Today on my way to work this message, "Check Charging System," popped up on my dash and the red battery symbol came on. When I turned the car off and back on it went away and hasnt come back, but I want to know what this message means and if there is a problem.

I was told that it could mean that my alternator is failing and that my friend who told me this had to already replace his and his has less mileage than my car. Any info on this?

Another maybe related or not issue is that my positive connection of my battery is melting the red plastic cover for it, just in the corner where you tighten it down. Could this shorting have causes the message?

And in the past my stock battery had completely drained and so I replaced it with this current new battery. Just in case that helps any.

Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

 

I would be weary of the melting plastic, that does not sound right at all. There should be no reason for the battery terminal to get that hot.

 

Alternator could be overcharging. remember the idiot lights come on for under and over voltages But battery acid could cause the plastic to melt though.
Just a thought

 

no acid I checked. When I first noticed it was burned it was a few weeks ago but thought it was a one time odd occurrence as it hadnt gotten worse, but while driving home last night I could smell it burning and so I pulled over and checked it out again.

my friend told me the same about the alternator. is this a common issue on the s197s? he had already replaced his because it crapped out on him. tsb? (I looked through the list and didnt see anything) and lastly whats the fix? new one?

 

Edit: Rob were there any (DTC)diagnositic codes P0340 or P0344.that may have also come up? The reason I ask is there was a TSB 06-19-12 a while back for your car.
Are you still in warranty? Dealer time.
:If not,Replacement is the only solution @$300..plus core Part # 7R3Z-10346B (Motorcraft)
Does your friend or you own a digital multimeter? If so, you can check the voltages yourself.
Voltage should be from 13.2-14.5 VDC. anything above or below indicates the regulator function has gone bad.and regulator is all internal.

 

Check to make sure all connections on battery
are clean and tight, bad electrical connections
cause heat.

 

no DTCs. in fact that was the only time there was a message. today everything normal as I drove to work. got off work tonight and the battery was dead, just enough juice to pop my doors open. so this is the 2nd battery. What is that TSB for?

no longer under warranty. do tsbs still get fixed out of warranty? I was gonna head over to pepboys in the morning to have them test the alternator.

connections look solid but Ill have to recheck in the AM with light.

 

checked battery and its perfect.

solved the problem...we think (at least it works so far)...it was the short, which was being caused by the connection not being tight enough. it was tight enough to hold it on and had to loosen the nut to get the connector off, but for some reason the bolt has a square head on the bottom side which had fallen out of the clamp not allowing it to get any tighter even though from the top side it seemed like it, so I had to clamp it and tighten to pull it back in place then it worked. also cleaned up the connections.

 

I figured it was a short of some sort, or bad connection. Those can be tricky to track down.

 

Glad you found cause, Rob. Some electrical problems are like gremlins. Glad this turned out to be minor