friends house,down 22 miles of dirt road.
Sunday morning I went to start the car. Glow plugs turned on and timed out. When I went to start, the battery was as dead as a door nail. 14 volts at the battery,but the battery would not carry a load what so ever.
The battery was two years old.
I took it to my local car parts store and they tested it with a computer tester
for batteries and it failed the first test instantly. The cells shorted out under load.
The battery tray in my car is like new and still has all the rubber vibration pads in it. The clamp was tight.
Could the drive down the dirt road have damaged the old battery?
The new one was very expensive as the Type 45 battery is no longer common. ( no one had a 96 either) I had to order the new battery from town and have it delivered to my store in the sticks.

You can put one of the newer, more common H6 or H7 type batteries in there just fine, FYI.

No idea why your battery died suddenly like that though.

14 volts on a lead acid battery is sure death. At most 12.8 when fully charged AGM batteries. Batteries die in the summer and you find out in the winter. Cheep of the cheapest batteries are only good for 2 years MAX. A decent brand NEW right off the assembly line is good for about 3-4 sometimes 5 if properly maintained.
You can adapt any battery you want into any car you wish, it’s about modifying the bracket system and the space you have to work with. Many of us have done a battery swap to the trunk and called it good.

In a nut shell. You want to get a quality battery. I suggest you read up on the candle power forums and other areas of the internet for advice on what battery is right for you for your price range. Get a cheap POS from Walmart or AutoZone and y our only going to get 2 years out of it, maybe 3 if you’re lucky.

You need to check your alternators output. No more than 14.0~ volts. No less than 13.2 VW usually run about 14v, other cars usually 13.6. If you’re under 13v or over 14.2v the alt is dead and that’s what killed it. 14.4 is not bad, I’m talking like 16v. Very typical to see 16.8~V when it dies.

No driving conditions would kill a battery other than improper charging and age.

Lead/Acid battteries typically see 14+ volts from the alternator when charging so they are not seeing "sure death". What probably is the case is that the battery just died because a plate set shorted in a cell(s).

Most batteries these days are lucky to see three year of normal use. That shortness of life, which is a departure from the "good 'ol days" is built into the battery manufacturing process and also the fact that cars have a higher electrical load to deal with these days.

NO I meant that the battery is at 14 volts when off. Charging vs holding volts. I think I got confused by OP's lack of detail. I assumed he tested the battery at 14v when the car was not running because his battery was dead and thus the car not running. You can have a short out. Ever see a battery expand? I have personally measured a lead acid battery at 27V from just sitting around for years on a maintainer that did not fail, it was just a Cheep POS, looked like one of those square watermelons. Sort of rounded on the sides. This was a sealed marine battery though. All these car batteries have tops of them to fill them up so that is rare now days.

Any battery that tests more than 12.8V is dying or is dead or that you have a failing charger that dumps too much into it. Those battery maintainers are ok for lead acid but they are suicide from an AGM. you need a pure curve sin wave signal, those cheap ones are step sign and they hurt AGM's but are find for normal battery’s that only last a few years anyways.

I am careful not to use electrical (lights, radio, phone charger) unless the car is running. Non deep cycle batteries do NOT like getting low on voltage.

I have an 8 year old basic Autozone battery in my 98 ALH Jetta. But, the battery is definitely getting weak...probably won't last the winter.

My wife's mini-van had the most expensive Walmart battery (Everstart Maxx)....it just started acting strange, but it has been in the car since 2010.

I recommend finding an Advance Auto 30% off coupon to get one of their best batteries...buy online and pick up at local store. I also still recommend the Everstart Maxx. With either, make sure the date produced code is as new as possible on the battery.

For advanced auto, you can get up to 48% off your order. Wait for the 40 off 100 to show up and then use eBates.com to click though for another 8%. Get a discount on it by about 20% for each year that it is old. Should be a 2017 and not any less. I needed a battery for a car I was selling. Paid $20 for a new battery at advanced. $94.99 for the battery, a few fillers to bump it to 100. Coupon brings it down to $60, so I had to add another $15 in fillers to get free shipping, (THIS PART IS KEY) once it arrived, I got one that was marked 2012 and I got it in 2015. 3 years old. I called up advanced corporate office and finally got a hold of a supervisor and got him to refund me $50 for the battery. Then ebates mailed me a check for the $6.00 2 months later!
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My battery at rest was showing 12.75 volts. After a boost a surface charge of 14 volts held for several minutes. The lights would work as did all the gauges. As soon as the starter was turned on the voltage dropped to under 4 VDC. A plate had shorted internally in the battery.
This is common in sealed lead acid batteries and I've seen it hundreds of times in my working carrier on portable battery powered equipment. I've only seen this once before in a wet acid battery. Most just sulfate up from age.