Problem with 2002 Silverado

[coachcw]

typically a bad cell wont cause a gm alternator not to charge thus causing the battery lamp to come on . I have seen a few clusters cause them not to charge however ,

[BNAElkhntr]

Okay, I checked the voltage, it's 12.3 not running and 14.97 while running.

       Sounds Like Alterator Is putting out fine     12.3 is a dead cell

[Kittman]

What jackelope said first.

My gut says your 6 year old battery has had possibly a bad cell in it and now you have lost another cell or more.  Chevy's have a number of computers to run various aspects of the truck.  If they are not getting the proper voltage then this may cause your run ability issues too.

What 6x6 says-
Given the age, suspect battery is on the way out with anything below 12.5 volts at any temperature.  Low voltages could also be causing issues with maintaining operation of fuel system relays as others have mentioned in this post.  There should be check engine lights illuminating already, get a code reader on it when you can.

[bobcat]

Haven't seen any check engine lights. Just the battery light. I have a borrowed card reader that I will be using tonight.

[Kittman]

If your battery is an AGM (Gell) style and it gets severely discharged, you will need to have a "smart" or newer charger built specifically for use with these types of batteries.  The reason why is they have so little internal resistance values that the older style battery chargers think the battery is topped off when really it's not.  The workaround is to place a good fully charged battery in parallel (pos. to pos., neg. to neg.) with the bad battery via booster cables, then hook the old style battery charger to the good fully charged battery. 

[Curly]

My guess is that reply #1 hit the nail on the head.

It is not the alternator since a new one was installed and that didn't change anything.

That noise you hear sometimes coming from the front when slowing down could be a wire rubbing on something when you are braking.  My guess is that wire has finally worn thru and is shorting out on the frame or whatever.

I suggest jacking up the truck and crawling under it and follow the battery wires and check all the other wires to see if anything looks funny.

[coachcw]

My guess is that reply #1 hit the nail on the head.

It is not the alternator since a new one was installed and that didn't change anything.

That noise you hear sometimes coming from the front when slowing down could be a wire rubbing on something when you are braking.  My guess is that wire has finally worn thru and is shorting out on the frame or whatever.

I suggest jacking up the truck and crawling under it and follow the battery wires and check all the other wires to see if anything looks funny.

no battery leeds under car that supply power and the grounds are on the left side of block . it may have ran bad with the new alternator due to a lean drivibillity problem and he never got to the charging issue . the new alternator may have fixed that problem and then they took it back off. 

[6x6in6]

With that said, I'm fortunate to have a sweet battery tester sitting in a cabinet right around the corner. When a battery has a bad cell, it tells me.
 

I know you service advisers have to keep the customers from interacting with the techs as much as possible, butt geez, you don't have to keep them in the cabinet for gosh sakes.
 

[bobcat]

So I've got this code reader that I borrowed and thought I might try it out tonight. Question is- does anyone know where the connector is for it? I looked around under the dash on the driver's side and didn't see it.

Weird thing is I figured that the truck needed to be driven or at least started and run for a while, in order for any codes to come up, since the battery had been disconnected. So I started it up and it was running just like normal. Took it for a drive and everything was fine. Battery light didn't come on either. Drove 3 or 4 miles.

I guess first thing I'll do in the morning is go to NAPA and have the battery tested. Probably will buy a new battery regardless of if it's bad or not.

[jackelope]

2" left of the park brake release handle.

[jackelope]

Crappy pic.

[bobcat]

Thanks, that helps a lot. I couldn't find anything about it in the owners manual. 


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[bobcat]

no battery leeds under car that supply power and the grounds are on the left side of block . it may have ran bad with the new alternator due to a lean drivibillity problem and he never got to the charging issue . the new alternator may have fixed that problem and then they took it back off. 

Well here's an update finally on the issue I had with my truck. I hadn't had a chance to work on it since I was hunting the late archery elk season every chance I got. I was using my Bronco so the truck could wait. I did take the battery out and had it tested at NAPA, don't recall if I already posted that.

But anyway, Coach was right on with his post. It was a bad alternator. I got a new alternator at NAPA and installed it, the truck is now running fine. Drove it about 100 miles yesterday with no issues.

What was weird to me is that the alternator worked intermittently. I could get in the truck and drive it a few miles, and the gauge showed it was charging normally. The next day, start the truck, and it's not working. Which is what made me think it was something other than the alternator. I always thought an alternator would either work, or not work.

I'm happy it was less than $200 to fix. ($146 for alternator and $29 for new belt)

[bloodhound]

knowing that your battery is 6 years old and you just killed it about 3-4 times, i would be thinking about replacing your battery anyway. killing a lead cell cranking battery is extremely hard on them and being six years old if you dont replace it youll be asking for trouble.

[whacker1]

no battery leeds under car that supply power and the grounds are on the left side of block . it may have ran bad with the new alternator due to a lean drivibillity problem and he never got to the charging issue . the new alternator may have fixed that problem and then they took it back off. 

Well here's an update finally on the issue I had with my truck. I hadn't had a chance to work on it since I was hunting the late archery elk season every chance I got. I was using my Bronco so the truck could wait. I did take the battery out and had it tested at NAPA, don't recall if I already posted that.

But anyway, Coach was right on with his post. It was a bad alternator. I got a new alternator at NAPA and installed it, the truck is now running fine. Drove it about 100 miles yesterday with no issues.

What was weird to me is that the alternator worked intermittently. I could get in the truck and drive it a few miles, and the gauge showed it was charging normally. The next day, start the truck, and it's not working. Which is what made me think it was something other than the alternator. I always thought an alternator would either work, or not work.

I'm happy it was less than $200 to fix. ($146 for alternator and $29 for new belt)

Sometimes when alternators lose bearings the brushes will make contact when lined up correctly and then when they get out of line they won't make contact correctly to charge correctly, which is why you see the intermittent function.  When the bearings get worse, it won't work at all and will have a total failure.