Quote Originally Posted by lionelhutz View Post
Yes, all C5's used both L and F terminals. Ideas for troubleshooting a car aren't what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the specific testing the PCM does when it decides to make the charging system fault appear on the DIC to gain some insight into why certain replacement alternators cause an issue on startup.
My guess would be aftermarket JUNK chinese regulator on the junk Autozone/Oreilly's/Krager/whatever . I bet if you had a NAPA Premium or better yet GM Delco/Delphi alternator it would not have an issue.