Slow Start

[txhardhittaz]

Well earlier I started my truck to pick up some parts,and it didnt want to start. It slowly started if that makes sense. It hesitated to start, but it started.Then my ABS, SLIP and BRAKE lights came on. I got to the place to pick up the parts and came back to leave and it did it again but the ABS, SLIP and BRAKE lights werent on this time.Oh yea both times my speedometer and fuel gauge needles shook really fast for a couple of seconds and then they went to thier normal positions. Any ideas whats going on? Anyone else have this problem if so WHATS WRONG!! lol..i have 40,000 miles on her right now.

[WhiteNite]

Have your battery and alt. tested.

[shailey]

I bet you are going to find a bad battery. Low voltage can wreak havoc on the electrical system and cause multiple symptoms that point to other things. I agree with white above. Go have the battery tested at autozone or something and don't do it after a long drive, that will charge the system up.

[WhiteNite]

See Shailey I am not completely worthless. lololol

[txhardhittaz]

Yea you both were right it was a bad battery. Is that usual to have a bad battery so soon? I'm not sure just asking.

[WhiteNite]

Something could have killed it. Its only 2 years old but anything can happen.

[txhardhittaz]

Yea I hope that what ever happened to that one doesn't happen again. I just have the active grounding kit and my amp hooked up to the terminals.

[DawgBone]

It seems like lately a lot of people are starting to report batteries going bad particularly from people with mileages around 50k or so.

[HRTKD]

High temperatures are hard on a battery. More so than cold temperatures.

[txhardhittaz]

Well it has been hot here. But more humidity than anything else.

[WhiteNite]

Just be glad its a cheap fix. No biggie.

[bighitter]

You been listening to the stereo with the truck off? That will kill a battery quickly.

[txhardhittaz]

No not really only probably do it every now and then but not on a constant basis.

[shailey]

Having the tow package, I would say it is odd. I got 83,000 miles out of my battery without a single hiccup. And I ran my laptop and printer quite often while sitting still and the truck turned off. Sometimes for an hour or so.

But I have heard a lot about the stock batteries for NON tow package being bad.

[txhardhittaz]

Really!! now im wondering, i dont listen to music with the truck off very often. I surely dont run anything else when it off either. I hope that was just a bad battery and I dont wont need to replace this one anytime soon.

[shailey]

Well, the main thing that kills batteries believe it or not is heat. The cold winter just pushes the battery over the edge. So summertime is very common to have dead batteries as well.

I was thinking about this today. Do you ever check the water levels in the battery? In fact, how many people actually check the water levels in the battery frequently? What I mean by frequently is once a week. Since these batteries are not a sealed battery and require maintenance, the water levels need to be checked and maintained and the best time to do this is AFTER a long run when the battery has been charged up. This way, you get excited electrolytes and you don't overfill the battery.

The way you overfill a battery is to put water in when the battery has been sitting for longer than 6 hours without being used. Then you go run the truck, the electrolyte level gets real high and then it boils out the top of the battery caps and you get a funky looking residue on your battery top.

There are several other things that can kill a battery. One is many short trips without really stretching the legs of the truck. A relatively new battery needs at least 25-30 minutes to get charged, the older it gets and the lower the electrolyte level gets, the longer it will take teh battery to charge and the shorter time it will stay charged.

So I am thinking if we did a little better maintenance of the battery, there would not be as many failures. I could give a whole battery school as to what makes them work and live as I have been in many many classes on them from 12 volts up to 128 volt batteries.