Hello all, I am hoping someone will have an aha moment and had the same symptoms as my car and have some good foresight on how I should proceed.

So to jump into it, yesterday I first noticed a hot/burning electrical smell coming in through the vents. I immediately pulled over and checked for fire. No fire but a strong burnt electrical smell coming from right over the starter. Then noticed the car had low voltage, idling at about 11.5 volts. I made it home and parked it and now I’m trying to troubleshoot it. I just changed the battery a few months ago and have not had any issues since. The voltage at the battery matches the voltage on the gauge cluster so I don’t think it is an ignition switch. I pulled the car into the drive way today to work on it and it actually started charging at 13.5 volts at the battery and the cluster again, I checked both at the same time, thus leading me to believe the alternator is okay? (Original alternator, car has 81,000 miles) After a few minutes of idling it went back down to 11.5 volts and “charging system fault” came on and the smell came back. I jacked the car up to check the connections at the block and starter and nothing looks crispy or burnt. Any suggestions would be awesome, I would hate to watch my car burn to the ground. Thanks everyone who read all of that!

 

Moved to C5 Tech.

 

Is it possible that you have a frozen belt tensioner - sure it's not a belt? Did you check that the positive connection at the starter is tight? It's common to find it loose and that's where the alternator and battery cable tie together. Does the alternator have a burnt smell to it - it would be obvious with the sniff test.

 

You have a bad connection at the solenoid. You might need a new solenoid too. Don't try to just tighten the terminal. You need to pull it apart and clean the wire ends and stud before putting it back together.

 

Thank you guys!

Update: It ended up being the loose and dirty connection at the starter solenoid. I took that nut off and cleaned everything up, tightened it back down and now it charges at 13.5-14.2 volts and no sign of that burnt smell. I guess the resistance from the dirt causes that wire to heat up? anyways thank you!