P0626: Generator Field/F Terminal Circuit High
What to do
If the battery warning light is on, the vehicle is running on the battery alone and will stop when it is flat — typically within twenty to forty minutes. Switch off headlights, heated screens, heated seats and air conditioning to extend that, and head somewhere useful rather than continuing a long journey.
What this code means
The alternator field circuit is reading high — an open circuit, or a field that is never energised. The result is an alternator that does not charge, so the vehicle runs on its battery until that is exhausted.
That gives a predictable and useful timescale: with headlights, heated screens and air conditioning switched off, most vehicles will run considerably longer on a battery than with everything on.
Likely causes
Start here
- Open circuit in sensor wiring · moderate
- Faulty alternator · moderate
- Broken wire in control circuit · moderate
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
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