battery light flickering

[dieseldan2005]

Guys tonight on my way home my batt light started flickering. Then it would go off for a minute or 2 and then flicker again. When i slowed down it stopped flickering. I pulled into oreilly's and the alt and both batts checked ok. One batt was only at 12.6 and the other was 13.5. The alt is only about 3 months old and batts are 1yr old. I did install my gauges this weekend but never messed with batts at all. I only had to tap into the 1 power wire. It didn't do it until today and i did the gauges on saturday. I also scanned with the AE and no codes. Any ideas guys?

[Bad Night]

Sounds like a loose connection where it bolts to the back of the alt. or where the wire comes off of the big battery terminal . If not it could be a bad connection where the wires plug into the alt . or possibly the alternator has a loose connection or a bad diode .

[dieseldan2005]

I will check all that out tomorrow. I hope thats all it is. I just don't want it to be a problem with my gauges for some dumb reason. The light flickerd the first time when i hit my cruise on button, but even with my heater blower turned off it still did it. Its only about 12-15 deg outside right now. Whats still weird is that it did it going 55 but going slower it stopped even with the headlights on and blower on full. No batt light. Must be the vibration from going faster that bounces that possible loose wire?

[JSchuricht]

How did you check the batteries? 12.6 and 13.5 is a large difference. Both batteries should be above 12v with the truck off and 14v +-.5 running.

[Bad Night]

Originally Posted by dieseldan2005

I will check all that out tomorrow. I hope thats all it is. I just don't want it to be a problem with my gauges for some dumb reason. The light flickerd the first time when i hit my cruise on button, but even with my heater blower turned off it still did it. Its only about 12-15 deg outside right now. Whats still weird is that it did it going 55 but going slower it stopped even with the headlights on and blower on full. No batt light. Must be the vibration from going faster that bounces that possible loose wire?

Yea , sounds like that is gonna be it . The cold always brings out the best in electrical stuff .

[dieseldan2005]

Originally Posted by JSchuricht

How did you check the batteries? 12.6 and 13.5 is a large difference. Both batteries should be above 12v with the truck off and 14v +-.5 running.

Oreilly's checked them engine off. Anyways he said that it was a large difference but that they both still checked out in "very good" condition.

[rankroddin250]

check your gauge wire on the alternator (the little one). mine had a bare spot and was grounding out causing the dummy light to come on. a little electrical tape fixed er right up.

[Bad Night]

Did he unhook them to test them ? I didn't think of it but you could have a cell in a battery shorting out . You have to test batteries unhooked , one at a time .

[dieseldan2005]

Oh crap, no he didn't. It was cold out and i probably should have figured that out, but i was in a hurry to get home. Thanks rankinrod i will check all those wires out. Maybe one got bumped when we were laying on the engine working on the gauges.

[dieseldan2005]

Well i went out tonight and checked everything since its going to be below zero tomorrow i didn't want to wait. Sure enough the main power wire coming off the alt was somewhat loose. You could move it back and fourth. Probably just enough to trigger the flickering. Hope it fixed it. Thanks for all the help guys, i really appreciate it.