The wife drove the truck to work today, parked it, went to start it at lunch time and nothing but a clicking noise. She got a jump start to get it back to our driveway, but once it was parked again, it will not start. She said it had the usual sluggish start this morning that I complained of in my last thread, but nothing unusual.

I got home and checked the codes ... none. I checked the battery voltage at rest ... both are 11.92 volts ... way low! Jumped the truck and checked voltage ... 13.54 volts at idle.

Looks like my alternator is running okay, so I'm leaning towards batteries being the issue. The batteries in the truck are Motorcraft, so I'm thinking they might be original.

Anyone have any input?

I intend to replace the batteries with Interstate MTP-65s ... good choice?

Update: I took the truck out for a spin to see if the batteries would hold a charge. I came back, knocked the surface charge off and checked them. They showed 12.54 volts. I started the truck without a problem. I'll leave them for an hour and check them again.

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Well, tried to start her and she fired up, but very, very sluggish. I checked the batteries ... 11.64 volts.

Can it be anything but the batteries? I'm replacing them tomorrow.

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Wow, no input, that's strange.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I replaced the batteries this morning. Checked them before I pulled them ... 10.60 volts. Ford had a better deal, which I thought was unusual, so I got the original Motorcraft batteries ... $105 each.

I guess time will tell if this had fixed the issue. More to come, I'm sure ...

 

If it were the alternator I would think that it would die during driving, a bad battery can take a surface charge then it will bleed off over time causing a no start. I just rplaced my alternator because it was only showing 13.2 at idle, new one is at 14.6 at idle, recheck voltage now at idle because the bad bat could have been been draining the voltag off

 

I just checked the voltage at idle and I'm getting 14 at the passenger's side and 13.9 at the driver's side ... what do you think? I should also mention that it is 106 degrees here today.

I can't believe how well she cranks with new batteries. Obviously the batteries were poor when I bought her ... Feb, 2011.

 

Youre good, with that voltage the alternator should be fine. Mine was starting to get noisy and had 257k on it so I changed it for peace of mind

 

Good stuff ... thanks for the input, it's really appreciated!