I was planning to fix the belt squeaking at a later date but now I’m stuck far away from home with a battery light on so it has to be fixed before I leave this autozone no matter how long it takes

The battery light just started coming on while driving, it goes away at idle. I got my codes scanned and this is what it comes up with:

61-1 battery voltage malfunction
68-1 brake switch malfunction
86-1 f-can communication malfunction
112-1 internal power failure

besides the squeaking (which goes away after about 20 min.) nothing’s wrong except the serpentine belt seeming to be loose? i cant tell just by looking at it but it’s kinda wiggling from side to side. When i push on the belt with my finger it still feels very tight though

 

Okay they tested my alternator and it was fine, plus if it was a belt related issue I’d have no water pressure or power steering so I just went home. The battery light still came on and off every few seconds.

Now that I’m here and had lunch I can actually think clearly - first of all I only now noticed all these codes are ABS codes. i was chasing red herrings looking up stuff for the seatbelt buckle and stuff 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, since all these codes are ABS related, what would happen if I just unplugged the module? Then it can’t tell the computer to stop charging the battery. It would only be a short term fix but it gives me time to figure out exactly what’s wrong.

 

I know no one else has replied but it’s for the people in the future finding this thread on google with the same problem, lol.

I thought it was weird that it was just the light for the battery because nowhere on the internet did anyone else mention that. I checked by turning the key so all the warning lights briefly show up and it turns out that the vsa light (among a few others) are burnt out. Based on everything else i’m just going to assume it would be on instead of fixing it because i’m already low on time.

Im very very confused about what the cause is, but if not something with the vsa, ecu, etc control module it could be either a bad alternator or drive belt since 3 of the 4 codes are related to low voltage & no communication. Maybe the brake pedal switch one was already there. I was going to have to fix something belt-related anyway since it was making such a loud squeaking noise so I figure it’s the best place to start. After fixing the belt/alternator I’ll try clearing the codes and then wait to see if it happens again

 

Yeah I was overthinking it really bad. the codes were a bad place to start lol. they were a symptom of a charging issue, not a problem in themselves.

I went to change the belt and noticed immediately.. the alternator wasn’t installed. Like the only thing holding it in was the electrical connector. One bolt was sheared off and stuck inside the hole (and a major pain to remove), and the other was just missing. I’m lucky a battery light was all that happened, but also lmao.

I had to cut off the belt to get to the alternator since I couldn’t take the tension off with it flopping around, but all I had to do was bolt it in and i’ve got no squeaking, no warning lights, and it’s even easier to steer!! I don’t have to worry about diagnosing any power steering issues anymore, phew. Hopefully the belt is also why my a/c isn’t working, I guess i’ll find out next time i go out. So if anyone in the future finds this on google, go check that everything that attaches to your belt isn’t flopping around!! Or i guess more likely your belt is loose or a bad pulley.