UPDATE!! on "What the Heck is going on" Message

Well, I went and exchanged for a new battery today. Got everything cleaned up and installed the new one this evening. It started up but the same dash lights stayed on (anti-lock brake, PCS, Trac Off....).

Here is the strange thing, the alternator was putting over 19V to the battery at idle speed!! YIKES!!! The alternator is about 1-1/2 years old. My dad rebuilds these for a living so I know it was a quality piece. Of course, things fail, but he is confused as to why its being allowed to to put that much out. he said it shouldn't and also is stumped as to why the VOLTS light is not on. Until we remove it we won't know for sure, but we do know that something is wrong with it.

Now, could this be the source of all the warning lights staying on as mentioned above? I have no idea if the original battery shorted and damaged the alternator, or if the alternator went bad and ruined the battery causing one of the caps to blow off.

Like I said, we replaced this before, not a huge deal, but just aggervating because you have to remove that thermostat housing. If anyone knows of a better way of getting the thing off, let me know. I will be working on it little by little this week after I get home each night.

I will keep everyone posted as to how things turn out, hopefully this weekend.

There are two possibilities here. First the cause of the explosion was due to the over charging. Even though the alternator is new it could have shorted out if it were exposed to a voltage spike. Secondly the entire issues sounds like the voltage regulator is wide open and the alternator is running wide open. It is possible that changing the regulator may stop the overcharging.