Charging System Indicator

[Alan]

Hi folks,

If there is a problem with the charging system, shouldn't the battery LED light up? It only comes on when the truck does a system check when you turn the key to position 1 and then after that it goes out with the other lights like everything is fine.

What I'm seeing is my battery doesn't seem to hold a charge. I can put a charger on it, it charges up and the truck starts fine. I can drive it for a few days but over those few days, the starting seems to get weaker. Last week, it completely died and I ended up needing a boost. This morning it didn't start again but you could hear the starter clicking when you try to crank it. The fuel pump comes on like usual, the dash lights come up although the fuel light was flickering but it won't start. I'm guessing the alternator is going/gone and not charging the battery but I was just wondering why the battery LED won't light up if that's the case.

BTW, the battery is less than a year old. I did accidentally leave an interior light on last month that almost killed the battery but the truck started up and up until recently has been starting fine.

Thanks

 

[Errant]

How's your tachometer? Mine went out when my alternator wasn't charging. I've only seen my battery light come on with a different alternator, that had a faulty regulator and was overcharging to the point of blowing the 100amp fusible link.

 

[Alan]

The odd thing is nothing is showing up as unusual. My tach is steady, all the lights, radio, heater, etc seem fine. The one thing I've noticed is that when I turn my signal lamps on, they seem to react a bit slower than normal meaning when I first flip the ticker, the time for that first tick to happen seems slower (like how it gets when it's really cold outside) but once it's ticking it's fine. But aside from that one thing, nothing else seems out of the ordinary. The battery just seems to lose charge.