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Service Charging System, Battery Not Charging - P1638 Code


tfrost

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I have a 98 STS and was having overheating issues with my car this past week. My husband narrowed it down to the waterpump and replaced it. When replacing the waterpump he cracked the waterpump housing and had to replace that. He also decided to replace the fuel rail while he was at it.

Everthing is back together, but nows there's a different problem, when starting it a meesage appears on the dash that says "Service Charging System, Battery Not Charging" and will die after a minute. I ran the codes and get a P1638 (Generator F-Terminal Circuit). What exactly does this mean? I did not have this problem before he did the waterpump, waterpump housing and fuel rail work. Could he have damaged something and not realized it? Where does he start to find it?

My husband is pretty good when it comes to working on cars but this is his first crack on my Cadillac and he is fed up and says next time I have a problem I will take it to a dealer.

Any suggestions would be great

Theresa

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I replied to this post yesterday. looks like the post was lost? - I mentioned to check the battery. when a battery is bad, it will display the "no charge" message - afterall, it's part of the charging system. - if it's older than 4 years, just replace it. and NEVER disconnect the battery (ground) from a running car.

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I have a 98 STS and was having overheating issues with my car this past week. My husband narrowed it down to the waterpump and replaced it. When replacing the waterpump he cracked the waterpump housing and had to replace that. He also decided to replace the fuel rail while he was at it.

Everthing is back together, but nows there's a different problem, when starting it a meesage appears on the dash that says "Service Charging System, Battery Not Charging" and will die after a minute. I ran the codes and get a P1638 (Generator F-Terminal Circuit). What exactly does this mean? I did not have this problem before he did the waterpump, waterpump housing and fuel rail work. Could he have damaged something and not realized it? Where does he start to find it?

My husband is pretty good when it comes to working on cars but this is his first crack on my Cadillac and he is fed up and says next time I have a problem I will take it to a dealer.

Any suggestions would be great

Theresa

There is a problem with the generator field circuit - it could be a loose connection at the generator but someone with a '98 shop manual will chime in.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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Responding to replies from both Winterset & Kevin.

The battery was the very first check and it's fine. As soon as the "Service Charging System" and "Battery Not Charging" popped up on the DIC I immediately looked at my battery volts and watched them go from 11.3 down to 10.2 in a matter of minutes before the car shut down. My husband recharged the battery and the same thing happened.

The generator field circuit sounds like something that hasn't been checked. Too bad I didn't read this reply sooner because today we ended up having it towed into the dealer.

I will keep you posted on what they find.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts

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