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So up until this point it’s been all tires, oil and recalls. Which i’m fine with for now. Every so often i’ll get a job that a little more complicated, a noise complaint or something like that usually.
Today they gave me a car with a charging complaint. It came from a body shop. I go out expecting the car not to start and it does. Our cars typically have electric power assist steering. So imeadiatly it cuts that off, then the stabilitrac and then it shuts down. I push the car into my bay and go at it. I noticed after I get it into the shop there is a junction box sitting on the floor of the passenger seat, so I know that the engine bay junction box has been replaced.
I go directly to the battery in the trunk and all that is torn out. I make sure all my connections and what not are in place the way they should be and decide to put the battery on the Midtronics battery tester. It tells me it has a bad cell and to replace it. I do. I start up the car and the charging light comes on and it says service the charging system on the driver information center.
I leave it running and check voltage at the battery and come up with 12.21V. I turn on all the accesseries and highbeams. Check again and I have 11.8V this time. I hook up our DLC interface and pull up our diag software on the computer. I have a ton of low voltage codes and a P0621 L-Terminal code. It’s at this point that the Internet in the shop goes down and I can’t access service information to pull up electrical schematics.
I can access the information on my phone but the pictures don’t come up. It’s from this that I figure out there isn’t a fielding circuit issue because the generator hasn’t defaulted to a 13.5V charging rate. I also figured out that the generator is controlled by the ecm and bcm. So I check all the fuses and relays related to them and they all seemed it working order. I couldn’t narrow down what fuses are related to Charging due to a lack of SI.
After coming to those conclusions they had me pull the car out and the service manager is debating on having me look deeper or giving it to a more experienced guy.
The next step on the flow chart is check the battery voltage though the scanner and compare it to the pulse width coming out of the BCM, but I want to find out what fuses are relating to the charging and see if it’s a problem installed during the replacment of the junction box.
I just wanted to crowd source and see if I’m on the right track, or see if someone has dealt with charging issues on the 2014 ATS without KL9.
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My first check would be engine bay junction box that was replaced. Any time and I mean any time I get a vehicle in that has issues and a part was recently replaced I go there first and inspect the job done. Second thing I would do is voltage drop the alternator wires. Third thing I would is check the field circuit if it is a computer controlled alternator. I would then send it into full field for 1-2 mins to test and see if the alternator is worth a darn or not.
Here is a scannerdanner video on that subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvLbb48tQPw
Basically if alternator is works in full field for 1-2 mins alternator is good something else is wrong.
If voltage drops for alternator is good its something with the command circuit.
If the ecm field command is not getting to the alternator it will not turn on.
If the ecm field command is acting appropriately at the alternator it is probably a bad alternator.
If the ecm field command is not the proper command its wiring or ecm is not commanding it on.
If ecm is not commanding it on I would look for the sensing wire to be bad aka what the voltage the ecm sees.Thats just my 2 cents on it.
[quote=”MDK22″ post=135445]My first check would be engine bay junction box that was replaced. Any time and I mean any time I get a vehicle in that has issues and a part was recently replaced I go there first and inspect the job done. [/quote]
Doubly so for anything after a body shop has touched it. I’m not saying everyone or every place is horrible, but as a general rule they are a cluster of fuck.
Never mind once you get an insurance company involved.
My first check when I know it’s been to a body shop is to call the customer and find out what was done then charge them to strip it back and check the wiring 9/10 we find the issue stems from the body shop not plugging it back in or damaging the loom rebuilding the car.
Sadly your issue looks to be the 1/10 MDK is right though if a part has been replaced Need to find out why, was it replaced trying to fix the fault your working on, what justification did they have for changing it what caused the old one to fail etc..
Another quick check to do is just a quick voltage test at the alternator stud. If the line going from it to the battery got damaged you could have a perfectly good alternator and just a damaged cable. This thing has already seen two disasters. The first was being in a crash, the second was when a bodyman played electrician.
I’m glad this isn’t in my bay. I feel for you man. If this thing turns out to be done by them, save up some good used diapers, put them in a box and mail them to the body shop as a thank you package. Feel free to leave the box in the sun for a few days first to let it become appropriately fermented.
They gave the job to another guy. Apparently I was suppose to get it but the writers gave to someone else any way. It was a blown fuse on a metal plate with multiple fuses built into it. Something I would’ve found had the Internet been up and running when I initially looked at it. So now the service manager wants to give me another electrical problem to try an solve.
[quote=”iEatRazorz” post=135982]They gave the job to another guy. Apparently I was suppose to get it but the writers gave to someone else any way. It was a blown fuse on a metal plate with multiple fuses built into it. Something I would’ve found had the Internet been up and running when I initially looked at it. So now the service manager wants to give me another electrical problem to try an solve.[/quote]
Was it on the the fuse block that sits on top of the battery?
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