Service Charging System

Got this message today when i started her up and drove away. I noticed the voltage meter on the dash showing 13.7v when I thought it would constantly see it showing 13.8-14.2 while driving\stopping.

Stopped, went into the store, drove home and it was on 13.6v now the whole time. Sounded like alternator not charging battery to me? Parked it, got my voltometer and checked battery with car running, surely showed it climbing to 14.3v. Checked dash, and it shoewd 14.3. Thought it was a glitch, now its doing it again later tonight so im not sure if the dashes voltage meter is glitching \ not showing right which is causing the service message or whats going on

No I've experienced this before?

Did you ever get this fixed?

Sounds like the regulator failing-which is now integrated into the alternator on most cars :doh: At least the S550 is smart enough to detect it...

Sooo ford ended up swapping the alternator with a new one, took it out, they saw the issue right away. They then said they were stumped and would open a support call with ford and would need to keep the vehicle. Before they kept it they put a new battery in it and i took for the next few days to try to get some data for them from my driving habits before dropping it back off a few days later for them to keep it and try to figure it out.

For the the few days I had it with the new alternator and a new battery i haven't had the issue. Iv'e been keeping tracking of the BCM_Volt statistic as well as Batt_ST_Chrg level to see if there's anything obvious with storing charge or losing charge etc.

The only thing I can say and i kind of hope it is or hope it isn't, is i do have a 2ch dash cam setup in the car that does stay on while the car is parked\off. It may be a possibility that its draining the battery so low that it then triggers the cars system to throw this message? Im not sure. I have a similar dash cam setup in my fusion that runs for 8hrs after shutoff and never had anything like this. Granted the fusion has a bigger AGM battery so I dont know if that has anything to do with preventing it. I may be totally shooting in the dark with all this. Ive since disconnected the dashcam system since Ford has taken it to look at to take that out of the equation.

I will also note that this happened for about 2 months before I got sick of it and took it in. And for a few days even i started getting as well the SYNC3 system would say "shutting down to save power" or something like that when Id start the car. Again I dont know if the battery was getting drained so low and the alternator wasnt charging all the time or what.

Week 3 - Dealer still has the car, has been working with Ford and so far no conclusions..

Got a call today, since they've had it for a week, unable to reproduce the issue. Was told Ford had an update to a module for the car that specifically updates the BAttery management peice of the computer. So they are flashing that.

I know this is an old thread, but i'm having the same problem with my '22 Ecoboost. Did the dealer find a solution ?

There is a good video on YouTube from FordBossMe that addresses Ford Alternator problems. HE's a Ford master tech at a dealer somewhere in IL. He posts some pretty good stuff. This may help.

video is here: