I just decided to go through some mud and water(pics. will be up later) and the light on my dash that looks like a battery came on and my volt meter thingy is way down. I cleaned the engine off/washed it already. What do I do to fix this?

Thanks !!!
Mike

 

Its your altenator mine did it too try washing it out really good

 

I did and it's still on. I cleaned/dryed the battery terminals off too. The entire engine is clean again, but the light is still on.

 

Well even after I did that mine did it every once in a while for a couple of months. It has not done it in about a year now though. It may be something else though I say just leave it running and see if it dries up. Good Luck though!

 

its definitely the alternator. i replaced it about 3 months ago, and it had 108k miles on it. but previously the battery light would appear when the tachometer got up to like 5,000 rpm's, but the light would never come on other than that. but then it got worse and the light was on all the time, and my gauge was low, and all my interior lights got dim, you shouldnt let this continue to long, b/c if the gauge gets to low taht means your power is jus coming from your battery and you wont last to long running all of your components off the battery.

i think it may be possible that you got some sort of debris to interfere with the alternator. but if your light is on all the time an dur gauge is low, its definitely somethin i would look into, as for gettin it replaced its very simple. they cost about 150 bucks, and it jus consists of loosenin g a few bolts from a bracket, and taking off belts. took me bout a half hour to take out and put the new one in.



anyways, good luck.
mike

 

put the battery charger on it for a while.

 

maybe also the alt got really drenched with water.. let her dry out n see what happens.. its happned to me a few times.. BTW are ur tbars saggin a little.. i looked at ur avatar and it just looks like it.. or maybe is just me.. who knos

 

Went and had the alternator tested and... I had to buy a new alternator. It will go in tomorrow night, so for now I am truckless and not liking it! It died as soon as I pulled in the driveway.

 

Wuss!

lol, It sucks don't it? Try it for weeks at a time.

 

No thanks! I think tha alt. was going bad anyway and my little excursion finished it off.

 

Your alternator is toast. Charging the battery won't do anything. You are basically screwed and are going to have to replace it.

 

I have a new alt. sitting on the floor of my truck now, it'll go in tomorrow.

Do I need to recharge that battery with a batt. charger or will the alt. do it by itself?

 

wow thats some bad luck... ive hit some big puddles and never had that happen thank god...

do you have splash gaurds in your wheel wells?

 

alt will do it by itself

 

I just replaced my alt. last week as well. Did you get the stock 95 amp?

If your needing or wanting a larger output alt you can use a 130amp version from a "2003 f150 v6". The alt housing is larger in diameter but still bolts up fine all the connections are the same you'll just need to swap the pulley from the old alt to the new one. It took ~1.5hrs to swap. You should charge the battery if it dosent have enough juice to start the truck but if it dose it wont hurt anything

Depending where you get the alt. they are about the same price. I got my 130amp at autozone it was $20 more than the 95amp with both having the lifetime warranty/free replacement.

 

Yes I do, but my engine was still a big mess.

Nope, I went with the 130.

 

A friend of mine helped me install the new 130amp alt. tonight. Here it is all nice and shiney! I guess it was just time for it to go, six years old and 76,000+ miles...


Here is what the engine looked like yesterday: