The van was misbehaving this morning. Took a while to get it to turn over. I decided to head out to the airport where I have lots of tools and dig into it. I was somewhat embarrassed that I got fooled. When it was trying to start, the lights in the car didn't go dim. That would have been an indicator of a bad battery. I think the reason that they didn't dim is that they are all LEDs and the voltage has to get pretty low for that to happen. Anyway I finally checked the battery voltage and it was down to 10.4 volts. So I needed a new battery. Off to AutoZone and voila, I still had six months on the warranty, so I got a brand new battery for nothing.

One more thing, I measured that charging voltage to be 14.2, which I thought was a little low. I am used to seeing 14.6 or thereabouts. So, was the alternator having some problems? After a session on Google I found that the charging system in my car adjusts the voltage depending on the battery temperature. When the battery is warm the voltage is lower that when the battery is cold. If you look very carefully at the negative connector you can see a two wire connector which I assume to be a temperature sensor.