Started the car to warm it up this morning in the garage. It was about 0 in gaarage and -16 outside with a wind chill of -40.

I come back out to go to work and the battery light is on and flashing in the DIC "service charging system". Wondering if anyone had this on their cars yet?

I had this issue on a colorado i had before but it was just a BCM update needed.

So its either the alternator or battery thats acting up here... Ill wait till i get home when it warms up to 8 above and see if its better otherwise ill have to take it to the dealer for them to sit around and scratch their head at... And drive a ******* malibu for a day lol

 

It has been single digits or less here for about a week. . .-15 overnight, -12 this morning on my drive to work, windchills in the -40s.

I have had no such trouble. My gut would be the battery.

 

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Funny you mention this! Two weeks ago my father used my 06 Impala for one day. When he brought the car back it sat in my garage for 7 days. On the seventh day I decided to wash the car. So like always I listen to the radio in the car while I wash it. About an hour into it the radio turns off. I'm like WTF! So I take a peek in and I see the display on the radio flashing and the batery light is on, on the dash. I instantly remove my key and finish up the wash. When I was don I decided to check the voltage of the battery with a multimeter. I get 10V. OK, so I figure I'd try and start it anyways, but no luck, just a click of the starter solenoid. I put a battery charger on the car for 6 about six hours and brought the battery up to 12.4V. Started up the car and as I pulled her out of the garage the battery light was on along with the message in the dic "Service Charging System". No sooner did I get out of the garage and the light and message disappeared. I let the car run in the driveway for quite awhile and checked the running voltage. A good 14.4V, so the altenator is charging. I even called up Onstar and had them run a vehicle diagnostic on the car and they came back with everything was operating normally. So over the next week the car has again sat in the garage without being used and I've been checking the battery voltage every day and it has yet to go below 12V. I've been trying to figure this one out, right down to whether my father left a light on or something, but I haven't come up with anything. Can a radio really drain a battery that fast? I've played it way longer than that without any problems! Personally I think that the battery may be a bit on the small side for this car, and that would be a space issue! How do you get these batteries out like they say in the service manual without tilting them more than 40°? I'm a little diappointed in this as the car only has 5600 kms on the clock.

PS - My garage is always at 15°C.

 

I always leave my XM radio add on unit on... maybe that did it... idk But it started right up... the batt never was low or dead to the point where it wouldnt start.

Ill screw with it later today... anything to keep from going to the dealer.

 

if you go here:

http://tis2web.service.gm.com/tis2web

you can type in your VIN and get a list of all the updates that GM has come out with for the computers in the car (this is for any GM car)... it does NOT show what has been done to (or updated on) YOUR car, but it does show all of the available updates that GM has available for your car's computers.

There IS an update to the BCM - the "Charging/Energy Storage" section - and it reads:

Part #: 15926017
New calibrations to disable DTC B1405 (voltage error during cranking). False DTC is causing SES telltale and/or Service Charging System message on DIC.

 

on another note, after my car was only 6 or 7 months old I went to go to a car show - got in my car in the garage, and NOTHING. totally dead... I jumped it, ran it for a while in the driveway - turned it off, and not more than 1 minute later tried to start it again - NOTHING - totally dead again.

The next morning I jumped it with my wife's car and had her follow me to the dealership (it ran fine once it was started up and running)... parked it, went inside to get my service advisor, he came out, and NOTHING. Turns out that a couple of cells in the battery "went bad".

So, they ended up giving me a new battery - AC Delco Professional Series - and it is bigger/has more juice than the original one did! The original had something like 600 or 620 CCA, while this new one has 740 or 750+ I believe... and it's a 7 year battery, instead of the 4 or 5 that the original was. Been runnin' like a champ ever since - even in this 7*F cold here, it fires right up without a fuss.

 

Someone mentioned on the GP Forums that their GXP got a message about HUD warming up. Could it be something like that?

Man, it was 20 here this morning (Car temp showed 50 when I backed it out of the garage). I thought that was cold. -14? Ewwww.

 

Be careful of what you leave plugged in or on. If the "car" senses a power draw out of the ordinary, none of the modules in the car will go into a sleep mode which does not draw as much power. It isn't a huge draw but could take a toll on a cold day. And of course it could be the battery.

 

My dad's Monte Carlo did this a couple of weeks ago also. It sat out one night in the sub-zero temps. The warning went off at the end of the day.

 

I just got home from work and fired it up, its running right now... no lights... its still only -1 right now for a high....

 

The other morning on my way to work it was -19F. Car ran real good though...

 

Just took it for a spin... seems fine too, nice and peppy yet lol im affard to do anything though past 1/4 throttle... **** might break lol

 

Electronics don't like the below zero stuff.

"Real world" is simulated by cycling a hot / cold chamber to "simulate" several years of abuse.

But you guys aren't supposed to be out functioning below zero or above 120 degrees. LOL!

 

Oh, ya I forgot to mention that when all this happened to me I noticed the compass had lost it's calibration. I supposed this is because the voltage went so low. But honestly, even though that battery is 600 or so CCA the physical size of it tell me this belongs in a Civic or something! In my old 1988 Nissan Stanza (which the Impala replaced) I changed the original Hitachi battery when the car was 3 years old. I put in a 1000 CCA Delco in there and the car went to the scrap with the same battery 15 years later. That car would crank over forever.......nothing worse than not having enough cranking power should you need it.

 

Alot of 04+ GP guys (including me) are having this same problem right now with the cold weather and junk batteries installed on the cars. I bet the same battery goes in the Imp/Monte group as the GPs and the batteries are just that...junk. I say its time to invest in a good 'ol Optima or equal.
Tate

 

We've gotten as low as 4-5* here and i haven't had that issue. Wind chills down to minus 20-30*F. However, after sitting...waiting about 10-15min for my sister-in-law to come out of the store...with RAP power running the stereo and HIDs, it ALmost wouldn't start. I also had a similar issue the other day when i was installing my remote-MUTE switch for my Valentine1 detector. After 10 minutes of accessory power, heater fan and HIDs running, she wouldn't turn over. Had to give her a quick jump to get back to work.

 

Wow, looks like a common problem, good thing I checked the forums today. This happened on my Monte about 5 times this winter. Seems to occur after a temperature drop or humidity with cold temps. I was unable to see if the car is actually charging or not with the service battery charging system message as the problem fixes itself on the next restart before I can find a multimeter. That PCM update is interesting, at least I dont have to worry about some wiring issues that fix themselves and a dealer that cant replicate the trouble (hopefully it is just this).

Now this update is supposed to be disabling a DTC, anyone check if this is accessable in HPT yet?

 

HPT does nothing with the BCM for adjustments. it can read some ABS, SIR, and BCM codes through the code scanner.

 

...please delete...