Headlights that dim (lightly blink) while driving?

[RealestateGP]

Serge and all that have posted on lighting I could not find a or the thread that addressed my issue so if its out there please share it.

While driving and idling my headlights will blink. Not fully off and on but dim then go back to full strength within seconds. I drove from NO to ATL last night and was not sure they were going to stay on which would've been a problem on a dark hwy. Its road tripping season so please share your insight.

PS. Some googling found that others replaced alternators that "tested" well but found that might be the solution. I wanted to get yalls thoughts before goign that route. Thanks!

Real Estate GP

2010 Tahoe LT Owner

 

[Sarge]

I had the same issue.. put a new battery in and it helped. Bench tested my alternator and the diode/volt regulator was bad. New alternator fixed it for me.

 

[swathdiver]

On your negative battery cable next to the battery there is a piece that goes around it with a plug. Unplug that and see if your lights still flicker. This is a function of the EPM, Electrical Power Management and RVC, Regulated Voltage Control. You may still have a weak alternator and or battery.

 

[petethepug]

At 108k my 08 Denali XL headlights did the dim thing for a while. Very soon after the alt died on a night ride about 2 miles from home. Had it towed to the dealer to use the service contract (S/C) that covered that sort of thing. The interesting back story is below if you have time.

After two days of the S/C administrator refused to install an oem alt the dealer was charging $5h to repair/replace. The S/C admin wanted to ship over Chinese made junk from back East, 2 day air and reimburse me for 4 days of rental car. Huh? That’s more than $5h.

It turns out the GMC service advisor was being a dick to me as well as the S/C admin. After I spoke to the S/C admin and splain’d their liability if the Chinese junk failed on a mountain road on my 2.5 ton Denali, he and his company would be liable for all the shenanigans if we were injured or died.

The S/C admin 1 day a factory oem alt to Cali that day after our discussion. It arrived damaged from lack of packaging. On day 3 they caved and paid the full $5h bill for the dealership alt that carried a lifetime warranty to orig purchaser.

I called the S/C admin to thank them and got the run down that my serv adv’r was a jack hole to them as well as me. We caught the advisor in lies and had manipulated both of us for some unknown reason. He also tried to pad my bill with a 2 hour diag to condemn the AGM battery and later refused to let me charge it on premises with an Optima charger.

This could of occurred anywhere. The last time the same serv tech got over $2.5K worth of radiator, motor mount, rear main diff seal and a few other things covered. Now he’s on the Dlr and my **** list. The serv adv’r I’m working with now just got the rear air/magneride shocks and compressor replaced that saved us another $1.5k in covered parts. I always buy the serv writer & tech lunch when they pull off a job like that.


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