happened once in my 98,no volts is most noticeable. i shut off and restarted, fixed.
now its doing it regularly and volts come up slowly? alt? i tried shut off and restart and it barely cranked and started. i drive this just on property but daily till its hot in this cold weather.

am i not getting batt fully recharged?

what causes "check guages"?

advice?

 

just did it on one of mine, loose battery cable. Keep them tight and clean!

 

As mentioned check and preferably clean the battery terminal/clamps.
Looks like you've got a low voltage issue. Could be anything from bad ground connections, faulty alternator, bad battery or battery connections.

With a digital voltmeter, measure the voltage across the battery terminals with engine idling.
First put the probes directly on the battery posts. Then on the battery clamps. The voltage should be identical between 14 and 14.7 volts give or take a couple tenths of a volt. If so, then the alternator is apparently working. If there's a voltage drop between the battery posts and the clamps, the posts and clamps need refurburshing.

After the engine cools off for a while, the battery terminal voltage should be no less than around 12.6 volts give or take a few tenths of a volt.
If you don't have a reliable digital voltmeter take it to Autozone or equivalent and have them check it out.

 

it always cranks good and starts, then as i drive i get the warning?
once running the volts get up to 14+

. i will clean and tighten conn and see.. thanks.
ive had bad connections on my other 00 and never get this , check guages, curious just what causes it

 

Is that "14+" Volt reading taken from the instrument panel gauge?
If so i wouldn't trust that gauge reading considering the issue you explained. Verify it at the battery itself with a hand held digital voltmeter.

There's a possibility the alternator, battery, etc. are OK but the voltage getting to the instrument panel is low or intermittent. First suspect IMO would be the instrument panel connectors are either loose, corroded, worn or burnt.
Only takes 20 minutes or so to pop the panel out and check the connectors. There's a good chance just re-seating the connectors is all thats needed. Removing the panel is the same procedure for replacing burned out instrument panel light bulbs. I'm sure the procedure is documented somewhere on this forum. If not check UTube.

In 326K miles had a similar thing happen once and only once...so far. Voltage gauge pegged and i got the check instrument gauges.

 

When this happens, push on the gauge cluster. You may have a poor cluster connection which is super common on them.

 

ill try it next time, ive compared the meter with dvm, meter is ok.

 

I personally would go the extra step and remove the instrument panel (cluster) to inspect, clean if necessary then re-seat the connectors.
The connector contacts could just be dirty. Pushing it in could only delay another failure episode. But thats just me.
Its been my experience intermittent problems have a habit of re-occurring unless the root cause is identified and fixed.

And if needed, any burned out cluster bulbs can be easily replaced at the same time.

 

Yep. CRC Contact Cleaner is your friend.

Yeah, usually at the worst possible time!

 

LOL I was not suggesting this as the fix to his problem. More like it's a good indicator that if you push on the cluster and the problem goes away, you have a poor connection and you should pull the cluster and clean the contacts But I blame myself for not thoroughly explaining myself and assuming others would understand what I meant

 

Won't do any good to push on the instrument cluster or remove it to monkey around with the pins or connectors.


The voltmeter is driven thru the CCD Bus and is not an independently driven gauge. If the Bus was bad most, if not all, gauges would be inop.


Your problem exists in the alternator circuit. Bad ground(s), bad power connections from and/or to the alternator, or bad battery temp senor. Check all connectors to insure they are free from corrosion.

 

Ken, you're probably right on this, but.....

The only path to get electrical energy to the cluster voltage gauge is through the connector. All electrical energy to and from the cluster is via the connectors.

I'd think there's still a remote possibility there could be a connector issue. Though i'd think there would be other cluster issues other than just the voltage gauge if the connectors were at fault. Hard to believe just one contact failed at the connector. But i've seen stranger things happen.

We still haven't heard from the OPer on his battery/alternator voltage measurements or whether the problem was fixed.

 

.

 

no changes, worked fine today ,aok?

 

Did you do anything to get it 'aok'