Anthony Lowry
Member
Sorry for the all caps in the title but I need as much help as I can get as this truck is my only way to and from work.
The truck is a 2009 ram 1500 5.7L 2wd
So basically the alternator is not charging the battery at all. Just a few minutes of driving kills my battery. I did try all the simple stuff already I’ll go ahead and type the whole timeline.
Yesterday I was out getting quotes on some work I need done. Then when I go to start my truck again it ticks quite a few times and my battery light comes on. So I headed straight over to the oriellys by my neighborhood and one by one each light started turning on on the dash trac control, ABS, airbag, etc. By the time I pulled in to a parking spot the truck was barely running. So I had the battery tested and it was completely dead. Got a new one through warranty and also noticed a little bit of black burn marks around the alternator pulley. So I drove about 5 minutes home and same thing started happening again. So today I pulled the alternator out and went and bought a new one. Hooked it up and everything seemed good. The truck idled for a long time on its own and then I went for a test drive. Not even 5 minutes in and same thing. Lights started coming on and battery was dying. So I got the truck home and turned it off. The battery was too dead to start again so I Jumped it off of another car and busted out the meter. The battery started off at about 12.2v and slowly dropped down to under 8v but wouldn’t really drop past 7.3v. I checked and made sure I hooked the alternator up correctly which it is just a plug and one wire so I’m pretty sure I couldn’t of messed that up. So I tried the old trick of popping the positive battery cable off to check the alternator and the truck shut right off (I was later told this is bad cause it can blow modules). Anyways I took the alternator back up to oriellys and they tested it a few times and it passed every time. Now I’m completely lost.
I’m pretty young and not that knowledgeable past what I have just stated. So at this point I believe it may be the pcm not telling the alternator to charge as the voltage regulator is within it. While my mechanic friend said it may be the fuse box. While another buddy said it may be the pcm and to run an external regulator.
The truck is a 2009 ram 1500 5.7L 2wd
So basically the alternator is not charging the battery at all. Just a few minutes of driving kills my battery. I did try all the simple stuff already I’ll go ahead and type the whole timeline.
Yesterday I was out getting quotes on some work I need done. Then when I go to start my truck again it ticks quite a few times and my battery light comes on. So I headed straight over to the oriellys by my neighborhood and one by one each light started turning on on the dash trac control, ABS, airbag, etc. By the time I pulled in to a parking spot the truck was barely running. So I had the battery tested and it was completely dead. Got a new one through warranty and also noticed a little bit of black burn marks around the alternator pulley. So I drove about 5 minutes home and same thing started happening again. So today I pulled the alternator out and went and bought a new one. Hooked it up and everything seemed good. The truck idled for a long time on its own and then I went for a test drive. Not even 5 minutes in and same thing. Lights started coming on and battery was dying. So I got the truck home and turned it off. The battery was too dead to start again so I Jumped it off of another car and busted out the meter. The battery started off at about 12.2v and slowly dropped down to under 8v but wouldn’t really drop past 7.3v. I checked and made sure I hooked the alternator up correctly which it is just a plug and one wire so I’m pretty sure I couldn’t of messed that up. So I tried the old trick of popping the positive battery cable off to check the alternator and the truck shut right off (I was later told this is bad cause it can blow modules). Anyways I took the alternator back up to oriellys and they tested it a few times and it passed every time. Now I’m completely lost.
I’m pretty young and not that knowledgeable past what I have just stated. So at this point I believe it may be the pcm not telling the alternator to charge as the voltage regulator is within it. While my mechanic friend said it may be the fuse box. While another buddy said it may be the pcm and to run an external regulator.