95FordMN

My story starts this afternoon leaving work. I made it roughly a mile away from work and all of a sudden my radio and AC stop working; my initial thought is that a fuse is out. I try the windows and they won't roll down, no power. So I get to bake in the heat on my drive home.

I made it another couple miles and my gauges stop working and my ABS light comes on. The truck still seems to be running alright so I decide to try to make it the 15 miles home. To make matters worse it starts to rain so I try to turn on the windshield wipers-nothing. I decide to turn my headlights off to save some energy in case it happens to be a battery issue.

I make it a few more miles and all of a sudden I start to notice hesitation; almost as if the truck was low on gas.

Luckily I was able to make it home and I immediately check my fuses. The fuses for the aforementioned commodities are all good, I can't find anything visibly wrong. No smell of burning wire or insulation from under the hood. I decide to try re-starting the truck-nothing. No power, nothing turns over, no power to the radio/ac/windows/etc. After I attempt to turn the motor over my dome light and trouble light under the hood start to flash, along with what sounds like my blinker. The pace of both the flashing and the blinker noise varies in frequency.

While I'm working on the truck rain starts up again so I go into the house. After the rain ends I attempt to start the truck again, this time I get all the signals of a dead battery. I am able to jump the truck and get it started; while it is on the jumper cables everything runs fine. I pull the cables and try my headlights/stereo/ac. Each time I turn something on I can see the volts drop, when I turn the accessories off the volts jump back up.

With the most recent development I believe it is the battery; or maybe the alternator? I am just confused as to why it would show the signs I saw on my ride home. As always any input is greatly appreciated! I am going to try another battery tomorrow night and see if I get the same symptoms.

charliedyal

Get your truck to autozone, advance auto, Napa, etc.. and get your charging system tested. Battery may be OK and your alternator is biting the dust. But they'll have to put a full charge on the battery to test it. So take a mag to read while you wait. Low voltage from the battery will make all kinds of things act funny.

95FordMN

Well I replaced the battery and it seemed to be working better; I drove to the gas station from the auto parts store and filled up to drive home.
Once I got home I swapped out my serpentine belt. Once I fired it up I checked the belt, everything was good, but I looked down and my battery light was on again. The gauge looked alright, wasn't dipping like it was before. I guess I will have to return to the parts store tomorrow to get my alternator tested.

Z7What

It's your alternator, had the same thing happen to my 03, trust me!

Wayne

charliedyal

Your first battery was probably fine. That's why I told you get it tested. You can run up to about 50 miles on a charge as long as your not using the head lights or any other electrical accessories. Been there before too.

95FordMN

My first battery was pretty old, I wouldn't doubt that it needed to be replaced regardless. Before I swapped them I was only able to go about 5 miles with no lights/radio/ac/etc. before my voltmeter dropped to the bottom and the truck started to stutter.
It was running fine on the new battery, no voltage drop on the gauge, but the battery light was still on.