A technician had found a check engine code pertaining to the alternator. I did have a new alternator installed a while back, and the technician also pointed out that the wires installed with the new alternator are aftermarket.

Can someone please explain to me what problem an alternator code could be referring to, and if it could be serious to driveability?

Thanks and Happy Holidays.

 

Maybe p0562 System low voltage

http://www.gearchatter.com/viewforum...days=0&start=0 < list of all the codes and how to possibly fix em

Obviously if the alternator is bad, the car will eventually stop running due to lack of power for the sparkplugs to fire. Other than the low voltage thing... wasn't aware that there were any computer checks on the alternator itself.

 

It's probably the P1637 generator L terminal code.
If you search P1637 here you will find a lot of info. Some people call it a ghost code because it comes up when theres nothing wrong.

My car throws the code all the time, I've gone through the entire trouble shooting procedure, ohmed the wire, etc. It puts out good voltage.

It basically refers to the exciter wire that makes the alternator start charging. If you get this code and your not charging then that may be the problem.

Or, you can do what I do, just run it. You'll never know the code is there unless you read the codes, it won't set the check engine light.

 

I'm going to respond to this thread even though it's over 10 years old. I have the same code. I tested the battery and it's good. The red wire isn't broken going into the alternator. The gauge reads that it's charging. Just happened to come on the same time I had a random misfire code occur. I'm not sure if the two are related or not. But knowing that it seems at times to be a ghost code is really good info.

 

Since we're bringing this back from the dead, I'll contribute too.

I got this code (Generator L terminal) once or maybe twice on my '02 Z28. I only ever found it when randomly checking for DTCs during scan logs for other things (as mentioned above, this code does not trigger a MIL). For me, absolutely no other codes appeared at the same time, and there were zero problems with the charging system. Everything was fine, except for the code. I proceeded to delete and ignore it. Years passed, and no problem ever resulted from this.

 

Exact same thing happened to me last month. Missed a shift and misfired. Checked the codes and that was one of them. Cleared the codes but that one did not go away. Disconnected battery for the night and the that code went away.