I've had my 02 for only 6 weeks and today upon starting it the following message displayed on the DIC

"Charge System Fault".

This message only displayed for about 2 seconds and then disappeared on its own.

I started the car today at least 10 times after seeing the message and it never appeared again.

Is this a potential problem in the making?

Thanks.

 

Check and see what kind of codes were posted.

If you don't know how to, go to this link:

IPC Codes

 

It happens on a rare occassion... the charging system fault detect is very sensitive... a burp is nothing to worry about, if it becomes persitent, then I would follow up with some Diag.

here is how the charing system detect works..

The L-terminal circuit from the generator is a discrete circuit (a discrete circuit has no splices and only one source and destination) into the PCM. The PCM applies ignition voltage to the generator L-terminal circuit. A small amount of current flows from this circuit through the generator windings to ground to create a magnetic field which starts the generator process. When the generator is at operating speed and producing voltage, a solid state switch for the L-terminal circuit in the generator opens and the PCM detects that the initial startup current flow has stopped.

The PCM expects to detect low voltage on the L-terminal circuit prior to the generator rotating at operating speed and conversely expects the circuit to be at ignition voltage potential when the generator is operational. When the PCM detects a fault (circuit shorted to ground, or circuit shorted to voltage), the Driver Information Center will display Charging System Fault.

The generator has an input to the PCM called the F Terminal to indicate the percentage of total capacity that the generator is producing. This signal is detected by the PCM as a duty cycle from the generator and displayed on the scan tool as a percentage. The PCM can monitor the generators output under all conditions to determine if it is functioning normally.

When there is low demand from the electrical system on the generator, a low duty cycle percentage will be displayed. As more accessory load is placed on the generator, the duty cycle output detected by the PCM will approach 100 percent. A normally functioning generating system will never reach 100 percent as indicated on the scan tool.

The L and F terminals are the red and grey

I hope this helps
Bill aka ( E-T )

 

Thanks fellows, that will help. I also went to the owners manual and found out the message should have reappeared every 10 minutes, which it didn't. This may be a very intermittent problem.

More comments will be appreciated.