Low Voltage

[TTomp]

This evening I was backing up into a parking space and my truck just died on me. Cranked it back up but it was not throwing the battery light and low voltage. Checked the info and it was reading about 12.0 V. I didn't want to get on the road and have it maybe shut down on me again so while I was in the parking lot shut the engine off and restarted it. Got the battery light again and low voltage but it slowly climbed to 14.0 again I shut it off for a few minutes and then restarted it. It did the same thing again. Light one voltage reading about 12 and then very slowly climbed up to 13.9 +/- . Decide to head for home and park it till I could look into it further. Went out later to start it and it basically did the same thing again as before.

Going to test battery but was just checking if anyone maybe had run across this already. It kind of had me thinking like in my old Jeep Gladiator when the Auxiliary battery started to go things went crazy and then took the whole truck down

The battery is only about a year old.
2024 Ram 1500 Etorque
3.6 Liter

 

[markabby]

my wild guess is the alternator, but, according to my wife, i'm usually wrong.

test battery voltage with truck running

 

[Dean2]

Bad battery will not accept a charge, even if the Alternator is working. Take a toaster style battery tester, test battery. The digital testers at Pet Boys, Walmart and the like, show the battery good when it often is not. If it tests fine, check all battery connections and grounds. Once those are known good, use voltmeter to check alternator output with vehicle running. Alternators work or they don't, they don't start throwing a low charge and build up over time.

Pretty easy to isolate the problem but my odds on bet is Battery. Let us know what you find.

 

[TTomp]

Well they tested everything and didn't find any issues with the truck other than it seems that the voltage slowly came up and sometimes would drop. Put in a new battery and so far there have been no more issues. Cranks up and voltage jumps up

 

[Dean2]

Thanks for the update, but it really is no surprise. It worked out exactly as expected. A bad battery is the issue 98% of the time given those symptoms.

 

[markabby]

what's with these batteries not lasting long??

 

[EdGs]

Chinesium