FordFusionFanatic Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 In June of 2019 my car started flashing a "service charging system" message with the battery light on about 5 seconds after turning the car on every time. After testing the battery it was a bit low and had died on me before so I replaced the battery. The issue was not resolved. I then took the car into a local mechanic (not a dealership) and he said he believes the sensor that reads the voltage is bad so he replaced that. It appeared to be good for a day or 2 and then the same thing started happening again. Then the radio, and instrument cluster started going on and off intermittently while driving. Gauges would shut off and go back on. There would all at once be a pop noise and everything would shut off. The car would still run, but windows, radio, gauges, information panel would all be effected. After doing this for a couple weeks the issue stopped completely other than the "service charging system" and battery light still coming on. This past week (so several months later) it all started happening again, and sometimes the information panel by the gauges will just stay off completely. Also now every time it shuts off and back on all the indicator lights flash (traction control, brake, etc.) The alternator appears to occasionally spike out of range, but I don't want to go that route if it's unnecessary. One other thing to note is today when my car was in drive at an idle RPMs started to go a little low and the car kind of shuttered. My car has 91k miles and other than these electrical issues has been good. Thanks for any input you have. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 What do you mean by "The alternator appears to occasionally spike out of range"? What symptom is there for that? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordFusionFanatic Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 When the mechanic looked at it he thought it was fixed, but mentioned that he had the alternator voltage go too high twice while monitoring it. He said if problems continue that would be his next course of action. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordFusionFanatic Posted November 13, 2019 Author Share Posted November 13, 2019 The last two days my info screen between my gauges has been out. I can tell there is still a light on, but it's black and shows no info at all. It also no longer has the radio/ac/gauge lights cut in and out. I'm wondering if there is a bad connection somewhere or a bad fuse. I'm going to try to dig into it this weekend, but does anyone have advice on where to start? Just to note all of these problems started getting worse just as the weather here changed and got much colder. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Don't forget to look at the ground wires and connection points. If you have a digital multimeter, make measurements from the device's ground point/lead to known good chassis ground - there should be no more than a few millivolts difference. Has your dash been removed for any maintenance work? Check for connectors not properly seated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordFusionFanatic Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 We double checked all of the fuses which look good. And connections look good. We are guessing it’s a ground issue but don’t know where the grounds are. Do you have a source that lists those? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 In your post, you state that your mechanic replaced the sensor that reads the voltage. What exactly did he change as there is no separate device with that function - the charging regulation is controlled only by the alternator and the PCM. Perhaps your Ford dealer would be in a better position to provide a diagnosis than your mechanic as this may involve the replacement of an expensive alternator or an even more expensive PCM. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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