I posted a thread the other week about issues with my 2003 F150 FX4 4wd with the 5.4 not starting correctly. I have had a couple different things thrown at me but I just had the kicker tonight. The cd player lost power going down the road and the lights started going dim and then the truck just quit. I know from previous experience that this is the alternator I believe but I guess I just want that reinforced and also want to know if that was probably the issue with it not starting correctly. To start it the last couple weeks I have had to bump the switch three or four times and then it would start. I checked the solenoid switch and that was not it, I checked the connections on the starter and they were good. Could the bum alternator have been the cause of my starting issues? I hope so cause now I am already gonna be about 160 bucks poorer. By the way I have an Optima Red top battery and I figure I could have been running off of power from it for the last couple weeks.

 

try fully charging your battery when your are done driving for the day.take a battery voltage reading before starting w/ a digital voltmeter you should get between 12.4 to 12.6 volts.start your truck and connect your meter to the battery.if the voltage starts dropping while running the engine you have a bad alternator.

 

time for a new alternator buddy im pretty sure thats your problem a feller had the same issue on here just last week and his was fried put a new one on problem solved

 

I had this issue today, and I knew it wasn't the alternator or battery cause I have just recently purchased new ones. Turns out it was my starter solenoid "beging and to the right a little bit of the battery." not saying this is the issue, but I would check this out because it is about 140 bucks cheaper than the alternator