Cold temperatures affecting Travelpilot FX and passenger door latch on Focus mk2.5

[RyotBabi]

Hi all,

I'm currently spending my first British winter with my 2010 Ford Focus Titanium, and experiencing a couple of issues - they're unrelated on the face of it, but I suspect they're both being caused by the cold...

Firstly, when it's particularly cold (esp. in the morning) my passenger door often won't latch closed. This happened for the first time on Christmas morning, and then later on Christmas evening when heading home. Not ideal. Eventually, after trying repeatedly, we get it closed and can continue, but usually only after 20 or 30 minutes. I see this issue has been mentioned once or twice on the forum, so have been trying the suggestions - WD40 first and then silicone grease in the mechanism - but no luck so far. So if anyone has any further suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.

Also new for the winter is that my stereo head unit (Blaupunkt Travelpilot FX) sometimes won't power up when I first start the car, but then may come on randomly after 30 minutes or so, or even on the return journey. So, this suggests the fuses are fine, right? And it is getting power, but not all the time. I can't find much about this anywhere, so I'm wondering if anyone's had a similar issue or has any insight on why this might be happening? Could it be down to the cold somehow? I'm hesitant to replace it with a third-party unit if A. I just get the same issues with that, and B. if this'll sort itself out when the temperatures go up again. And in case it matters, all other electrics have been fine.

Any insight and tips welcome, thanks for reading.

 

[MarkRS9]

I've never had a problem with my Blaupunkt FX unit in any cold weather over the 9 years I've owned my mk2.5 Focus.

I did have a problem last week when I started the car and the unit turned off for a few minutes and then come back on, also abs light come on for a few minutes, I discovered that the car battery was low (hadn't used the car for 3 months) and once charged back up didn't have any more problems.

I would suggest checking your battery, these cars are very sensitive to low battery and will throw up all sort of electrical problems. 

Sorry can't help with the door.

[StephenFord]

2 hours ago, RyotBabi said:

Firstly, when it's particularly cold (esp. in the morning) my passenger door often won't latch closed. This happened for the first time on Christmas morning, and then later on Christmas evening when heading home. Not ideal. Eventually, after trying repeatedly, we get it closed and can continue, but usually only after 20 or 30 minutes. I see this issue has been mentioned once or twice on the forum, so have been trying the suggestions - WD40 first and then silicone grease in the mechanism - but no luck so far. So if anyone has any further suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.

 

 

On icy mornings, I regularly have issues with both driver and passenger door not operating due to cold weather. I simply get a watering can of warm water, and pour it down the seam of both doors, which defrosts the internal mechanism. If I can't get the door to latch shut once achieving getting it opened (!), I simply pour more warm water down the slightly open seam. Works every time! I have tried applying liberal amounts of grease to both locking mechanisms as a preventative measure - makes no difference!

[RyotBabi]

Brilliant, thank you both.

It's not been cold enough to test the door trick yet but I'm ready to the next time we have frost.

And I've just tested the battery with a multimeter and it's coming up at 11.98 standing, so it could be time for a replacement.

Thanks again

[StephenFord]

19 hours ago, RyotBabi said:

 

It's not been cold enough to test the door trick yet but I'm ready to the next time we have frost.

 

Organised temperatures down to -10c for you this morning, any help? LOL