Hi all,
We got in our new (bought in July with 147K mi) 99 K2500 diesel suburban this morning (last night temp was about 38 deg F) and we noticed the windows were moving quite slowly, then we noticed that the radio got all distorted, looked at the battery charge gauge and noticed that it had fallen to close to 9 volts, usual charge being close to 14 volts. We immediately drove (in first gear in the automatic, mind you) to town 25mins or so away to see what was wrong. Talked to our regular mechanic on phone in a different state, and he explained if there was an electrical problem going on (i.e. alternator or something else) that it wouldn't shift due to the transmission being dependent on the electrical system. : ) So we go to local chevy dealer in new town, we don't know, they run all kinds of electrical system tests, miraculously the suburban starts holding charge again and they figure out that we have a faulty alternator and a battery with bad fuel cell. They replace secondary batt and alternator to the tune of $580-. We drive home and notice charge is only 12v. Eveything works, so we figure its okay. We just went out to run errand again, and charge has now dropped to only 10.5 volts? or less? any idea? This is our first diesel vehicle and we have no idea what's going on... any suggestions? we are supposed to be driving the 'burb 3hrs tomorrow and are worried about whether it will make it... thanks!! everything was going great until this...
We got in our new (bought in July with 147K mi) 99 K2500 diesel suburban this morning (last night temp was about 38 deg F) and we noticed the windows were moving quite slowly, then we noticed that the radio got all distorted, looked at the battery charge gauge and noticed that it had fallen to close to 9 volts, usual charge being close to 14 volts. We immediately drove (in first gear in the automatic, mind you) to town 25mins or so away to see what was wrong. Talked to our regular mechanic on phone in a different state, and he explained if there was an electrical problem going on (i.e. alternator or something else) that it wouldn't shift due to the transmission being dependent on the electrical system. : ) So we go to local chevy dealer in new town, we don't know, they run all kinds of electrical system tests, miraculously the suburban starts holding charge again and they figure out that we have a faulty alternator and a battery with bad fuel cell. They replace secondary batt and alternator to the tune of $580-. We drive home and notice charge is only 12v. Eveything works, so we figure its okay. We just went out to run errand again, and charge has now dropped to only 10.5 volts? or less? any idea? This is our first diesel vehicle and we have no idea what's going on... any suggestions? we are supposed to be driving the 'burb 3hrs tomorrow and are worried about whether it will make it... thanks!! everything was going great until this...