- Joined
- May 26, 2010
- Messages
- 8,495
- Reaction score
- 182
- Points
- 0
- Location
- hell
- Vehicle Year
- 2007
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 4.0
- Transmission
- Manual
So, my truck has developed a gremlin... I swear I didn't feed it after midnight, and yet here I am...
ok, for starters, it is an 07 fx4 Level II, electronics are mostly stock, I have a set of IPF 968's, an amp, a sub, a cb, and a ham radio, LED turn signals all around, an LED flasher (no load equalizers on the signals) door lock LED indicators and I think that's about it... a minor thing, but might effect it, I have a body lift, which relocates/slightly modifies a few chassis-body ground straps.
next, what's going on... I went snowboarding last monday afternoon, drove the 35km (20 miles) to the base of the mountain, and started heading the remaining 15 up to the parkinglot at the resort, (at no point shutting the truck off, it was nice and warm, running just fine...) on the way up, i had my headlights on, and my music going, and noticed the dash lights looked kinda dim, didn't think much of it, the sun was still up, but I was dipping behind a mountain or two so it was shadowy, and figured the sun was just washing it out... get up a little farther, it's kinda twilighty, sun's still technically up, but it's rather dark, and yeah, my dash is really dim, looks even dimmer than it was before... then I noticed that the dash is actually flickering a little too! So immediately i'm thinking alternator, i'm getting worried because i'm halfway up this mountain, one lane each way...
so i plug my altec trip computer in (works like a scangauge) and when it comes up, it loads 14.4v, a while later it goes to 14.5, I have since shut off my music (or turned it way down) the dash hasn't gotten any brighter, and the flickering hasn't stopped... now the lights are REALLY dim! with the voltage bumping around in the mid 14.x i wasn't super worried, drove the rest of the way up, parked in the parking lot, shut it off, went boarding...
come back, hit the remote starter, truck fires up just fine, hop in, go to leave, dash lights nice and bright (it's now dark out) driving home the 50 km trip, the dash starts going dim about half way, slowly gets dimmer and dimmer... It almost looked like someone was turning down my dimmer switch, but it's up all the way, and works just fine to dim, but the brightest it'll go is about 1/2 of what it should be...
so I pull in the driveway at home, and go to set the remote start like normal (sidenote: my truck is standard, and in order for the remote starter to work, it must know that the truck is in neutral and it is safe to start with no driver, so it has to be put into "ready mode" which is done by putting the truck in neutral, putting the e-brake on, taking your feet off the pedals, and pressing the start button on the remote. The park/driving lights flash 3 times, and remain on, you then exit the vehicle, close all doors, and press another button to lock the doors, and the vehicle shuts off (assuming everyone is out of the truck) so after snowboarding, I get home, pull the truck in the driveway, I put the truck in ready mode, but left the headlights on by accident, which I have done in the past, all that happens is the lights stay on, and you can hear the relay click on and off 3 times... the same happens this time, except the dash lights get brighter and dim with each flash.
fast forward almost a week to tonight, I don't drive the truck much, I live exactly 1 mile from work, so the drive home is literally 2 minutes, and I haven't experienced the dimming lights since last monday, tonight I go to meet up with a girl in the middle of the night headbang:) and of course, dash starts dimming again... what ever, i don't care, i get there, shuter off, come back out, start it up, go for a drive to the gas station, stop to help a co-worker on the side of the road (left truck running, lights on, this is maybe 15-25 minutes running since I left girl's place) hop back in the truck, and the dash lights are dim, about 50% brightness of where they should be, head home, on the way home, I did some playing around with the remote starter, turns out I can put it in ready mode while driving... The lights that seem to be effected by this, and flash brighter and dimmer, are the dash lights themselves, the HVAC lights, and the cruise control button lights on the steering wheel. However, the headlight switch lights, which is also on the dimmer circuit, does not flash, and it's nice and bright. my radio doesn't (aftermarket head unit) my door lock LED's don't, and the single LED that is on the switch for my IPF 968 driving lights do not flash.
what the hell is going on, with my truck?
also, I shot this video to put on youtube to show my confusion, I can shoot a better/longer one tomorrow night if you guys prefer...
EDIT:
WOAH, I just noticed this, in that video, which was recorded in my driveway, about 15 minutes ago, before I came inside, and haven't driven the truck since, shows 128,494 km, however, when I left after helping the co-worker, about 6km from my house, I remembered looking down and seeing 128,500, and thought it was cool, an even 500... so maybe my dash is counting mileage backwards too????
ok, for starters, it is an 07 fx4 Level II, electronics are mostly stock, I have a set of IPF 968's, an amp, a sub, a cb, and a ham radio, LED turn signals all around, an LED flasher (no load equalizers on the signals) door lock LED indicators and I think that's about it... a minor thing, but might effect it, I have a body lift, which relocates/slightly modifies a few chassis-body ground straps.
next, what's going on... I went snowboarding last monday afternoon, drove the 35km (20 miles) to the base of the mountain, and started heading the remaining 15 up to the parkinglot at the resort, (at no point shutting the truck off, it was nice and warm, running just fine...) on the way up, i had my headlights on, and my music going, and noticed the dash lights looked kinda dim, didn't think much of it, the sun was still up, but I was dipping behind a mountain or two so it was shadowy, and figured the sun was just washing it out... get up a little farther, it's kinda twilighty, sun's still technically up, but it's rather dark, and yeah, my dash is really dim, looks even dimmer than it was before... then I noticed that the dash is actually flickering a little too! So immediately i'm thinking alternator, i'm getting worried because i'm halfway up this mountain, one lane each way...
so i plug my altec trip computer in (works like a scangauge) and when it comes up, it loads 14.4v, a while later it goes to 14.5, I have since shut off my music (or turned it way down) the dash hasn't gotten any brighter, and the flickering hasn't stopped... now the lights are REALLY dim! with the voltage bumping around in the mid 14.x i wasn't super worried, drove the rest of the way up, parked in the parking lot, shut it off, went boarding...
come back, hit the remote starter, truck fires up just fine, hop in, go to leave, dash lights nice and bright (it's now dark out) driving home the 50 km trip, the dash starts going dim about half way, slowly gets dimmer and dimmer... It almost looked like someone was turning down my dimmer switch, but it's up all the way, and works just fine to dim, but the brightest it'll go is about 1/2 of what it should be...
so I pull in the driveway at home, and go to set the remote start like normal (sidenote: my truck is standard, and in order for the remote starter to work, it must know that the truck is in neutral and it is safe to start with no driver, so it has to be put into "ready mode" which is done by putting the truck in neutral, putting the e-brake on, taking your feet off the pedals, and pressing the start button on the remote. The park/driving lights flash 3 times, and remain on, you then exit the vehicle, close all doors, and press another button to lock the doors, and the vehicle shuts off (assuming everyone is out of the truck) so after snowboarding, I get home, pull the truck in the driveway, I put the truck in ready mode, but left the headlights on by accident, which I have done in the past, all that happens is the lights stay on, and you can hear the relay click on and off 3 times... the same happens this time, except the dash lights get brighter and dim with each flash.
fast forward almost a week to tonight, I don't drive the truck much, I live exactly 1 mile from work, so the drive home is literally 2 minutes, and I haven't experienced the dimming lights since last monday, tonight I go to meet up with a girl in the middle of the night headbang:) and of course, dash starts dimming again... what ever, i don't care, i get there, shuter off, come back out, start it up, go for a drive to the gas station, stop to help a co-worker on the side of the road (left truck running, lights on, this is maybe 15-25 minutes running since I left girl's place) hop back in the truck, and the dash lights are dim, about 50% brightness of where they should be, head home, on the way home, I did some playing around with the remote starter, turns out I can put it in ready mode while driving... The lights that seem to be effected by this, and flash brighter and dimmer, are the dash lights themselves, the HVAC lights, and the cruise control button lights on the steering wheel. However, the headlight switch lights, which is also on the dimmer circuit, does not flash, and it's nice and bright. my radio doesn't (aftermarket head unit) my door lock LED's don't, and the single LED that is on the switch for my IPF 968 driving lights do not flash.
what the hell is going on, with my truck?
also, I shot this video to put on youtube to show my confusion, I can shoot a better/longer one tomorrow night if you guys prefer...
EDIT:
WOAH, I just noticed this, in that video, which was recorded in my driveway, about 15 minutes ago, before I came inside, and haven't driven the truck since, shows 128,494 km, however, when I left after helping the co-worker, about 6km from my house, I remembered looking down and seeing 128,500, and thought it was cool, an even 500... so maybe my dash is counting mileage backwards too????
Last edited: