Leave it alone.

It's performing the way it was designed.
When the battery drops enough. It'll go back up.

 

Its a 12 volt battery so your reading of 12ish is perfectly fine. When you first start the car there will be a slight drain on the battery so the alternator will kick in a bit more volts to charge the battery and that is why you are seeing 14ish volts. The battery never went low so your dash light never came on to warn you. Your electrical system is working correctly there is no reason to have to disconnect and reconnect the battery as you have been doing.

 

But after a while of driving on the road when i turn off the engine and try to restart it again it cranks too slow and this is my main concern that led me to figure out that itsn't charging properly

 

Disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery is doing nothing for the car. All you are doing is wasting your time.

 

Actually..it harms the electronics.
Think voltage spikes every time the cable is disconnected and connected.

If your having battery problems. It might be time to change the battery.

 

At this point I do not see a need for replacing the alternator as it sounds like it’s doing its job.

If you could, capture a video with sound so we can hear how it is starting warm and cold for you. You are claiming that it is slow to turn over when warm but that may just be normal for your car.

I would go over all your connections and make sure they are tight and clean. On the battery make sure to wire brush the post and the clamp to get any and all corrosion out.

 

If you're worried about the charging system, turn on your headlights. That disables the "economy mode" and makes it behave like how people are used to.

I don't think the Cruze has a high rate of alternator failures. But if you have the factory battery ground cable, change it out. That is a high-fail item.

 

It's not a common problem with GM.

It's a standard operating procedure.
It's how it was designed.

As for your friend. His battery is probably going bad.

 

Can you pls explain to me why the voltage stablizes at 14v or more after i disconnect and reconnect the negative terminal ?

 

Turning on your headlights will also keep the voltage up.

Bottom line is this. Stop disconnecting your battery. And leave it alone.

 

Don't try to apply what you've learned about older cars to the Cruze charging system. The Federal government keeps pushing manufactures to improve fuel mileage. To meet that, the car makers are cutting energy waste everywhere they can. That includes not trying to charge a battery that's already charged. The BCM knows the battery voltage and the battery current at all times and applies a smart charging strategy. Turning on the headlights or running the windshield wipers will make it revert to something you're more used to.

 

If the car is cranking slowly? I don't know if the system is behaving as designed.

Everyone here is right -- the vehicle tracks the battery state of charge, and when it's pretty full it starts dropping down from 14+ volts to lower, and will by design stop charging when you are cruising, trying to reserve charging for either.. a) Higher loads (headlights, rear defrost, A/C) (also when it's very cold out, playing around with the charging rate when it's like -20 out is probably a bad idea so it doesn't.); b) Your foot is off the gas, when you're coasting to a stop or engine breaking anyway it goes ahead and does it's charging then. c) If you're on a long drive so your foot doesn't come off the gas, it will eventually charge anyway to keep the battery topped up.

Apparently on the gas models this improved MPG by 0.5-1MPG. I'm pretty sure it also extends battery and alternator life (continuing to try to force charge into a full battery is bad for it, and the alternator is getting less wear on it.)

I would check 3 things... all are easy:
1) Negative battery cable -- I don't know if this applied to the diesel or just the 1.4L (given it's not an engine-specific part I'd guess both!) but there was even a recall about the negative battery cable on some 2011-2015 models (i.e. 1st gen Cruise) having bad contact. Mine was outside the recall age and mileage (slightly), so I picked one up at a parts store for like $10 and put it on myself.

b) The cable does go through this loop, this is a battery current/state of charge sensor. Make sure it is in fact running through that loop! I'm PRETTY sure the failure mode there is to keep charging at 14.5+ volts but not actually sure, it costs $0 and maybe 1 minute of time to check the cable routing though so go ahead and try it.

c) Actually, you say you got a new battery? The place you got it may not have been aware you have a diesel (or since diesels are just not that common in the USA, unaware of the consequences of that..) Your new battery may not have enough cold cranking amps -- I assume the Cruze diesel is like any other one, the compression is super high so it takes more power to crank over than a similar size gas engine, so it would recommend a higher CCA battery. They may have put a battery sized for a gasoline model Cruze. The CCA specs are usually printed on top of the battery, and recommended battery specs should be in the manual.

 

In Australia there are 2 different diesel engines available, depending on the year. 2008-2011 is a Korean import and the late 2011-2014 are locally made and use a newer engine design. When I got my last battery (2012 model) the battery guy told me they won't supply a battery for the earlier model because there was too many warranty claims on them. Maybe your new battery is the wrong one for that car?

 

Take your car to a local auto parts store and have your battery and alternator tested. I think your battery is going bad. My 2015 did this too and I found the battery was weak. Replaced the battery and everything was normal again.

 

Post #8 the OP states that it’s a new battery so the chances of it going bad are very slim. Not unheard of to get a new bad battery but still very slim.

Never the less, getting the battery and alternator load tested is still not a bad idea.

as for Aussies post (#17), not selling a battery for an older vehicle makes no sense, it is likely just that shop that does not carry it. A battery is a battery is a battery. Size, post location, cold cranking amps, and AGM or not AGM are the main differences. Each battery sold probably works in 200+ different vehicles. There are only so many variables to account for and batteries tend to be a universal fit item.

 

It was the NRMA a huge breakdown service and insurance company that has been around for over 100 years. The problem was with the Korean built diesel cars only.

 

We have a 2012 Cruze with 1.8L started getting codes with stalling and a dead battery. Replaced the old battery and then the alt. it lasted about 10 miles and then stopped charging. After some research a few tests showed a poor engine to body ground so I used a jumper and saw it go to 14 volts. Installed a real ground cable instead of lamp cord wire no more codes and charging at 14.8V. This is my second time dealing with poor engine grounds I'm getting ready to just start by installing a ground on these newer cars to start with.