Suddenly my truck started acting funny today. My odometer, trip meter etc. went blank and my interior lights and side mirror lights will flash with a beeep at the same time? Can anyone tell me what this may be? I assume somebody else must have had this problem in the past? FYI it's an 08' FX4, 5.4 with roughly 150k. I'm guessing that it may be the alternator? Anyone know?

 

Have you checked and cleaned your battery cables?

 

I just replaced the battery 3 weeks ago actually. So those are ok.

 

My gauges, dash lights, odometer, and radio started do some weird stuff about 10 miles before the F150 died and left me on the side of the road with a bad alternator.

 

If you decide on a new alternator, get yours rebuilt or get a Motorcraft alternator. Reman or new, just dont get the Autozone special,

 

I went the Advance Auto route when my alternator died. Lifetime warranty. Bought and installed over 5 years ago and have never had to use the warranty yet.

 

You got lucky

 

Ok so here's the update so far. The truck is still having problems. Running or not with the key in the ignition the truck beeps, the interior lights and the side view mirror puddle lights briefly dim then come back on after the beep. The trip meter and odometer still lights up but to just a blank screen... that was before.. Well more has happened now. Yesterday I left the house and didn't even get a of 1/4 a mile away when my whole dash lit up like a Christmas tree as I came to a stop. My first thought was oh great it just died! However, after putting it in park and turning the key to the off position I realized it had actually still been running the whole time? Needless to say I shut it off, restarted it and noticed that not only was every light still on but my temperature Guage and tach wasn't reading anything (heat was blowing out nice and hot too). When I got home I shut the truck off for a minute or two and with my door open and key out, the interior lights did not come on and my radio did not shut off for about 30 seconds . I got out and locked and closed my doors. After a minute or two, I opened the truck back up and tried to start it . It started right up and none of the lights were on, on the dash and everything looked normal? Except for the beeping, odometer, interior and puddle lights still doing their thing. Everything appears to work correctly except for this little electrical gremlin that's screwing with my system. So today i turned on every possible electrical component I could... blower, heated seats, interior lights, headlights, fog lights you name it. At that point I checked the battery and output from the alternator. Both read @ 13.92 volts +/-. So that seems ok... however, could there be an issue with the voltage regulator? Or something else? If the voltage reg is the problem, is it part of the alternator or mounted somewhere else? What's your thoughts? Sorry for the long read btw.

 

My dash when it lit up on me... btw it WAS running but no tach either?

 

Short in the cluster ? Engine was running fine ?