Help Needed 6.0 Charging Issue

[William La Touf]

Hi everyone, I'm on my second lack of charging issue with my 2007 F-250 within 45,000 miles. I have an intermittent battery light coming on in the dash, slow cranking and finally left my wife stranded and had to jump start the truck. I have the stock 110 amp small case alternator on the engine. The first time this happened, the truck only had 25,000 miles on it and was out of warranty due to time. I had the original alternator rebuilt and that solved the problem. This time I took the alternator off of the engine and took the alternator apart and replaced the regulator myself. I installed the alternator and noticed it still is not charging the batteries, slow cranking again, but this time the battery light is not coming on! FYI, the FICM has been replaced about 5,000 miles ago if that makes a difference. All comments welcome, thanks.....

 

[DaveBen]

We need a little more information. What is the voltage of the batteries with nothing going on or running? What is the voltage when cranking and what is the voltage after it has been running for 5 minutes?

Dave

 

[DaveBen]

Can you have it scanned for trouble codes?

Dave

 

[BIG JOE]

And... how old are the batteries, and what is their volts & amps when load tested.. isolated from each other.. in comparison to one another ?

Joe

 

[William La Touf]

I have not had a load test put on batteries as they are only 3 months old from Costco. I have not run any tests on the charging system. Update! I ordered a new aftermarket alternator from ebay. This new one puts out 135 amps and bolts right on. Cost was only $105 with free shipping! I will just keep the original one on the shelf for S & G's as it has a new regulator. I'll keep you all posted....

 

[WD40]

Sir, throwing new parts at a problem, may not fix it. Are your batteries are only 3 mo old because you throwed parts at your problem?
Good luck, sure hope it's fixed this time.
Doug

 

[BIG JOE]

Sir, throwing new parts at a problem, may not fix it. Are your batteries are only 3 mo old because you throwed parts at your problem?
Good luck, sure hope it's fixed this time.
Doug

Yep. A New, more capable alternator may work [for awhile].. but.. even a New battery.. off the shelf.. can be weak. If you have 2 batteries.. the weak battery will pull the good battery down to a low 'State Of Charge'... for the pair.

With the history you've described.. you may want to load test EACH battery, as we've described ?

Sounds to me like you may have issues other than Just the alternator ?

Joe

 

[William La Touf]

Update! Installed new aftermarket 135 amp alternator and my truck is a whole new animal! I hit the starter and it cranks so fast, I'm amazed. The A/C has not worked this efficiently since the truck was new! I found out the original alternator I took off the truck had an internal short and was not charging batteries....Thank you all for your input, I'm thanking myself for not taking the truck in to a Ford dealer and getting the shaft for a re man $750 alternator, and thank you e-bay for hooking me up with a NEW 135 amp alternator at a reasonable price $105 including shipping and it took only 20 minutes to swap out the alternator myself!! Again, pound sand Ford dealers! All you're good for is oil changes! and even then they drip oil all over my engine and leave oil smudges on my hood and fenders......

 

[WD40]

Sure glad to hear all is going great with your truck.
Doug