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"Charging system failure"

F

FX4 Level II

New member
Hi guys, I did do an extensive search and read countless posts on this problem but haven't really hit the nail on the head yet. My car drove fine for years, last weekend I left for a weekend and parked my car for 3 days. Came home, car was dead, I though I left something on (dome light, etc.) Jumped car, immediately started and ran with a jump. Drove it around for an hour, "charging system failure" screen pops on and off. I shut car off, try starting, doesn't start, instantly died when shut off.
It will take a jump and run, then die when it's off. I did replace the battery last year, do you think it's the alternator? Or is something else? Weird that over a weekend it would quit out of the blue?
 


Go and have the battery and alternator checked out. I would say that it's the alternator but I have seen a battery that says 12v with car off but when there is a load applied to it, it drops to 0v. Do you have a meter?
 
I don't have a meter, not really sure how to use it if I did have one? I could probably go buy one, what would I want to read and where?
I have a feeling it's the alternator since I just replaced battery last winter, but I don't want to drop $200 on a new one if it's not that?
 
If you don't have one, I wouldn't rush out to get one if you could just take it to autozone or a parts store where they test batteries and alternators for free. Put the meter on DC V, put the red probe on the positive and the black probe on the negative on the battery with the car off and you want to see around 12V. Now turn on the car and do the same thing and it should read around 14V. That usually indicates that battery and alternator are good. It means the battery is holding a 12V charge without any assistance, if you will, and when you turn the car on, the alternator raises it to 14V. Another thing to check for is to see if the voltage is constant. When you're measuring and the voltage jumps up and down and it doesn't stay at a certain voltage, there's another issue behind it. I changed out a battery that was doing just that. It would read 12V but as soon as any load was applied to it, it would drop to 0V. Unfortunately you can't test that with a meter but the parts store should have that there. Like I said, if you can, just take it up there and have them test it for ya. It's free.
 


Yes it is bad. I'm not exactly too sure why but my best guess would be that electrical components have certain power ratings meaning they could only handle so much power. Like a balloon can only handle so much air or water before it bursts. Probably a bad example haha but I think it might be the same principle. Like I said, i'm not exactly sure what the technical reason is and i'm not gonna pretend like I do. I'll be honest, i'm a noob when it comes to the higher complicated things but I think I have a good grip on the smaller stuff. The real geniuses on here that I have seen are billboost and scottydoggs. Those guys are pretty comprehensive.
 
my auto zone now has a hand held load tester and volt meter.

you want to test the battery car off, its volts, and then load test it. if it fails the load test its done. unless its just weak form the alt not charging.

next they should check the battery voltage car running, this should be over 13 volts, some cars charge at 14 plus volts. mines any where from 13.3-13.9 depending on how much stuff is running in the car.

i did have a 03 gmc that took 3 new alt's till it liked one, every one was charging over 14 volts and the dash kept saying charging failure. 3 rd alt charged at 13.5 ish under 14, and it worked.
 
Thanks everyone, I checked it over again tonight........and found a bad ground from the battery. I tightened the ground wire up where it grounds to the car, and all is good now. Thanks again, glad it was a free fix!
 
Greetings All,

I received this "Charging System Failure" message this morning. I replaced the battery 3 months ago and the belt snapped roughly 2 months ago due to the pulley freezing up. What would cause this to come up again. I have a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix with 150,777 miles.
 


You replaced the battery or the alternator? Have your alternator tested. Even if you replaced the alternator 3 months ago, it could have still gone bad again. I went through 3 alternators in less than a month. All the alternators are refurbished now and a lot will be bad out of the box. Make sure to get a lifetime warranty. I am on my 5th alternator in 9 years and only had to pay for the original one due to the lifetime warranty.
 
FX4 Level II said:
I also read somewhere that if the voltage is too high, say like 15-15.1 Volts, that is bad too? What would that cause?
Click to expand...

04+ charging systems are completely different and will charge anywhere from 12.1 to 15.1, this is normal so don't go by any information to the contrary.

Jeff
 
Have both the battery and alternator checked. Don't assume either are fine until you have them checked.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


The alternator is going to be hard to check, most of the stores don't have the abaility to apply the PWM signal to the alternator to make it work, so they just tell you it's dead.

Jeff
 
I know the Alternator has never been replaced. Her and I have been together since 2007 w/ 31,000 miles and we're pushing 151,000.
 
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