Patton,

Thanks... yea... I am totally at a loss. I think it is time to take it to a dealer who has a tach 2.

 

good move. never use boost mode ,even if it starts the car you are trying to make the alt. be a battery charger beyond its health

 

Adam
Meet me at the beach in the morning
After we get something to eat we can go to the shop to look at it.
Carmen

 

Carmen,

Thanks so much for your kind offer, but I am not going to bring the car to the beach tomorrow. I dont want to get stranded with it.

Thanks!

Adam

 

put it on trickle charge over night ,ya wont get stranded .so long as its not toofar and dont use ac

 

Did you see the post on the HPT about a fusable link?

 

No I didn't. I will look now and would love a link if you have one ;-)

 

your code is an L terminal code and can mean many things. I agree 12.5 at idle is a bit low but within range accding to GM.

Just for grins, let it idle until the rad fans go to high and put the A/C on. I bet it will drop into the 11 V range.

Again GM will say this is "normal range".

Since you replaced the alt and the battery, that only leaves the ECM which had to put a .5 V to the alt to signal it to charge the battery. Could the ECM be bad? Yep but to keep it simple have you or the tech check for .5 V from the ECM to the alt at idle. OR, have the replace the ECM from the get go. If you have mods you will lose your tune though.

IF it still gives the message on the DIC you can:
1) bump up your idle approx 75 rpm if you have a stock set up and the idle is at the stock setting

if this doesnt help then:

2)Have a tuner disable that cose because it probably is coming on due to a drop in votage low enough to trigger it but it is so fast and so brief you cannot see it on the guages but the ecm can

or..

3) call/pm TLewis4095. He has a HO alt that wont heat soak and has a smaller pulley so it puts out more V's

4) or a combo of the above.

I had the code disabled and put the HO alt on. Running this way for some time. Guage readings indicate a more consistant V reading a bit higher than 12.5 (approx 13V)at idle and will stay a little higher longer at idle in the heat with rad fans on with A/c blasting. The changes are not big but enough to make me more relaxed about my charging system afyer getting the DIC message.

I just parked it for 8 days and it fired right up. Not to say it wouldnt have without the changes.

my 2Cents

 

Good info here. I have the same sears charger with the start option. Sounds like it is not a player for the vette.

 

Not a auto mechanic by any means but I do alot of marine stuff on my boats, Did you check the cable from alt and the ground. I find a lot of battery related issues are the ground or the pos. battery cable. The quality of most cable is poor and if you are sending or using alot of juice or the cable is subject to high temp. they degrad. IMHO>

 

yea... i have checked the the battery cables.

Also.... I checked the 3 wires coming out of the top of the alternator, and they are all giving out voltage. I just don't know what the right readings should be.

Thanks eveyone for the input.

 

I go to Options on the DIC and it says Options unavailable. Guess the bcm is fried

 

Disconnect the battery overnight and see if it works tomorrow. That fixed an electrical problem I was had where my vert top wouldn't work.

 

Took car into a dealer. The replaced the alt and ECM. Got the car home and it still isn't charging.

Man this really sux!!!

Any suggestions out there?

Someone suggested I replace the cable off the back of the Alternator. Does that cable to direclty to the post next to the fuse box?

Again, thanks to everyone for their 2 cents.

Adam

 

back to the dealer. i,m floored the dealer let it go like that

 

UPDATE:

The car at idle is asking the alternator for 100 amps which is very very high. This causes the voltage to go down. The alternator gets very hot as does the red wire behind the alt. I a jumper cable from the alt to the post under the hood byepasing that cable but it still is calling for 100 amps.

any ideas?

 

How do you know that? I'm curious. I didn't know there was a way to see that.

What's the resting (car off) battery voltage?

 

The bat voltage is around 12.0-11.5 ish. depends. The dealer got the amperage off the car. Not sure how they tested for that.

 

At idle, if you put a voltmeter across the leads of the battery, what do you read?

 

did that.

I would check the Alternator and it would read 11.2 at idle

i would then check the post by the fuse box and also would read 11.2 at idle

the battery was the same.

sometimes the voltage woud very. if it was charging at 12.5; the post, bat and alt would all read the same.