Hi @Nathan Buffery that is a very useful link. I was unaware of that special recovery mode. I hope never to need to use it but it's good to know it exists

Unfortunately, it did nothing to recover my modules. I (unwittingly) discovered a ***** in my adapter's armour which Vgate and Forscan will remedy in their next versions. 

It's a bit fiddly to complete, as you have to unplug your module, press start in Forscan and quickly plug the module back in. I guess you could pull the fuses instead. 

Luckily for me it was my ACM and FDIM modules, so I was still able to use the car. The only problem was, now that I didnt have the radio blasting, I could hear how noisey my gearbox is!!!!

1 hour ago, Nathan Buffery said:

Unfortunately, it did nothing to recover my modules. I (unwittingly) discovered a ***** in my adapter's armour which Vgate and Forscan will remedy in their next versions. 

It's a bit fiddly to complete, as you have to unplug your module, press start in Forscan and quickly plug the module back in. I guess you could pull the fuses instead. 

Luckily for me it was my ACM and FDIM modules, so I was still able to use the car. The only problem was, now that I didnt have the radio blasting, I could hear how noisey my gearbox is!!!!

I did try the recovery method with forscan but it failed each time. although I assumed "cut power to the modules" meant key off. I'll give it a shot with disconnecting the fuses

3 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

Have you had the car remapped? 

nope

 

17 hours ago, ferretfloozy said:

forgive the obvious but.. why did you replace the battery and which battery have you replaced it with?

the old one couldn't hold its charge anymore. I replaced it with a varta e38

24 minutes ago, Marcgr said:

nope

OK, sometimes remapping can stop Forscan connecting to PCM

2 hours ago, Nathan Buffery said:

Unfortunately, it did nothing to recover my modules. I (unwittingly) discovered a ***** in my adapter's armour which Vgate and Forscan will remedy in their next versions. 

It's a bit fiddly to complete, as you have to unplug your module, press start in Forscan and quickly plug the module back in. I guess you could pull the fuses instead. 

Luckily for me it was my ACM and FDIM modules, so I was still able to use the car. The only problem was, now that I didnt have the radio blasting, I could hear how noisey my gearbox is!!!!

A bit off topic, but what was the issue? I got a VLinker and tried to update my stereo firmware (ACM and SRM) and both fail, one can't connect at all, one fails erasing blocks, I've not contacted Forscan yet but wanted to get the ACM update for a start as the stereo bricks if I'm on a call when it does the 10 min shutdown (have to pull the fuses or the stereo can't be used and it drains the car battery completely in 24-48hrs if not done).

4 minutes ago, xcd said:

A bit off topic, but what was the issue? I got a VLinker and tried to update my stereo firmware (ACM and SRM) and both fail, one can't connect at all, one fails erasing blocks, I've not contacted Forscan yet but wanted to get the ACM update for a start as the stereo bricks if I'm on a call when it does the 10 min shutdown (have to pull the fuses or the stereo can't be used and it drains the car battery completely in 24-48hrs if not done).

Ensure you have fully researched and enabled the correct connection settings for your lead

ensure the drivers are up to date

ensure the lead's firmware is up to date

ensure a battery charger is connected to positive terminal and body earth

ensure all the software is downloaded and the little box at the side is green (must be paid license)

ensure "stop activity on buses" is checked

ensure "force program unchanged" is checked

test run "load SBL"

If all is good up to that point, hit update (your, not my risk)

Turn off all unnecessary accessories too, A/C eg, but obviously not radio

8 hours ago, Marcgr said:

I did try the recovery method with forscan but it failed each time. although I assumed "cut power to the modules" meant key off. I'll give it a shot with disconnecting the fuses

yeah it didn't make a difference. recovery fails at 17% for both the TCM and PCM

6 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

Ensure you have fully researched and enabled the correct connection settings for your lead

ensure the drivers are up to date

ensure the lead's firmware is up to date

ensure a battery charger is connected to positive terminal and body earth

ensure all the software is downloaded and the little box at the side is green (must be paid license)

ensure "stop activity on buses" is checked

ensure "force program unchanged" is checked

test run "load SBL"

If all is good up to that point, hit update (your, not my risk)

Thanks, I did try all that but no joy, will have to email them I guess, the test option worked for one of them. Probably just a bug.

8 hours ago, xcd said:

A bit off topic, but what was the issue? I got a VLinker and tried to update my stereo firmware (ACM and SRM) and both fail, one can't connect at all, one fails erasing blocks, I've not contacted Forscan yet but wanted to get the ACM update for a start as the stereo bricks if I'm on a call when it does the 10 min shutdown (have to pull the fuses or the stereo can't be used and it drains the car battery completely in 24-48hrs if not done).

I've sent you a PM.

So I checked every connector, pin, fuse, ground that could be related to these 2 modules and as I found nothing I took the car to an automotive electrician recommended by a buddy of mine and he managed to revive the modules in a couple of hours!

He said the modules weren't fried but the software was very corrupt and neither Forscan nor IDS could even reach them. He used a professional diagnostics tool called Flex and he was able to backup the eeprom (for the immobiliser) and then flush clean software onto the modules. He told me that all Focuses mk1 - mk3 were known to have some kind of electrical issues, and most likely when I connected the new battery some part of the module's memory was corrupted.

 

Thank you all for your help and suggestions!! ❤️

Glad you're sorted