Jump to content

Low Volts And Battery Light


Recommended Posts

Posted

About a week ago my battery light came on in my 2000 Silverado, I decided to let it run for awhile... hoping it would charge the battery back up. But instead of it getting better, it got worse. The volts dropped from about 11 or 12 to 9 and then the gauges even stopped working... no rpms, no fuel, no temperature. The only gauge that worked was the oil pressure. To fix the problem I put a new battery in it.

 

As I was driving home last night the battery light came on again and the volts were down to 11 or so. So I pulled in to Autozone because it was the closests, I was going to pull the alternator out so I could take it inside and get it tested. Turns out they can test it while still in the truck, they tested both the alternator and battery, both check out fine, at the same time the volts were still down at about 11... and were that way all the way home. I shut the truck off and went inside.

 

This morning I went out and started my truck up just fine and the volts were at 15.... what the heck is going on here?

Anyone else have this experience?

Posted

Did you have any loose battery cables? The same thing happened to both of my parents cars where you read 10 volts say at the remote positive post while when you measure the voltage with the battery cables off right at the battery terminals it reads 14.8 volts. Loose or dirty contacts. The car will run with the battery like this, but when the engine is off weird stuff happens like what your describing.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    250.3k
    Total Topics
    2.7m
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    342,677
    Total Members
    8,960
    Most Online
    RobbertClaus
    Newest Member
    RobbertClaus
    Joined
  • Who's Online   5 Members, 0 Anonymous, 517 Guests (See full list)

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • No I didn’t watch a video of a person who analyzes oil for a living explain general oil usage. For clarity I did ask my brothers one who runs our equipment business. The other who runs our old ROW business about oil usage. Nothing has changed since I retired. Their personal vehicles or work vehicles use no oil. Not enough to see on the oil checking device. Then I pondered. I like to ponder. In this extended oil changing world with oil change countdowns or lights. If engines used say a qt every 2500 miles or up to even 4000 miles. With oil changes reaching as high as 15000 miles. Normal for most people is eight to ten. Vehicles should potentially be seizing up all over the place. Especially in hilly terrain. Just how many people actually check their oil? Maybe 10 percent. Those are the people that probably change their oil early. I like to research used car listings. I have five favorite dealers I check. They all list carfax with their listing. It’s rare to see vehicles with anything but extended oil changes. Transmission service, forget about it. I’ve seen Honda and Toyota certified vehicles up to 100K miles and ten years old. With nothing but normal maintenance. Isn’t nice we all have different experiences and believe our way is the best. You certainly get backup for whatever you believe. Life would be boring otherwise.
    • Interesting rumor. Dealers near me have been tight-lipped so far, but if this reveal actually happens next week, I'm really hoping they finally give the HD a proper interior overhaul. The competition has been eating their lunch in the cabin department for a while now.
    • There are a few good takeaways in that video that pertain to this thread, certainly the possibility of the oil control rings having buildup, the fuel injectors and how clean or not that they are ending up affecting the pistons rings carbon buildup, and the fact that its normal up to a point for a given engine to use some oil, and that the oil quality that is being utilized is part of that ring clogging up issue as well.   I was talking with a neighbor yesterday who has a baby LZ0 duramax and he had bought it slightly used but it does consume some oil and he has switched over to 5W-30 Euro spec oil and in this case that never made a difference in consumption over the factory 0W-20 recommendation. He finds it uses a quart in about 3500 miles and as he goes a ways over that distance he adds oil to full and goes another 1000 miles or so and then changes oil and is typically at 40% or so left on the oil monitor at that point with his use case of quite a lot of highway miles and more limited in short run use. I don't know what other LZ0 engines are doing for oil consumption but that is what his is doing. 
    • I dont care what Lake says. Goodnight. 
    • Ok well I guess Lake disagrees with me on a few points. I call oil consumption pretty basic. Rudimentary. He calls it "really complicated." I think 1qt consumed in 3k miles is a lot. He says that's normal. In 22 minutes, he'll use his natural talent to explain oil consumption to anyone watching this video. He covers everything from obvious engine damage to how normally functioning healthy engines consume oil by design. Lake explicitly states how you drive will impact oil consumption.   Shut up and watch:    
  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...