Got a block away from home and my truck decided to throw me another curve ball...

While idling, all seems fine... hit the gas, rpm goes up as it should and I see these light up...

then I notice this

oh.. and the faint smell of...burning...

would I be right to assume that I am in need of a new alternator?
also, can anyone tell me what the light on the left means?

 

An alternators internal regulator can go bad and over charge a battery big time, i had this happen to me once and by the time i could stop the battery was boiling. I had to replace the alternator and the battery. Not real sure what the light on the left is ?.

 

indeed... pulled some wrenches... unplugged some stuff... and confirmed... it is the alternator...

good thing it's summer, and I have a motorcycle...

 

okay! ... my truck doesn't seem to have much love for me... Bought and bolted in a brand new alternator (OEM), and now it has a high idle... like the engine is still warming up.
I start it, and is goes to 1250rpm, then slowly climbs... after driving a bit, I throw it in park, and it jumps to about 1700-1900rpm...
If I unplug the new alt, it seems to go back to normal... any ideas?

 

did you replace the battery too?


if not, at least try unplugging it for a little while; like 10 or 15 minutes, and let the ECM reset, and see if that helps

 

Didn't replace the battery.. It seems fine. And I just had it unplugged for about an hour, and no change.

 

oh...


I think I'd have that new alternator tested, both in the truck, and bench tested out of the truck



my PU did this to me once too; overcharged and just about melted my Optima...

ended up replacing the battery AND the alternator...