Flickering voltage

[BoatsRcool]

Ok, well usually at night, with the lights and all on, the voltage gauge is at a little more than in the middle at idle. when i gas it how ever, my lights will get a little brighter, not too m uch, but i notice it, and so will all the gauge lights and all. and the voltage meter, will go alot higher. everything will stay that little bit brighter too, while i have the gas on.

whhhhhy

 

[TarHeel085]

alternator being driven harder, giving more power to the battery, thus giving your lights more umph. real technical, just a guess though, but im prob not right.

 

[95eXplorerXLT]

maybe maybe not

sounds like your alternator is just makin too much electricity, but i have no clue why or how to stop it, just outta curiousity, do u go to MHS?

 

[aldive]

Maybe you want to take your truck to an alternator/battery shop and have them do an electrical test.

Its better to find problems or potential problems befor they really go south on ya.

Good luck.........

 

[Bill Kemp]

Most places will test the alt. on the veh. for free. Although yours sounds normal to me. When you idle the alt isnt going around fast enough to put out the 14 volts or so.
Costs nothing but time to find out.

 

[Mike 92 XLT]

Mine does it too sometimes, although I'm on my third rebuilt alternator and these things are piles (I just get a new one under warranty because it's free when the old one dies). Go get it tested if you want, but it sounds pretty normal, as long as it's not too big of a jump in voltage when you hit the gas.

peace

Mike

 

[asp84]

BoatsRcool:
My Volt guage used to do this too. (lights and meter went higher when pressing on the gas) Turned out that my battery was not holding the charge very well, and putting a strain on the ALT. After I bought a GOOD battery with a lot of Cold Cranking Amps, the problem disapeared. Overall my volt meter read higher w/o jumping, and did not increase the brightness of my lights. (when pressing the gas form idle)

Let me know if you have any questions. Like other people have said on this board. Get your Bat/Alt checked......for free!

Al

 

[wolleybugger]

Could be one of two things, your alternator or voltage regulator is not working properly or you have a weak or dead cell in you battery which is causing the voltage regulator to do funny things. Any battery shop should be able to determine the problem in about 5 minutes free of charge.

 

[Sschultz]

Mines doing pretty much the same thing. Except at idle with the lights and the fan on. the gauge, lights, blinkers and engine dip very low(almost to the point of stalling). When you give it a little gas everything goes back to normal. I replaced the battery under recomendation of a local shop after they "checked" the alternator, but I still have the exact same problem. I posted a thread on the general board asking if anyone had tried replacing the voltage reg. (at about $40.00) instead of the hole alt. But aparrently I must have posted on the wrong board, and the posting faded away.
The thing that throws me off is the fact that if I give it a little gas everything goes back to normal. This indicates one of two things.
Either the alt. isn't producing enough voltage at low rpm. and even though the voltage reg. is wide open, it isn't enough to maintain the required voltage needed by the truck.
Or the alt is producing enough voltage but the reg. isn't regulating properly.
If I was going to guess I would have to lean twords the fact that the alternator isn't producing enough voltage for the regulator to regulate.