Stop/start.

[Boonp]

Ford Focus vignale 2019 2 litre Auto. 
stop start has stopped working. 
If I go to the vehicle display information stop start it show  as below.

car been into dealership and had 12 hour charge. Took car back didn’t work on way home 12 miles. Car locked and left for 18 hours drove 12 miles and stop start worked 4 times. Not worked since and always shows display in attachment.

I believe its a battery battery monitor or a drain. 
dealership says battery good and charging ok. 
booked in again with dealership and curtesy car provided for up to 5 days. 
let’s hope it gets resolved. 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Boonp
Wrong image

[alexp999]

You'll find it won't work so much this time of year especially when it's cold and dark, the electrical and heating load is much higher and it has less chance to charge.

[Botus]

If its bust for good I'd be having a party, its only fitted for one reason.  I posted this on a forum of knowledgeable types and got lots of likes

 

whenever one see's stop start in relation to a car it should be always be interpreted as:

"we stop the engine so you have to start saving for a new engine / car"

[Phil21185]

Problem is that the engine/car is only designed to last 4 years or so anyway. 

We should all get into car manufacturing, y'know. It's the only industry in the world where it is an accepted norm for a brand new product to be full of faults, any of which will be rectified at the customers cost where legally forcible!

On top of that, they're built to such sh!te quality that you're either forced to have extortionate repair bills, or have to buy another, ie. be suckered into another dreadful purchase with all of its inevitabilities.

What a racket!!!

 

[Ennvoqation]

13 hours ago, Phil21185 said:

We should all get into car manufacturing, y'know. It's the only industry in the world where it is an accepted norm for a brand new product to be full of faults, any of which will be rectified at the customers cost where legally forcible!

Try software development that's even more of a scam, bugs are 'features' to force upgrades or service contracts!

[Your Honour]

I turn it off in my car, I just think it drives a lot better with it disabled. Although that could just be in my head. 

[alexp999]

Just now, Your Honour said:

I turn it off in my car, I just think it drives a lot better with it disabled. Although that could just be in my head. 

That's definitely a placebo, it doesn't affect how the car runs.

[mozz]

Gismo, anyway. 

[Guy Heaton]

My stopstart never works now it's cold, but I don't see that information message.

[Botus]

5 hours ago, alexp999 said:

That's definitely a placebo, it doesn't affect how the car runs.

it will indeed impact how it runs,

an engine will stay in cold start conditions for longer, produce more pollution and far more engine wear, the battery will be needing to pull more out of the alternator (more or less offsetting and alleged fuel saving) and reducing engine power.  the heater will be less effective in the summer and the AC far less effective in the summer, both of which may impact safety with demisting issues,  the increased acid in the exhaust will rot it out faster, the oil will get dirtier

all in all a stupid idea wearing out the planet, the car and your wallet

 

[alexp999]

Just now, Botus said:

it will indeed impact how it runs,

an engine will stay in cold start conditions for longer, produce more pollution and far more engine wear, the battery will be needing to pull more out of the alternator (more or less offsetting and alleged fuel saving) and reducing engine power.  the heater will be less effective in the summer and the AC far less effective in the summer, both of which may impact safety with demisting issues,  the increased acid in the exhaust will rot it out faster, the oil will get dirtier

all in all a stupid idea wearing out the planet, the car and your wallet

 

The point was how the car drives, pressing the stop/start button doesn't affect the map or how the engine runs, it just stops it from auto-stopping.

[Botus]

13 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

The point was how the car drives, pressing the stop/start button doesn't affect the map or how the engine runs, it just stops it from auto-stopping.

yes it does, it will reach and maintain operating temperature faster and run better more of the time

[alexp999]

It's not the point I was trying to make, but even taking your thoughts in to account, it's never had any noticeable impact on the way my cars have driven and I leave stop start enabled. The amount of time the engine spends "recovering" from a stop-start is negligible compared to if it had stayed running.

[TomsFocus]

Modern engines/bays are so well heat-proofed...left mine parked for about 90 minutes yesterday, got back in and the oil temp was still 75c!  (Hovers around 80c while driving)

Stopping for a minute or two at lights isn't going to lose any heat at all from the engine. 

I also leave the SS switched on permanently.  The only time I notice a difference is when it needs sone extra charge after a few stops in a row, the idle increases and it's a little more rumbly, hardly an issue though!

[kajeeves]

6 hours ago, Botus said:

yes it does, it will reach and maintain operating temperature faster and run better more of the time

The stop/start doesn’t even enable itself until the engine is at normal operating temperature. 

[Mark-UK]

I thought the stop/start on the MK4 was just a showroom and test drive feature, design never to work after you've paid for the car.

[Boonp]

I’m not so worried about stop start working  I just believe that it’s an indication that my car is not charging or the battery is not good or the battery monitor is not working correctly. 
what I didn’t say on my original post was that I have on three occasions had a totally flat battery. 
Therefor I would like a new replacement battery  or any other problems sorting while under warranty and I believe if  I pursue the issue of stop start it will force the dealership to check every thing concerned with electrical and software performance. 
At the end of the day I bought the car secondhand and it is less than 11 months old it would have cost new with all it factory extras about 33k so I expect whether I use a feature or not it should work. 

[alexp999]

You shouldn't be getting a flat battery on that age car.

Stop start certainly won't work if there is a low battery, it requires something like 80% charge.

[Abbadon]

I expect that it shows the charging message if the engine is also too cold, or if its doing a dpf regen (if its a diesel). They couldn't be bothered with more than one message.

[Boonp]

Displays show different displays like engine temp to low etc but always show charging one when all should be ok. 

[Abbadon]

Never have issues in the focus, but in our transit,  im fairly confident it doesnt show any messages when its halting the Stop start for the dpf, or for low charge, it just does what it wants! I thought the battery was lame, but I think that whenever i drive it, which tends to be longer journeys, its getting over its week of short journeys the wife uses it for, and at some point regens the dpf sufficiently that stop start is allowed to kick in again.

Anyway, I digress, yours does seem an odd situation, but I do know in my Focus, for example, Air Con above a certain setting prevents Stop Start, so does the heated front screen , and a few other settings.

 

Andy

[kajeeves]

4 hours ago, Boonp said:

I’m not so worried about stop start working  I just believe that it’s an indication that my car is not charging or the battery is not good or the battery monitor is not working correctly. 
what I didn’t say on my original post was that I have on three occasions had a totally flat battery. 
Therefor I would like a new replacement battery  or any other problems sorting while under warranty and I believe if  I pursue the issue of stop start it will force the dealership to check every thing concerned with electrical and software performance. 
At the end of the day I bought the car secondhand and it is less than 11 months old it would have cost new with all it factory extras about 33k so I expect whether I use a feature or not it should work. 

Some of the Mk4s had a problem where the TCU would cause a battery drain (not applicable if you don’t have the SOS button on the overhead console). The fix was a software update which you should be able to do yourself. 
Make sure your sync is at the latest software level. Then have your phone connected to the vehicle via the Ford Pass app and have all your connectivity settings switched on via the sync menu. The TCU should then eventually update itself in the background. 

[Botus]

I suggest each of you take the head off an engine and attempt to turn the cams over by hand, you will at best find you can get 1/3 of a turn before you are physically not strong enough to turn it more than that by hand.  this should give you a really good understanding of the additional strain your are putting on the cam drive system.

continued use of stop start will destroy the engine, partly through increased start up wear and tear, and if that hasn't done it, by the belt or cam chain snapping....  if you haven't got why yet, do you think "its rather odd" the severely increased start up stress on these components coincides with two premium German brands dropping duplex chains? funnily enough suddenly we find many engines destroying themselves..

"we stop the engine so you have to start saving for a new car"

[alexp999]

I better stop using my car completely then and just leave it on my drive so it doesn't suffer any wear.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

36 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

I better stop using my car completely then and just leave it on my drive so it doesn't suffer any wear.

Well, you could just turn off the stop/start when you start up😀

I incline towards @Botus's view on this one. I can perhaps accept that the starter motor and battery are sufficiently beefed up to take the extra strain , even though the motor had to be replaced at 300 miles on my previous car.

However, if I start the car from cold and head into town**, I find the stop/start activates at the first set of lights which is only about half a mile from home. (I know the ecoboost is supposed to warm up quickly but It is hard to believe it - particularly the oil - is at full working temperature so fast.) It does this at the next 4 or 5 lights, which are closely spaced, but then packs in, presumably to save the battery. So, when I reach the centre, where most people are, and traffic is most subject to long delay, the engine keeps running at each light. All the cars I have had with stop/start have behaved in the same way.

I have some difficulty in accepting that this is good for either the environment or my engine, so, as I have mentioned elsewhere, I disable it on starting and switch it back on when I judge appropriate, e.g.when facing a long delay for roadworks or a level crossing, when I would normally have switched off anyway in pre stop/start days. 

** I rarely make this journey by car, btw, I normally take the bus!