Focus Mk2 2006 1.6 Ghia Petrol battery drain

[scoobydo123]

Hi all, think I have a battery drain on MK2 1.6 Ghia with cruise control and autolights. I have a clamp meter and the car seems to go through 3 stages of shutdown when battery is first connected circa 1.2 amps on the clamp meter this drops to .8 amps and finally settles on .4amp. Unfortunately my clamp meter doesnt go that low on the readings to get exact figures. The interior info display turns off after around 20mins or so the internal dome light dims after shutting the door. 

 

Currently what I have done is pull fuses in engine bay fuse box (assume this is only one layer) to no avail. Left passenger door open disabled interior ultrasonic via the switch on the drivers side handle, waited for dome light to go out and car to go to sleep with the door open and pulled all the fuses "one by one) on the passenger footwell to no avail amp clamp still flickering arounn .4amp. Is there another fuse box somewhere perhaps? Have also removed the wire on the left from the battery clamp positive assume that heads towards the alternator leaving just the wire going to the fusebox in the engine compartment. I do have a normal meter but that is fused at 200ma so cannot use that yet to get more resolution to my tests.

 

What am I missing in tracing the drain please?

 

Car has aftermarket sony single din headunit, no extra wiring at the battery is evident.

 

Tks

[JW1982]

The CANbus network does not go to sleep with the door open.

The CANbus network enters sleep mode approximately 20 to 40 minutes (depending on settings and options) after the car is locked. Until the CANbus network enters sleep all CANbus modules are active and consuming power.

[scoobydo123]

Ok I have used a screwdriver to switch the door lock over to door closed mode. Also removed the multi connector in the glovebox fuse area towards the top right Managed to get it down to 120ma/ 100ma pulsing. Pulled fuse f57 and that caused a relay to trip and the hazards to flash and obviously went above my 200ma range on my direct connect meter hopefully not blown internal fuse of my meter. So now waiting on the timer to time out so can move beyond fuse f57 🙂

It was intetesting how the amps is pulsing had this on a subaru that had a tracker on it that I purchased. This I think was the tracker battery backup charging or attempting to charge and also the sim card calling home. That was a pain to find for sure as it had been very well installed for obvious reasons.

Not sure how likely a 2006 focus  ghia would be tracker equipped.

Will update when canbus has gone to bed.

Thanks

 

[scoobydo123]

Ok so cannot seem to get it to go any lower than the pulsing 100ma to 120 ma. Everything under the bonnet looks factory ie no additional wiring at the battery terminals so guess safe ti assume every circuit protected by a fuse that I have pulled. Havent fuzzed with the bolted down fuses in the engine compartment fuse box.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y40voYwR_HmnHRenH7n4m7LircRNoxUO/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[scoobydo123]

So seems like I am somewhat stuck with this pulsing 100ma draw unless anyone has any ideas? Had a look behind glovebox as there is this connector which i guess is for either aux in or BT. Is this cycling draw canbus chatter perhaps. Assume after 1.5hrs after a 30min drive all systems should be in deep sleep? Cluster info went off after 10mins of parking up. Tks

[scoobydo123]

Ok going to revist today using the voltage drop method. The intial way i was doing it with amp clamp would only have found large currenr draws when I was removing the fuses as the amp clamp I have does not read in mv unfortunately. So when I was pulling fuses it would not have registered the drop due to lack of resolution on the meter. Will update findings as I am sure 120ma is far too high and also dont like the cycling nature of it. Maybe the background drop is 20ma and the extra 100ma is a canbus chatter as something is keeping a module alive.

[StephenFord]

1 hour ago, scoobydo123 said:

Ok going to revist today using the voltage drop method.

Are you sure you have all the proper equipment?? 😁

 

[scoobydo123]

7 hours ago, StephenFord said:

 you sure you have all the proper equipment?? 😁

Not sure what the above comment is meaning? Dont have a scope, well I do but it is at work. Maybe it is the way the meter averages the readings. Anyway it would seem that fuse f3 which is supply 1 to the GEMS. Anyone got any ideas? Does the factory alarm have a backup batery maybe that is past its best so is constantly trying to be charged via the GEMS?

[StephenFord]

6 minutes ago, scoobydo123 said:

Not sure what the above comment is meaning?

I hate it when a well crafted joke lands on the floor, squashed! It was an image of Sherlock Holmes famous hat, pipe, & magnifying glass representing one of the best 'detectives' ever known, with the implication being you'll need to be a good detective to find the fault. Now, explaining all that, certainly lost any humour I had intended! 🤣

[scoobydo123]

Something strange is going on for sure Watson! Reckon soneone on here will know. The Gems has quite a few IC's that could be not powering down but it has the symptoms of pulse charging. Lets hipe someone looks in who can help. Failing that then a solar charger on the dashboard is cheap option given the low parasitic draw.

[scoobydo123]

Right so gone through the hassle of removing the alarm sounder and still have the cycling powerdrain 😞 also opened the sounder and it is powered by varta nimh 6volt pack 240mah. This is currently sitting at 6.39volts. NIMH is considered fully charged at 1.5v per cell. There are 5 cells so maybe the gems sees this voltage and is trying to charge. Chemisty of nimh is 1.5 fully charged which quickly drops to 1.3 volts settling to 1.2 volts through 75pc of its useful charge. So fully charged 7.5v, discharging 6.5v - 6.0v.

Think i can fill a substitutiin of AA batteries to see if it shuts the gems off.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[scoobydo123]

Have a nimh charger so got it on charge currently.

[scoobydo123]

Nimh batteries were not taking much of a charge so changed out for some LiPO's that will represent fully charged NiMh. Still got the drain :-(. So what I have established is that F3 (60a) bolt in fuse that feeds the GEMS PCB side is causing the drain. No other fuses being pulled on either the GEMS or engine fuse compartment removes the drain. The instrument cluster goes to sleep after 10mins.suppose maybe the next thing is rremove the cluster and see if that stops it? Did I read there was a software update to stop drains? Is this something I can do i have a clone elm but not with switch. Can i at least confirm software version of the modules with what I have?

[scoobydo123]

Here is what is reported from Forscan

Interface: 
Port: COM7, 38400 kbps
Type: bluetooth
Adapter: ELM327 v1.5
Min.delay: 16 ms ( Good)
Errors: None

Vehicle: 
Model: Ford Focus
Engine: DURATEC VCT
Capacity: 1.6L
Year: 2006
Month: 06
Generation: 2003.25 MY
Fuel: Gasoline
Transmission gear: Manual
VIN: WF05XXWxxxxxxxxxxx612

PCM - Powertrain Control Module
Part number: 7M51-12A650-KB
Hardware type: SIM29
Software version: v6

OBDII - On Board Diagnostic II

ABS - Antilock braking system
Part number: 3M51-2M110-JA
Software version: v1

IC - Instrument Cluster
Part number: 4M5T-10849-FR
Strategy : 4M51-14C026-BA
Calibration: 4M51-14C088-CA0000000000
Software version: 2005-12-07
Odometer: 106000.5 km

 

[scoobydo123]

**SOLVED**

 

So after stripping the alarm siren out, cleaning the GEMs and reworking the instrument cluster still had the same 😞 disconnected the small harness on the GEMs that is on the left as you look at it with the fuses facing you. This is labelled cockpit. This resulted in the draw going down to 6ma however not sure where that goes and couldnt be bothered with tracing it as spent too long on this. Anyway onto the fix, it was the harness between the ford quadlock and iso converter. Looks very much like the sort you would get in a shop or online. The power 12v and ign 12v where fine however the aerial/power control from the head unit was connected to a can line! I bet there are loads of fords running around with a parasitic draw.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ywt5ip3S-PQBXBlxJ_gAAFQrbfIYIuLZ/view?usp=drivesdk

[scoobydo123]

Gets better in the video above my odbII was plugged in. Here is where I am at now this is the car fully armed so ultrasonics are on and deadlocked. 

9-14ma happy with that 🙂

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZJD_BABjKfc5K4bp7XoAbvTDfNfniiiw/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[scoobydo123]

Side effect of the fix is that now if you unlock the car and don't actually drive it the car locks itself. Almost locked keys in it as wasn't expecting that. Assumption is the the car is correctly going to sleep now. Note that the information centre was turning off as expected so that does not always indicate that canbus is asleep

[StephenFord]

3 minutes ago, scoobydo123 said:

Side effect of the fix is that now if you unlock the car and don't actually drive it the car locks itself.

If you unlock it, then open/close a door, that should let the car recognise that you want the car to remain opened. Otherwise, the behavior you describe is by design in case you accidentally 'open' the car via a pocket fumble with the fob...