P1632 Smart Alternator Faults Sensor/circuit Malfunction &

[RichJones]

Keep getting this error "P1632 Smart Alternator Faults Sensor/Circuit Malfunction"

Had a new Alternator fitted new battery and now this

Has anyone had it before

I think it could have something to do with the Smart Charge Wiring ??

[artscot79]

the smart charge fault can actually relate to a break in the smart charge wiring which ford would have checked first before saying you needed an alternator or should have theres most likely a break in the wiring on the smart charge harness and a new harness needed to save money this is the type of job you should go to the dealer for after all it may have only been a 15 quid harness

[johnH]

have you got a multimeter, disconnect the battery and disconnect the smart charge harness from the alternator and do resistance checks...the red wire will take you the fuseboxes and the others are to the ECU.

mine suffered a break on the grey wire and cost 2 hours labour iirc. mind you i spent alot more buying a new alternator and battery aswell lol

[stef123]

Has this error only appeared after replacing the alternator?

Was it a genuine alternator you fitted?

[RichJones]

Hi Guys

Thanks for your reply's

I gave the car to the garage with the EML light on they read the code and it came back with the Smart charge fault and a Thermostat sensor fault

The garage i always take my car to did all the tests and found a Broken wire near the Thermostat ?????? check all the smart charge and they said it was all ok

They repaired the wire and the light went off

Im hoping this is the issue and is now resolved

Yes this issue has only came to light after i had a new Alternator fitted but that was fitted about 9 weeks ago and this issue has just appeared.

All i was getting was the EML light no battery light which makes me think the battery and Alternator are working as they should and its a wire lssue

[Andy H Dibley]

That makes sense.

The principle behind the smart charge system is that when a battery is cold it charges faster and is able to take a higher charge rate.

This smart system relies on the ECU seeing what the current temperature of the water is and taking a hunch that when cold, the battery will be too.

Part of the system takes a reading from the thermostat to see if it has opened and what temperature the engine is operating at.

It could be just pure coincidence but that alternator replacement could've simply been the charging system wiring on the way out.

[RichJones]

That makes sense.

The principle behind the smart charge system is that when a battery is cold it charges faster and is able to take a higher charge rate.

This smart system relies on the ECU seeing what the current temperature of the water is and taking a hunch that when cold, the battery will be too.

Part of the system takes a reading from the thermostat to see if it has opened and what temperature the engine is operating at.

It could be just pure coincidence but that alternator replacement could've simply been the charging system wiring on the way out.

But your saying that it could be the case and a broken wire at the themostat could cause the issue. i hope so as i love the car

[Andy H Dibley]

I did quite a bit of research into the smart charging system as I had an issue with an old car of mine that had it fitted.

If you google 'Ford Focus Smart Charge System' there is a dedicated web page of some chaps garage website about it. It goes into a fair amount of detail about how the system works and the importance of a Silver Calcium(sp) battery.

[RichJones]

Yeah ive looked on Google myself.

Seems another one of fords bright idea's that when it goes wrong it can cause more issues then normal

So a broken thermostat wire could cause this type of issue and now they have fixed it it should be happening again

[Andy H Dibley]

It shouldn't be no, as long as they've replaced the correct alternator and you have the correct battery.

The old Ford wiring has never been much cop in all honesty! On the old V6 Mondeos and Cougars of the same age, there is actually a recall about the b+ wire (iirc) off of the alternator. The recall is to tighten it up due to the high resistance in the cable causing a volt drop from one side of the engine bay to the main fuse board. It was the common cause of flickering lights on idle. Another fix was to purchase a bit of wire from ford with an eye crimp on one end and bypass the sensing wire from the fuse board and just wire the alternator to itself effectively.

Completely off topic I know but it shows its not just newish wiring that's an issue. And yes it would be lovely to just unplug the smart charge system and run it as a regular alternator but that will leave you with a CEL forever more!

[RichJones]

Like i said i had the alternator replaced 9 or so weeks ago and i can only assume it has the correct battery i will take a look

What do you mean by CEL for evermore ??

[artscot79]

only ford really understand the smartcharge which is daft as most cars have them these days and have since 2002 is the battery a silver calcium battery it should be either calcium or silver calcium not lead if its lead then that may be the issue the smartcharge cant work on lead acid batteries and many garages dont know this

[RichJones]

I will check the battery again and get all the details off it and see

[RichJones]

Ok

Light came on again and codes are the following

P1632 Smart Alternator Faults Sensor/Circuit Malfunction

and now this one

p0037 heated oxygen sensor heater control circuit low

so the thermostat one went out and now shows the above one

Car has now being left with the garage and they have run out of idea's and have said they will take it to a ford dealer

Good or bad ??

[artscot79]

is it my phone or are there no codes start with checking the type of battery

[RichJones]

P1632 Smart Alternator Faults Sensor/Circuit Malfunction

p0037 heated oxygen sensor heater control circuit low

[RichJones]

battery is a Varta d59 and i cant see if its the correct one ??

[artscot79]

vartas website will tell you its a calcium battery but theres many depending on year and engine usually its varta numax silver thats used go to vartas site input youre car details and check against what you have

[Y.D.S]

Apologies for bumping a very old thread but this is the only topic I can find that's relevant so joined up and look forward to being part of the club!

I have a similar problem and need assistance please as am clutching at straws

Have a smart charge problem on my MK3

First issue when I bought the car second hand a few months ago...

When driving it would randomly do strange things, relays clicking, dials going out, lights on and off, A/C on and off so started fault finding. Found it was overcharging at 17v but soon as it goes into 17v range it would trip things out. Dials logged 9317, 9318 and E200 as fault codes.

I found very high resistance on the battery terminals (Negative 37, Positive 10) so replaced battery terminals with new ones and replaced ring connectors and now averaging under 5 on earth, 5 on idle on positive side which increases upto 10 with everything on full load (both heated screens, A/C, lights, full beam etc)

Since this it now doesn't overcharge and sits between 16v and 16.5V. Problem is soon as you take your foot off the gas pedal the voltage drops for a very split second down to 13v then back to 16v very quickly. All these readings whilist driving are taken through the dash diagnostics and volt meter whilist idle.

I've checked resistance all seems fine, it's had a new alternator and Bosch silver calcium battery in an attempt to fix all this but to no avail. Alternator was replaced under warranty when purchased car

Readings on the 3 pin multiplug unplugged whilist running ECU side 13v, 9.5v and 1.5v. On the alternator side again unplugged whilist running, 0V, 5.1v and 5.1v

Can also confirm with the 3 pin multiplug unplugged car runs spot on no issues (Albeit battery light illuminated) and have driven around for few weeks with it unplugged but soon as I plug it back in that's when these gremlins suddenly appear

I have a basic multimeter so can carry out any tests

Am at my wits end so any help or advice very much appreciated!!!

Apologies again for bumping an old thread

[welshexport]

Hello just joined the group and seem to have this same problem

Ford C-Max 16Tdci Year 2005

This has been a trouble free car over the past 11 years until now that is.

After I finished work today I tried to start the car and had three fault lights

Come up on the right side of the dash, Top one is the ESP a yellow light looks

Like a car going into a skid the middle one is the engine management light

and the bottom one is yellow with a coil like motive I believe this is the Glow

 lamp fault light. I performed a fault diagnoses with the ODB 2 cable and laptop

these two faults have come up “P0504 brake switch A/B correlation” the other

is “P1632 smart alternator faults sensor”

These lights stay on and when I turn the ignition key there is nothing no click no

Noise no power, but all the electrics work lights, windows, stereo and fans. After

About the fifth try the lights went out and the car started I drove it home switched it

Off and was then presented with the same problem. I cannot understand why there

 is no power what so ever no click from the started absolutely nothing I then done

the diagnostic check which came up with the same two faults and after 4 or 5 attempts

it fired up again the fault lights had gone but are now back again.

Please can you advise on this matter intermittent electrical problems can work out to be

Quite expensive any help would be appreciated thank you

[artscot79]

anything over 14.5v is overcharging so you'll burn out systems quickly running 14.5v you've got an alternator issue so have it checked by ford it may be £90 diagnostics but its better than replacing expensive parts its summer now but soon you'll really need that smart charge working .and on the last post you also need the car looked at by a ford dealer

[Tdci-Peter]

On 6/7/2016 at 4:07 PM, welshexport said:

Ford C-Max 16Tdci Year 2005

This has been a trouble free car over the past 11 years until now that is.

After I finished work today I tried to start the car and had three fault lights

Come up on the right side of the dash, Top one is the ESP a yellow light looks

Like a car going into a skid the middle one is the engine management light

and the bottom one is yellow with a coil like motive I believe this is the Glow

 lamp fault light. I performed a fault diagnoses with the ODB 2 cable and laptop

these two faults have come up “P0504 brake switch A/B correlation” the other

is “P1632 smart alternator faults sensor”

These lights stay on and when I turn the ignition key there is nothing no click no

Noise no power,

When it is failing to start, does the red Immobiliser (PATS) light come on, or flash in an unusual pattern? It looks like a classic Focus problem on the Instrument Cluster. Odd lights coming on, and no start. This is may be a problem with the CAN bus that links all the main modules together, and may have nothing to do with the smart charging. See my replies (2) to:

 

[Tdci-Peter]

On 07/06/2016 at 5:07 PM, welshexport said:

the fault lights had gone but are now back again.

Please can you advise on this matter intermittent electrical problems can work out to be

Quite expensive any help would be appreciated thank you

Any progress or change?

[Peterfix]

Hi guys ,my focus 1.6 tdci has a similar problem after the alternator failed , and a replacement fitted , since that single event the battery light is now on pretty much permanently once up to working temperature,never on at a cold start, my obd2 shows a p1632 fault code , so I replaced the engine temperature sensor with a ford one for £38 to no avail, the reading this thread checked the harness and replaced the alternator plug and 100 MM. of cable with anew one , I cut off the old one and replaced with new (rather than replace whole engine wiring loom) , still to no avail. I know the car starts and runs fine even when doing 400 mile round trips and short ones the battery (calcium) always starts no problem. The voltage at the cigar lighter is 12.6 with ignition off and 14.2 when cold and in warming up running time , and when at running temperature which is when the battery light comes on it is 13.25 volt .ok so smart charge seems to be working and she runs just fine BUT why is battery light coming ON?

much obliged peter

[dave_brent]

Hi

i am having battery light problems to,  63 reg titanium x 2.0tdci. Original alternator seized last week fitted new alternator and belt and now the battery light is on. battery is charging at 14.4v. I’ve used FORScan and tried to erase p1632 but it won’t 

 

any ideas?