See if you can find a part number on the Alternator case. If the Battery light is on and its being drained your alternator is either not charging or the PCM is not commanding it to charge, having a basic multimeter to check the voltage at the battery at idle, at 2500 rpm, and then the battery rest voltage with the vehicle off would tell us a lot. I don't see how the shop let a vehicle go in that condition. The battery voltage really should be checked during cranking, so it has a max load on it. I don't see specific sub models here in all the recalls, but this is half a million vehicles with these faulty diode trio's that are failing due to thermal issues. It's not just Dodge Charger's with these Alternators. It's a Chrysler 300, Durango's, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Challenger's. So obviously there's a major issue here. If that shop has your vehicle for 2 months and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, that's a red flag to me. The PCM was replaced, who knows how many Alternators the shop tried. I would get a basic multimeter and while the vehicle is idling in the driveway, start doing some voltage drop testing from the engine block, body(frame), Alternator case to Battery Negative and see what the voltage drop is on those Ground sides. If the PCM detects any faults in the Alternators field control which is used to control the charging voltage level, it will set codes for the charging system. There are only 3 wires on this alternator, the wire to the battery, the Gen Sense wire which is where it monitors the PCM monitors the output and the Gen Field Control. The shop should have checked these wires for open circuits or shorts to ground.
Now the big problem is that when the diode trio goes bad the Alternator outputs AC voltage, and PCMs and AC voltage don't mix. If there's no codes stored for anything, (no Check Engine light on), Something is going on that the PCM is not detecting or is not setting a code because it can't anymore. The diodes are built into the alternator to rectify the AC voltage to DC voltage so it can be used by the PCM. All these Recalls and TSBs are for the diodes failing.
There should be a code set for why it's not charging, this isn't a parasitic draw on the battery. There needs to be testing done.
The 2nd diagram is all the Recalls and TSBs for the alternator.
Images (Click to make bigger)
Thursday, April 20th, 2023 AT 9:41 PM