Last night when I was going to leave the new years party I started up my truck at it was shaking horribly. I turned on the lights and they turned on and then they dimmed drasticaly. The battery meter was going up and down constantly. I reved up the engine and the lights brightened and then they dulled again. I havnt tried it again today but last night it was kinda worrying me. I was cool outside, about 35-40. Could that be it the grid heater pulling that much of a charge off my batterys. If so shouldnt the alt. keep up with it. It would shake even when i was driving down the road and i would let off the pedal and it would start shaking while rolling. What is the deal? My truck has 12,000 miles on it now, rest in sig.

 

Did you wait for the heat indicator to go off before you started it? I have seen the battery meter go up and down until the truck reaches temp and my lights dim as well. It does seem that the alternator should be able to cover the grid heater. I didn't have the shake problem though.

 

The alternator will cover the grid heater, but you will still see a slight dim in the lights and volt meter but not enought to make it shake.

 

I have the same problem with my 03. After it warms up it stops. The last couple of days though the dash lights will dim even after running for about 30 mins of more. Is the alternator going bad?

 

Mine did that one time. I was leaving my buddy's house and I started the truck and I thought it was gonna shake itself apart. It felt like it wasn't firing all cylinders. I stepped on the accelerator, it shook a little more then smoothed right out.

Never happened again.

 

The lights dimming and volt meter going up and down is normal, that is the grid heaters they draw a bunch of amps. They will cycle in cold temps after stopping and restarting the truck too, even if the coolant is up to temp.

The shaking I think is a fouled injector, try some additive I like Lucas, and run it hard. When this happened to me I did what I just said and by the second tank it had cleared up totally.

 

Yes I did wait for the wait to start lite to turn off. I figured the lights and dash lights dimming was caused by the grid heater, but the shakes i was unaware of. Today it shook when I started it up but after about 5 min it stopped.

 

I agree with NickBeek run some PS and or Lucas in several tanks of fuel to help clean up your injectors & fuel system. The only time mine has done the shakes is if I forget to wait for the grid heater and the ouside temps are around 20 degrees. Have you drained the water out of the bottem of the fuel filter lately and or changed out the fuel filter? I don't think it has gotten cold enough in Tx for you to worry about your fuel gelling up or has it?

 

Well I am near houston so it hasnt gotton that cold. I am from montana so I know cold :-). Anyways it was only 40 out so the wait to start light only came on and then turned off. So I started her up and went to go get something then when I got back in it was shaking violently. I will have to get some Lucas next time I am out and try it.

 

At 40 degrees the grid heater should of came on and stayed on for a whole heat cycle (mine does anyway) so this may be part of why it shakes at start up on a cool morning. If you try several tanks of additive and it still does the shakes then you may have one of the trucks that over fuels (cold start, runs ruff at start up problem) and will need to have the ECM flashed. Do you get a lot of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe when this happens? IIRC then there is TBS about this problem at start up.