Battery Light Flickers In Message Center When Driving

bsturn · October 18, 2008

Hi everyone, here's a stumper. I have a 2001 Chevy Silverado with a slight electrical problem. The battery light in the message center flickers on from time to time and sometimes stays on for about 30 seconds and goes out when ever the engine is running. I do think it's weather related. As soon as the temp seems to drop below 50 outside the problem seems to minimize and even go away for quite awhile. THE VOLTAGE is good. 14volts plus all the time. The volt gauge don't even flicker when the battery light comes on. I've checked with a volt meter and all the grounds for the engine are good. I know some friends that have 2003 and new chevys that have a dash cluster problem. They say the solder on the connector pins can be bad. Can anyone help. Low mileage truck that I bought new. I don't want to take to the dealer locally. They'll spend at least $300 or more of my money. The alternator charges fine and isn't grounding out that I know of. Thanks... Lots of luck with this one..

cruising76 · January 9, 2012

pretty funny. i just read that last comment and was like heck yeah, that guy has it right on...of course it was me 11 months ago. i still havent been able to fix the issue ortherwise i would have posted a solution. i can tell you the issue wend away for 6 months or so and just surfaced a week ago and now its constant, i dont even know how much gas i have because it wont snap back to working. i've got to figure this out. any help out there? 2002 2500HD 185,000+.

Koinz · September 8, 2009

I am getting the same thing right now. Really wierd. I cleaned all the ground connections and checked allternator output. All looks fine. Anyone know of any known problems. By the way, it's a 2001 Sierra extended cab 4x4

Terry2001 · December 29, 2009

Hello,

Same problem here. I have been seeing this for a few years. It happens for a week or two then works fine for 6 months or more. When the battery light flinkers it shows no pattern. Replaced battery, chased the positive and grounds, checked connections and checked for codes........nothing to date has helped.

Looking forward to any feedback or thoughts.......

2001 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 Extended Cab 5.3

Thanks,

Terry

gmtech4 · January 10, 2012

have the battery tested ,dont think the 14v means its good,i just went thru this same thing with a 03 dirtmax at work,both batteries failed ,replaced ,drove forever and it was fine

have the battery tested and go from there

tommydurk · January 10, 2012

Might be a stupid suggestion, but have you checked the negative connection on the battery? I had an H3 and the lights started flickering on the expressway as I hit bumps...ended up being a loose negative connection on the battery.

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cruising76 · February 21, 2011

i have a 2002 2500HD 166,000+ miles. the battery light just started turning on and off in it. i agree it is very annoying, just as annoying as people to dont post solutions once they figure out their problem. anyway, anyone have anything on this???

Koinz · September 14, 2010

Wondering if anyone has come across a fix for this. From the list of people that responded initially, it looks like it's limited to 01 or 02 trucks.

My light still flickers intermittently with no ill effects. Just kind of annoying.

2001 GMC Sierra extended cab 4x4 5.3

tomb · November 28, 2009

I have the same problem with the battery light flickering. I have a 2002 Sliverado. The problem started about 4 years ago. It will not happen for weeks then it will start again. The dealer could not find a problem but charged me $90. Recently the battery died, it had a cracked case. That seemed like an unusual way to fail so I suspected overcharging. I have a voltmeter connected to the battery and alternator which I can monitor while driving but have found nothing unusual. A couple of years ago I had the instrument panel out and measured signals there but did not know enough about how the message center is controlled to find the problem. I'm currently trying to figure out how the message center gets it's signals so I can monitor them to see if there is a correlation between the light coming on and any of the signals. This is not easy.

Any tips would be appreciated.