[Z06] Help:01 z06 charge sys fault
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 318
Likes: 2
From: Kentucky
Help:01 z06 charge sys fault
Hello all, I have an 01 Z06 with 50K miles, every since I've had it which has been about 2 months it has sounded sluggish when starting. Well sat. I seen the ac belt wasn't on so took it to my buddies shop and had one put on. Well after putting it on voltage went way down and so tested alternator and it was bad. Put new alt on and started up and turned air on and it started smoking under hood near compressor like the compressor had a short in it. So took ac belt back off and put another new alternator on bc we thought maybe it fried the other one and its still not getting the correct charge and giving a charge system fault. What else can I check to see whats wrong with this? Oh and we checked and replaced all fuses.
Race Director
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 19,659
Likes: 34
From: Lenoir City Tennessee
Ci 6, 8 & 10 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '05-'06-'07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
I am just curious about the condition of the battery. Is the battery new? What is the voltage on the battery after the car has been setting for a while? You can have the battery tested at Autozone or Pep Boys or wherever and they can tell you if the battery is good. They usually will fully charge the battery for you when they check it.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 318
Likes: 2
From: Kentucky
I had a new battery on and it completely drained and didn't even have enough juice to start so I put the red top back on that was on the car when I bought it and it starts but still says around 11.7 volts or lower however when I had that battery tested it was only 48% charged. Would a bad batt give a charging system fault though? I started the car and took off the neg side of the battery cables bc I thought if alternator was charging then it would keep the car running unless these are different??
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 318
Likes: 2
From: Kentucky
Well I done some research on here, and figured out what it was, the starter cable was burned all to hell so just ordered one from GM so that should take care of it not charging and thats what was smoking.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,786
Likes: 22
From: Cary NC
It might have killed your battery enough so that the Charging System Fault will still light up. These cars are very finicky with batteries. I have a Redtop that is in my kids car now. Car works fine. Put it in the Vette and I get that error. The voltage is too low. So try a fresh battery if you have too. I've been through that twice now with C5s. Never heard of starter cable issues.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 318
Likes: 2
From: Kentucky
yeah I had not heard of the starter cable problems either until I done a charging system fault search on here. When I did a few other guys were having exact same problem as myself and sure enough checked starter cable and it was fried so ordered a new one from GM, it was $95 just for the cable but oh well as long as its fixed.
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Racer
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 385
Likes: 1
From: Chapel Hill North Carolina
If you have headers that cable can get pretty hot. Consider a starter heat shield that offers some protection from the heat. I had the same problem with the cable and solenoid burned and almost fell off.
