2003 Quad Dually 2WD stock. I asked this question a long time ago with little response and the problem continues. For well over a year when the ambient temp calls for grid heater use when starting, the heater light comes on, goes off when warm and I can hear the relay click. Start truck, the volt gauge stops at about halfway between off and 14V just like it always did. But the "Check Gauge" light stays on. Then as the volt gauge starts to rise toward 14V it will go out until getting almost on 14V and the ding and Check Gauge light is back on. The Volt gauge goes over about an 1/8" past 14V where it always did stop. Then intermittently it will drop back to where it started halfway between off and 14V bringing the ding and Check Gauge light on. Shortly as the volt gauge again climbs towards 14V the Check Gauge and ding come on again as the needle goes to the 1/8" past 14V. It will do this maybe for 30-45 minutes down the road. Then the gauge will stabilize at the 1/8 past the 14V and everything is good to go. If anything seems to trigger the situation more than anything it will be taking my foot of the throttle and or applying brakes. Or it will do start as the truck starts down hill. Or it may well do it on flat road. Also it will do it towing or running empty. Can't really say I have had it happen going up an incline. The relays from the battery to the grid heater are disconnected at the battery and the wires from the relays to the grid heater are disconnected at the grid heater. Have changed alternators a couple of times and had the alternators checked out. Also I have a pair of wires connected to the battery, brought them thru the firewall and put my digital volt meter on the wires. I watch it as this situation plays out. As far as the voltage it will show 14.3-14.5 on the high end and of course drops back when the volt gauge goes to the halfway point between off and 14V. The whole situation seems to be related to the outside ambient temperature, but I'm just guessing. Anybody else ever heard or has seen this problem?

 

My 05 had very similar symptoms. Dodge diagnossed it as a bad or weak injector they say the heat grid light will come on and it will chime I think 10 times. This mostly happened to me on deceleration under load or still in gear. most times after the truck had run for an hour. I am still trying to get to the bottom of the trouble as Dodge had diagnosed number one injector. I changed number one as I also was having a hard time at startup with long crank cycle. The new injector did not fix the problem. I did shortly notice that my volt gauge started showing 18V (I now suspect that it all may be related to a bad ECM as the ECM seems to house the voltage regulator as well. The truck is at the shop now and I hope to hear something on Monday.

J

 

Ours does it for maybe the first 20-30 minutes after starting and generally the first start of the day unless it is driven only a short distance. Also as I said it seems to be ambient temperature related. It does it usually below 60 degrees. Keep us posted as to how you make out, very interesting situation. And thanks for this info.

 

Have you "load tested" your batteries? They can be affected by ambient temperatures as they reach failure stage.

 

Haven't checked with a load tester but did read each cell with a hydrometer and it comes up good to go. A funny thing happened yesterday. I got off an exit ramp with a fairly tight right turn three times (same ramp), never left off the throttle as there was no need, and within about a 15 foot difference all three times the ding and light came on. When straightening out getting the adjoining road the light and ding quit.

 

I get the 'check gauge light' in wet or extremely ruff road conditions. It is only on for a millisecond and then it's out. Truck has done this for over 200k miles with no ill affects. So I figure if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Jim

 

Yesterday we drove from Soldotna, AK. down to Homer AK. for about a total of 170 miles. I tried everything to get it to do it's thing, but it never came on or dinged.