Bad battery drain, flickering lights, erratic idle.
03-04-2015, 01:51 PM
#1
Staging Lane
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I have a 2004 Silverado that keeps killing batteries lately. I've been swapping between two (1 year old) batteries daily. I charged one up yesterday and installed it. My wife drove the truck to work and drove home for lunch. That was enough to leave it with a no start condition. I just replaced the alternator yesterday with a known good used one. The ground cable is fine as are the body grounds. All fuses look good. Switching relays made no change.
Also today, it started acting funny. My wife said she tried to roll up the window and it didn't have enough power to do it. She said the map lights kept flickering on and off instead.
After I swapped the alternator the truck ran a little funny. The first start...it ran for 20 seconds then died. It started fine for the rest of the day but idled rough and stumbled a lot.
I'm not sure what I should be checking. Any suggestions?
Just wanna add that there is no system or fancy lights or anything in the truck.
Also today, it started acting funny. My wife said she tried to roll up the window and it didn't have enough power to do it. She said the map lights kept flickering on and off instead.
After I swapped the alternator the truck ran a little funny. The first start...it ran for 20 seconds then died. It started fine for the rest of the day but idled rough and stumbled a lot.
I'm not sure what I should be checking. Any suggestions?
Just wanna add that there is no system or fancy lights or anything in the truck.
Last edited by WhiteBird00; 03-04-2015 at 03:48 PM. Reason: Merge consecutive posts
03-06-2015, 03:26 PM
#3
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I didn't think of that.
I checked the voltage at the battery while it was running and it said 14.4 while voltage at the alternator was 14.6. Does that mean anything? Just before messing with a few things, I had checked voltage at the battery and it was around 10 or 11v while running. So I assumed the battery wasn't getting charged and added another charge wire from the alternator. I haven't tried it since then.
I checked the voltage at the battery while it was running and it said 14.4 while voltage at the alternator was 14.6. Does that mean anything? Just before messing with a few things, I had checked voltage at the battery and it was around 10 or 11v while running. So I assumed the battery wasn't getting charged and added another charge wire from the alternator. I haven't tried it since then.
03-15-2015, 05:13 AM
#4
I had an alt go bad in my 2000 Z28, a shop installed a new one for me and it didn't run well afterward. The voltage would drop into the red if I was sitting at idle with the radio/AC/ and headlights on. Coming home from work in the rain one day, it started going way UP into the red and all the lights got super brite. Come to find out, the idiot that replaced the alt broke the connector off the damn exciter wire, and thought it'd be okay to just shove the wire down into the
Plug and try to jam it in place... I bought a new pigtail from GM, spliced it in and it worked fine.
If that isn't it, maybe you checked the ground, but do you check the hot wire that goes from the alt to the batt? It doesn't have any bald spots that may be grounding out?
I would check the exciter wire first. Those things are some damn thin they break very easily, especially if old and brittle.
Plug and try to jam it in place... I bought a new pigtail from GM, spliced it in and it worked fine.
If that isn't it, maybe you checked the ground, but do you check the hot wire that goes from the alt to the batt? It doesn't have any bald spots that may be grounding out?
I would check the exciter wire first. Those things are some damn thin they break very easily, especially if old and brittle.