Charging issue with a 2003 Silverado

[silenthunterstudios]

On the way home tonight, after getting off the highway, my battery warning light came on. I made it a couple miles and she finally died. 2003 Silverado. A battery not charging warning light flashed on the odometer. Thankfully this happened close to home, about 15 min away. My lil brother came to get me, took the battery out and will go back to bring the truck home. I'm not looking forward to coughing up the money for a new alternator, but I'm hoping that's all it is. Battery is new. Didn't have any issues with the battery or alternator. I put in for time off this weekend to go down the ocean so I have approved time off from work to get this done and out of the way. Not going down because I'm using $ from my vacation. Was pretty pissed at first but just glad this happened up here and not while on vacation. I've been through worse, and people are a helluva lot worse off right now because of Sandy. Anyone have similar electrical issues that wasn't an alternator?

 

[gadgetgeek]

could be a bad ground somewhere, or poor connection. I'd be looking at your battery cables, see how they look. you should be able to get a charging system test at some auto-parts places.

 

[beau5278]

Autozone will test your alternator for free but I'm not sure their tests are 100% reliable.Check the phone book to see if there's anyone in your area that repairs alternators,their tests are usually reliable and sometimes getting them repaired is a lot cheaper than replacing them.A lot of that depends on the repair shop,if they're real busy,it might take a few days until they can repair yours,some of them do have rebuilt units and will swap yours.I'm fortunate enough to have 2 friends that repair alternators so I usually just stop at their place have it checked out and most times if it's bad,they'll fix it right then,best part is that it's usually less than $50 to repair one.

 

[longun]

Whenever you replace an alternator, make sure your battery has a good charge before starting the engine. It is possible to burn out a new alternator by overheating it when it works overtime to bring a dead battery up to charge. Your problem certainly sounds like a bad alternator.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

Found a new alternator with a 3 yr warranty for cheaper than others are selling remanufactured ones.. put the battery back on charge. Got it home at 2am, full charge and it waas almost dead by the time I got home. Cleaned the terminals, going to take the alt out and get it checked at the local parts store that has the good deal I found.

Hopefully put it back in tomorrow morning.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

Haven't gotten it out, bought the alternator. Sick as a dog since this past weekend. Either going to take it out tonight by the front porch light or tomorrow AM. Been reading the truck forums, others have had these problems that still persisted after replacing alt and battery. Going to put the new one in, take it up to Advance Auto tomorrow and get the alt tested while in the tk, along with the battery. Computer should reset itself after about ten min. Need to celebrate with a hard cider if it is just the alt.