Help Now! Im stuck.....Please help

[twenty2]

To make a long story short, yesterday when I was putting up Christmas lights up for 5 1/2 hours, I was listening to the truck radio with my key in the ON position. When I was done, I started up my truck and it was dead. I jumped the rig, and it started.

Problem now is when I drive the truck down the road, my truck dies! RPM's drop to zero causing the truck to shut off.

The truck starts right up, but I notice that my battery voltage seems just below 14 fluctuating.

When im at idol and i put on heater ON, my truck dies. You can notice the idol goto ZERO as soon as the heater kicks in.

Is it my battery or my alternator??? Please help..

[s_c5519]

I had a smililar situation and it ended up being a dead cell in the battery or something... You can narrow yours down to the battery too since the last thing you did was listen to the stereo for that long...

I was just installing a USA Spec Ipod adapter in my Escalade the other day and it killed the battery in about 15 minutes! I had the radio on at the time (on position) and the truck is brand new with 200 miles on it. I jumped it and it has been fine since, but I don't think yours is a comin back...

[twenty2]

Originally Posted by s_c5519

I had a smililar situation and it ended up being a dead cell in the battery or something... You can narrow yours down to the battery too since the last thing you did was listen to the stereo for that long...

I was just installing a USA Spec Ipod adapter in my Escalade the other day and it killed the battery in about 15 minutes! I had the radio on at the time (on position) and the truck is brand new with 200 miles on it. I jumped it and it has been fine since, but I don't think yours is a comin back...

Ill try the battery first. I think this battery I have now was at least 4 1/2yrs old already

[timgco]

gotta be the battery

[twenty2]

Originally Posted by timgco

gotta be the battery

what kind of battery are you guys running? I dont want to get a yellow top

[Marauder]

It cant be the battery alone.

The battery is used to start the vehicle. Yours starts fine obviously. Once the truck is running it will/can run off the voltage supplied by the alternator.

You need to buy a decent battery charger and charge it then see how it acts. It is NOT good for the alternator to try and charge a dead battery.

New battery wouldn't be a bad idea. Once a traditional battery (lead acid, not gel cell) is drawn down to almost nothing, it very rarely will charge back to full capacity.

(on a side note, it wouldnt be a bad idea to clean the battery terminals and reconnect to ensure good connection.)

[timgco]

Originally Posted by twenty2

what kind of battery are you guys running? I dont want to get a yellow top

Last truck had a yellow top. It was good for the 12 months I had it.

If you have a programmer, see if you can pop any codes. 4 years out of a battery is pretty good btw.