Taking the family on a camping trip today about 4 hours from the house. Truck ran perfect all the way until literally 200 yards where I turn off of the main trail onto a side trail to our camp site....battery light comes on, volt meter between half and 3/4. Well s***.
I decide to bail because I figure it's the alternator and I know I don't have long before the battery dies. We were about 30 minutes out of town so I hauled ass down the trail. Whole time volt meter is slowly dropping, ABS light comes on, then AHC pump won't come on to bring the truck down from high, then radio starts cutting off and I'm getting reeeeeal worried. We made it back to the main road, and once up to speed the volt meter goes back to normal (3/4 gauge) and I make it to auto zone.
He tests the alternator and voltage tests good, but battery tests bad. The battery was in the truck when I bought it (Delstar) and I don't know how old so I buy a new one.
All is well, no battery light, charging well. I talk my wife into trying again, probably was a bad battery and after all we are already up here.
Once we get about 2 miles out of town at a stop sign I notice the volt meter drop a tick down then back up a couple times quickly...never seen that before so I say we bail again. 10 miles down the road the light is on again, but staying just between half and 3/4 on the gauge. We made it about 100 miles like that with the battery light on and going through a town it starts dropping quickly again...ABS light, dim head lights, radio flickering. We were at at stop light so I put it in neutral and revved it to around 3k for about 10 seconds. Volt meter jumped back up and she drove the 50 miles home with no battery light all normal.
No record of an alternator change in it's history so I figure 186k miles is pretty damn good run. I'm just glad she got us home.
I'm thinking about maybe doing the alternator and starter at the same time as PM.
Is our only option reman'd Denso?
I decide to bail because I figure it's the alternator and I know I don't have long before the battery dies. We were about 30 minutes out of town so I hauled ass down the trail. Whole time volt meter is slowly dropping, ABS light comes on, then AHC pump won't come on to bring the truck down from high, then radio starts cutting off and I'm getting reeeeeal worried. We made it back to the main road, and once up to speed the volt meter goes back to normal (3/4 gauge) and I make it to auto zone.
He tests the alternator and voltage tests good, but battery tests bad. The battery was in the truck when I bought it (Delstar) and I don't know how old so I buy a new one.
All is well, no battery light, charging well. I talk my wife into trying again, probably was a bad battery and after all we are already up here.
Once we get about 2 miles out of town at a stop sign I notice the volt meter drop a tick down then back up a couple times quickly...never seen that before so I say we bail again. 10 miles down the road the light is on again, but staying just between half and 3/4 on the gauge. We made it about 100 miles like that with the battery light on and going through a town it starts dropping quickly again...ABS light, dim head lights, radio flickering. We were at at stop light so I put it in neutral and revved it to around 3k for about 10 seconds. Volt meter jumped back up and she drove the 50 miles home with no battery light all normal.
No record of an alternator change in it's history so I figure 186k miles is pretty damn good run. I'm just glad she got us home.
I'm thinking about maybe doing the alternator and starter at the same time as PM.
Is our only option reman'd Denso?
