Hi all I'd just like to share my experience of a problem with my 2014 CX5 yesterday.
While on holiday on the other side of the UK my family and I visited an animal sanctuary and upon leaving, started the car and an error message appeared stating - "Charging system malfunction". It also said something along the lines of pull over as there's a chance the car could stop unexpectedly.
Our hotel was only a ten minute drive away so after reading other people's experiences of the error, thought I'd give the trip a go and just hope that the problem was a low state of charge battery.
After five minutes the car became sluggish so I pulled over. The fans were running overtime so I popped the bonnet and noticed the coolant level was rising. Called out my breakdown recovery who were pretty useless and just advised I find a local garage that could come and get the car. Finally found a really nice guy that said he would come and have a look at the car, and while on the phone to him noticed that the auxiliary belt was missing. He came out and confirmed that it had broken, and found it on the engine undertray. He did us an amazing service by taking all of us back to our hotel, then towed the car to his garage. This was all at 5pm.
By 10.30am he confirmed that the car was fixed, no damage had been done to the engine and came and picked me up to collect the car. Couldn't believe how great this garage were and the fact they gave us priority just so we could enjoy the rest of our holiday.
This post is more of a warning to people not to ignore this error as I honestly think if I drove the car for much longer it would have overheated.
Take care,
Jon
