Troubleshooting Periodic Charging System Fault
- Thread starter The_Nuke
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How old is the battery in the car? This type of problem could point to a battery issue, like an intermittently shorting cell. Many of today's vehicles have battery excited alternators and a battery problem can/will result in charging issues. If your battery is over 2 years old, that would be the first thing that I would suspect. If the battery is actually at fault, your problem will reappear.
Originally Posted By: wag123
How old is the battery in the car? This type of problem could point to a battery issue, like an intermittently shorting cell. Many of today's vehicles have battery excited alternators and a battery problem can/will result in charging issues. If your battery is over 2 years old, that would be the first thing that I would suspect. If the battery is actually at fault, your problem will reappear.
IIRC, the battery is just shy of 12 months old...well, I've had it almost 12 months, I don't know its born-on date off the top of my head, but I'm guessing it was manufactured about 12-15 months ago and has been in service right at 11-12 months.
I'm certainly keeping an eye on the dash for the battery light to magically appear still, but I'm fairly confident the culprit, whatever it actually was, has been vanquished.
The whole DTC code/battery light/fault event occurred a total of 5 or 6 times over the course of late April, May, and early June. And each subsequent fault happened quicker and in fewer miles than the previous one had done to its predecessor. So at first it would go a couple weeks/several thousand miles in between faults; then it recurred in about a week/1K miles, and the last 2 were within 3 days and several hundred miles of each other. So there was a definite pattern of decreasing intervals between faults when I finally went all scorched earth on the grounds and battery cables/posts.
After that, there were no more faults, and it's been over 14 days now and a couple thousand miles almost. And I know that could be just a really lucky coincidence, but I also know it might not be a coincidence and one of the grounds I cleaned and re-tightened was the culprit after all.
That's my hope anyway...
But I am surely keeping an eye on it just in case...
Now if I could just get the wife to do the same when she's out joy-riding in it!! Well, she says she's running errands and shopping, but funny how she never comes back with much except an empty tank of gas and the stereo turned all the way up
Oh well, I can't blame her too much, I love driving that car too!
How old is the battery in the car? This type of problem could point to a battery issue, like an intermittently shorting cell. Many of today's vehicles have battery excited alternators and a battery problem can/will result in charging issues. If your battery is over 2 years old, that would be the first thing that I would suspect. If the battery is actually at fault, your problem will reappear.
IIRC, the battery is just shy of 12 months old...well, I've had it almost 12 months, I don't know its born-on date off the top of my head, but I'm guessing it was manufactured about 12-15 months ago and has been in service right at 11-12 months.
I'm certainly keeping an eye on the dash for the battery light to magically appear still, but I'm fairly confident the culprit, whatever it actually was, has been vanquished.
The whole DTC code/battery light/fault event occurred a total of 5 or 6 times over the course of late April, May, and early June. And each subsequent fault happened quicker and in fewer miles than the previous one had done to its predecessor. So at first it would go a couple weeks/several thousand miles in between faults; then it recurred in about a week/1K miles, and the last 2 were within 3 days and several hundred miles of each other. So there was a definite pattern of decreasing intervals between faults when I finally went all scorched earth on the grounds and battery cables/posts.
After that, there were no more faults, and it's been over 14 days now and a couple thousand miles almost. And I know that could be just a really lucky coincidence, but I also know it might not be a coincidence and one of the grounds I cleaned and re-tightened was the culprit after all.
That's my hope anyway...
But I am surely keeping an eye on it just in case...
Now if I could just get the wife to do the same when she's out joy-riding in it!! Well, she says she's running errands and shopping, but funny how she never comes back with much except an empty tank of gas and the stereo turned all the way up
Oh well, I can't blame her too much, I love driving that car too!
Well this situation has finally been resolved...it was an epic journey for sure, and one from which I have learned quite a bit...
All told, it almost 1 year from the time I first saw any problems until I got a final resolution implemented.
Financially speaking, it was a rather expensive little journey through automotive wonderland...between the multiple visits to the dealership service department and the parts+labor bills I sometimes came away with, and the rental car fees, and the Uber fees, and the dozen other little fees that you end up paying when you're only vehicle is not accessible or drivable to you but you still need to get around and get things done, I would estimate I spent about $3,000 total on this deal.
Ultimately, the problem turned out to be a corroded plug boot on the wire that connects to the back of the alternator (non-power wire, I forget what this one is called). The fix was to cut off that wire's end w/ the plug on it and re-solder a plug onto it so it would connect to the back of the alternator like it should.
Anyway, there is a lot more to the story, but it's all just boring details now that I know what the problem was and have a fix...I just wish we could have gone straight to the fix back last year when all of this started. That would have saved me and lot of other people a lot of time, money, and heart-burn!!
Nuke
All told, it almost 1 year from the time I first saw any problems until I got a final resolution implemented.
Financially speaking, it was a rather expensive little journey through automotive wonderland...between the multiple visits to the dealership service department and the parts+labor bills I sometimes came away with, and the rental car fees, and the Uber fees, and the dozen other little fees that you end up paying when you're only vehicle is not accessible or drivable to you but you still need to get around and get things done, I would estimate I spent about $3,000 total on this deal.
Ultimately, the problem turned out to be a corroded plug boot on the wire that connects to the back of the alternator (non-power wire, I forget what this one is called). The fix was to cut off that wire's end w/ the plug on it and re-solder a plug onto it so it would connect to the back of the alternator like it should.
Anyway, there is a lot more to the story, but it's all just boring details now that I know what the problem was and have a fix...I just wish we could have gone straight to the fix back last year when all of this started. That would have saved me and lot of other people a lot of time, money, and heart-burn!!
Nuke
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