The other day I was washing and cleaning my truck. I put the key in the 'run' position instead of the 'accessory' position to run the factory radio while I worked. I then moved it from the yard where I was washing it to the drive to finish vacuuming and do the wipe down inside. It started fine. I left it in the 'run' position again so I could listen to the radio with the door open and not hear the key chime, like my neighbor was doing across the street. I usually flip the door latch with a screw driver so it thinks the door is closed, but not this time, duh.

Went to start it later in the pm when I was done and it would not start. The gauges went crazy and it chattered the starter like a dead battery. Then the horn went crazy. Honking and honking like a code of some kind. It was almost like I had an alarm but as far as I can tell I have no alarm installed.
I had to disconnect the neg battery cable to get it to stop. I plugged in the battery charger for a while and it started later.

I started it today and it was fine. I have been reading through the posts and I had a lot of symptoms of a dying battery with the gauges going weird and all. It is the original battery with about 20,000 miles on truck. I seem to have the 'signs' of a dying battery figured out so I will keep an eye on it for a while.

Does anyone think it is time to change it or just wait a bit longer?

 

I think I remember my gauges going crazy too last time I killed my battery. I left a laptop plugged in over night and when I came back the next day it was dead.

My horn didn't go off and nothing abnormal happened with my lights. So not sure about that part.

 

I think I'd at least get the battery load tested. You really don't want it to die when you're out in the boondocks and no ones araound to give you a jump start.

- Jack

 

Yes I think that a load test and cell check are in order to understand the health of my battery.
Thanks

 

When you use "run" instead of "acc" then you are turning on all the computers and modules in the truck, instead of just the windows/radio etc, so the battery will die faster in run

 

turn off the heater if you have it in run also... that'll drain the battery too..

having the horn go off, i have no clue why... the computer must not have liked the low voltage...

 

Guess what. I do have an alarm! It seems that for the last two years that I have owned my truck, the alarm system has been in valet mode! Some how I managed to flip the ignition to take the alarm system out of valet mode the other day when I was cleaning my truck.
I found in the glove box a small guide on the factory alarm system buried in there. Any way, read it over a couple of times and figured out what happened.
I like valet mode much better than armed mode. At least I can arm it when I want to or feel I need to.