Hello - My 01 DIC is displaying this fault. Battery voltage is 12.2. Have installed 2 new alternators and output measured at battery and alternator with car running is 11.8 (for both alternators). I thought It unlikely that 2 new alternators would be faulty so I took the first one to store to bench test; output on bench test was 14.4. Not sure where to go next on diagnosis. I'm a new member and appreciate any and all suggestions.
Thanks!
I bought a new 1999 Corvette coupe, build date of 8/1998, which I had ordered from my dealer. The car's build and delivery were delayed by a large GM strike / walkout that started with a dispute involving pickup trucks. The Corvette plant shut down. I still have newspaper articles in my scrapbook with angry comments from the Corvette plant union officials.
When starting my Corvette, I would intermittently receive the "charge system fault" message on the DIC. There were no stored codes.
I took the car back to the dealer - who was stumped. The technician called Chevrolet Technical Assistance for help. They knew immediately what was wrong.
The technician was instructed to check, clean and tighten the ground locations below the battery tray and the wiring connections on the starter. He found the nuts loose and the could be removed with his fingers. He cleaned the connections and tightened the nuts. That eliminated the "charge system fault" messages. I still own the car and it now has 60,xxx miles on it. I have never received the messages again. The dealer technician said that Technical Assistance was aware the ground nuts were not tightened.
When the car was new, I encountered this wiring problem with the car. The hood hinge nuts were also finger tight, causing the hood to rattle. The right door striker was loose and could be loosened by hand. When I turned the wheel while driving, I could hear a scraping noise in the cowl that went away. I later found 15 mm nuts (with plastic inserts) in the cowl drainage udders - where they had slid and fallen from the cowl tray). I was convinced (and still am) that the workers at the Corvette plant intentionally did not build the car correctly because they were mad about the GM labor problems. I had numerous other quality issues with the car that I attributed to intentional poor worker quality assembly.
