Bad alternator??
Thread Starter
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Mountain Pass
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 210
Likes: 1
From: Sandusky Ohio
Bad alternator??
Went to go start my '97 F350 Sunday night to drive home from my parents' house, and while sitting there letting it warm up with the defrost on high, I noticed that my dash lights were dim and my voltage gage wasn't reading very far into the "normal" range.
I left their place on my way home, and within a half mile, I heard a slight squealing under the hood for a few seconds, then everything went back to normal- lights bright and plenty of voltage. It did the exact same thing once more; again, only for a few seconds. This is the first and only time it's happened since last March when I bought the truck.
My first thought was maybe I have my alternator taking a crap on me, but then my buddy mentioned he had a similar problem in his '99 Silverado and chewed up 2 belts before he figured out it was an a/c pump hanging up due to a bad bearing.
Keep in mind that my truck is in clean shape and just passed over 21,000 original miles- so if anything, sitting around unused for a lot of that time probably isn't good on stuff either.
What do you guys think? My first idea is to get it in my garage, take off the belt, and see what turns freely and what doesn't. I may be taking it on a snowmobile trip to PA soon and don't want any issues away from home.
Thanks!
I left their place on my way home, and within a half mile, I heard a slight squealing under the hood for a few seconds, then everything went back to normal- lights bright and plenty of voltage. It did the exact same thing once more; again, only for a few seconds. This is the first and only time it's happened since last March when I bought the truck.
My first thought was maybe I have my alternator taking a crap on me, but then my buddy mentioned he had a similar problem in his '99 Silverado and chewed up 2 belts before he figured out it was an a/c pump hanging up due to a bad bearing.
Keep in mind that my truck is in clean shape and just passed over 21,000 original miles- so if anything, sitting around unused for a lot of that time probably isn't good on stuff either.
What do you guys think? My first idea is to get it in my garage, take off the belt, and see what turns freely and what doesn't. I may be taking it on a snowmobile trip to PA soon and don't want any issues away from home.
Thanks!
Thread Starter
|
Mountain Pass
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 210
Likes: 1
From: Sandusky Ohio
Thanks; I figured it has to be something hanging up a tad causing the belt to squeal. The engine looks brand new still, but it has done a lot of sitting around thru the years.
Postmaster
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,703
Likes: 7
From: Des Moines, Iowa
I would remove the serpentine belt and check all your pully's... it could be you have something else like the air pump getting stuck momentarily... that would stop or slow the serpentine belt and make it squeal. Take the belt off and make sure the air pump turns freely... Long shot but these air pumps do like to lock up from time to time... I'd also have a draw down and load test done at the auto parts store on the battery and alternator...
