The battery (idiot) light on my dash shows dimly lit. It's NOT fully bright like when you first turn the key on, just barely on. Sometimes it gets a bit brighter than others, however never more than about 50% lit. This has been going on for several months.

Recently I noticed that it STAYS ON even after the key is off. When I go out to the truck in the morning I can see it on, even though the truck has been off for 8+ hours.

My commute is only 6 miles and the truck doesn't get driven much beyond that during the fall and winter.

ONE OTHER piece of information. I noticed my PYRO meter shows a reading well after turning off the truck.

Is it possible the PYRO or the meter itself could be slowly draining the battery?

Batteries are only 1 year old, truck seems to start fine, however when it was cold (20's) it was VERY slow to turn over (truck not plugged in).

Thanks for your help.

Pyro reads all the time. It generates it's own voltage.

I'd suspect a bad diode in the alternator for the lamp to be on with the key removed. On the side of the alternator will be a plug. Unplug it with the key off and see if the lamp on the dash goes out.

Pyro reads all the time. It generates it's own voltage.

I'd suspect a bad diode in the alternator for the lamp to be on with the key removed. On the side of the alternator will be a plug. Unplug it with the key off and see if the lamp on the dash goes out.

Will do and report back. Thanks. If it is the alternator, how expensive are they to replace?

OK, maybe I didn't get the correct plug, OR that is not the problem. There is a plug ON THE TOP of the alternator that I unplugged. It made no difference, the dash light was still on. You mentioned the SIDE of the alternator. I didn't see anything on the side. Do I need to remove something to see it better?

Thanks for the help.

I think maybe you have a guage cluster problem. Others will chime in on the possibilty of the cluster causing the problem.

I think maybe you have a guage cluster problem. Others will chime in on the possibilty of the cluster causing the problem.

Still having the problem. Is there any way to test this?