justen920

This morning I started my truck and the Malfunction Indicator Light stayed on and so did the check gauges light. I looked over my gauges and the only one that was a little weird was my Voltmeter which was reading about 12. I drove it to work, which was about a 30 minute commute and it ran normal. Any suggestions?
Thanks for reading this.

One more thing, when I start it, it is a little slow to start and makes a weird rattle sound that seems to be coming under or near the dash, kind of where the Voltmeter is located. This is my first diesel; if it is the batteries do you have to replace both or just one? Is there a dominant battery or do they both run the same? Thanks again for your help and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

clops79

both

roger.t

i would agree that it is best to change both at the same time it will prolong the life of the batteries. as for as your problem have your altinator checked out bc unless your batteries are shorted out your gauge should show close to 14 vdc when the truck is running.

rebal

have the batteries load tested and make sure there clean and tight . you could pull the codes that will give you some kind of clue?

justen920

Thanks for the help, I took it in to Les Schwabb because it was close, the gaguge read 8 and was dropping as I drove it and they said my passenger side battery was shot and during the testing it was spewing out acid, so I called Dodge and found out my warranty covered it so I had it jumped and drove it to Dodge. The meter read 14 the entire way and they had no problems restarting it. I left it over night and got a call this morning that they could not find anything wrong with it and the batteries were in great condition. They evven left the lights on all noght on the passanger battery and found nothing. Who do you believe? They had to clear the codes and run a software update. Talk about a big waste of time, thanks again for your help.