[turbostar]

It is my understanding that even with a bad battery, those real high charge numbers should not happen. At the same time, I know that a bad battery can give some weird symptoms. I recently changed out my battery as it was setting the bat lite on from time to time. A side symptom was that the radio would sometimes lose the time setting. A new battery solved those issues. You said your battery was 5 yrs old so I might consider a new one going into a cold winter. Also how many miles on your alternator? I have heard from more than one source that brush issues crop up on alternators when they get into the 150,000 plus range.