Truck was sputtering with alot of dash lights on.

Hi. I was driving on the highway and my Tacoma with 180k started sputtering. Dash lights where on from battery, abs, traction control and another one I cant remember. Both radio and ac cut off. After a minute of this everything came back alive. Have yet to have to replace anything on this truck. Any one experience this yet and know whats the problem? Thanks

 

Maintenance up to date? I’d check under hood for obvious stuff and pull codes and go from there.

 

Thanks Mark. The check engine light was not on but ran a scan anyway. Two codes where in there for low voltage C1241 and P1604 start malfunction. I’ m leaning towards an alternator on this. My battery is only a few months old. I think it crapped out for a minute and my battery didnt have the current to keep it all running well hence the stuttering badly and the end. It just kept getting worse like it was draining the battery.

 

Could be an alternator but I would maybe check for corroded battery terminals. Wire brush the post and inside of the connector. Dip the connectors in strong baking soda water until it stops fizzing. Blow everything dry and reassemble. Put a voltmeter on the terminals while running to see if you’re getting 13.8-14+ volts. If not you have an issue with the alternator.

 

My wife's car went into "limp mode" along with most of the instrument lights coming on while she was driving on the freeway. She did make it home OK and when I was looking around I found her negative cable was loose. Tightened it up and the problem was solved. That was until 8 months later. Did the same thing, only this time the battery needed to be replaced. Two years later, all is well.

 

Definitely sounds electrical, test battery and alternator output and go from there.

 

Battery is 4 months old and I always spray corrosion inhibitor on the terminals to keep them in good contact. Going to replace the alternator. I’ll reply on the results. Thanks guys!