Hello all.

I came to my car today and pressed the fob and nothing.

Tried the spare fob...nothing!

Tried the key inside the fob. Turned right and left and nothing!

Also tried the remote unlocking using my app...nothing. tracking last picked up at my place of work 15 hours ago.

The car is only 2.5years old (I've owned around a year)

Is there any way to get into my car? Also what is the problem? Could the battery actually be dead?

I have noticed the last week a message saying 'System turned off to save battery, please turn on the ignition' and also the parking sensors tone seems to be a little different. Could it be that the battery has some how died on me? I commute around 14miles a day, is this enough?

Buy a can of 'spray 3 in 1 oil' and put some oil in the door key lock. leave it for a couple of hours and then use the key and turning back an forth the lock will free up and you can un-lock the door.

Yes your battery State Of Charge has gone below 'critical' and is need of a good recharge. It may not recover because it has been allow to discharge so much, (the car did try warning you "System turned off to save battery").

You could drive 40 miles a day and it still wouldn't be enough to keep the battery SOC high enough over a few months. Modern cars have a "Smart" charging system which to put it nicely are actually quite dumb.

Get yourself a smart battery charger (enter the man who knows all about battery chargers @StephenFord) and charge the battery for at least 12 hours. Make sure you connect the positive lead to the battery positive, but connect the negative of the charger to the main chassis earth point - Do Not connect the negative lead to the battery terminal.

If your battery recovers, than you need to put it on charge for 8 hours every couple of months to keep the SOC at an acceptable level.

You can of course use FORScan to adjust the SOC from the factory default of 80% and increase it to 95% and you then won't need to keep charging the battery.

18 minutes ago, unofix said:

 Modern cars have a "Smart" charging system which to put it nicely are actually quite dumb.

It saddens me that with cars ever reliance on battery technology, that the engineering to ensure batteries work correctly is often lacking. As you say, even 'modern' cars benefit greatly from a regular charge, as  despite all the built in tech, car manufactures trying desperately to meet all sorts of emissions  legislation just don't care what owners experience in practice. Anyway, here is my battery charger of choice, cheap as chips, all the functionality of chargers more than 4 times the price!

Here is a sample link to purchase a MayPole, other sellers are available...

Thanks for the replies. Managed to get I to the car, however it was deadlocked and can't get open the passanger door on my Focus Stline, so can't open boot.

I have never used a battery charger before. Can you connect to the battery to charge and leave all the other cables as they are or do you have to disconnect the positive and negative before attaching this?

Hoping the battery 1 can come back alive and 2 that nothing has gone mad with losing power. (Engine management radio codes etc)

9 minutes ago, Jawz said:

Thanks for the replies. Managed to get I to the car, however it was deadlocked and can't get open the passanger door on my Focus Stline, so can't open boot.

I have never used a battery charger before. Can you connect to the battery to charge and leave all the other cables as they are or do you have to disconnect the positive and negative before attaching this?

Hoping the battery 1 can come back alive and 2 that nothing has gone mad with losing power. (Engine management radio codes etc)

You can safely leave it all attached, however, make sure you connect the -ve of the charger to the actual bodywork, and not directly to the battery. (an exposed nearby nut would do). If you connect direct to the battery, the BMS, battery management system,  will not realise the battery has been charged and you'll still have issues. (though I'm not sure if your model has a BMS or not) Someone sensible will be along soon!

On the MK4 Focus RHD, you have to take the bonnet lever off and turn the cog manually to release the bonnet for a flat battery. It is explained in the manual.

It's very easy to unlock your car with a OBDII battery charger lead.

For example: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113236497448?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1q8ooX-_iRuulid6ju7EH1Q34&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=113236497448&targetid=1596500855469&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=1006688&poi=&campaignid=15278604175&mkgroupid=135429446288&rlsatarget=pla-1596500855469&abcId=9300698&merchantid=138820021&gclid=CjwKCAjwuYWSBhByEiwAKd_n_o7H3pJAQdEmuPaz6GGTSgxWZ5CvVzy8-C7UcDrTs3qtf6mUnXT6NhoCKDQQAvD_BwE

Connect the battery charger cables to the leads of the plug MAKE SURE THE RED and BLACK DO NOT TOUCH.

Plug in to the cars OBDII port (on the drivers side). Switch on charger. Wait 5 minutes and press unlock for the doors. Doors will unlock.

Switch off the charger. Disconnect the OBDII charge plug. Now open the bonnet and connect the battery charger. Positive lead to the battery positive terminal (Red) and the charger negative lead to the chassis main earth point (Do NOT connect to the battery negative terminal).

Charge battery for at least 8 hours (12 would be better).

Switch off charger, disconnect it. Start car, live happy ever after 😀

When I had my mk2 Focus I got in the habit of pressing the doors unlock button on the fob and not the boot button, even if I just wanted to get in the boot.

Didn't help once when I left the key on the inside boot ledge, shut the boot and the boot lid come down on the key and pushed the lock button, which had the button set up with 1 press deadlock.😒

Greenflag bent the rear door window frame out and had to wind the window down with some wire, lucky I had manual windows in the back. 

6 minutes ago, MarkRS9 said:

Greenflag bent the rear door window frame out and had to wind the window down with some wire, lucky I had manual windows in the back. 

Yes, those pesky wind up rear windows are very handy, my own LX 1st owner obviously ticked that option box 🤣

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

You can safely leave it all attached, however, make sure you connect the -ve of the charger to the actual bodywork, and not directly to the battery. (an exposed nearby nut would do). If you connect direct to the battery, the BMS, battery management system,  will not realise the battery has been charged and you'll still have issues. (though I'm not sure if your model has a BMS or not) Someone sensible will be along soon!

Thanks pal.

I have now ordered a CTEK MX 5.0 Battery Charger off the RainForest Site as it says it's for Stop/Start and does some fancy stuff with reconditioning the battery. Hopefully this will do the trick 🤞 

Never have the best of luck with card and still keep going back to Ford. Still scratch my head how it has died with it being only a few years old. May have to make it a monthly routine to hook it up for a few hours to top it up.

Thanks everyone for your quick responses. Expected my post being sat for months with no reply. Impressed with everyone's input 👍

(P.s. I have always pressed lock twice. 1 to make sure it's pressed and 2 because I thought deadlocks would be best. Is it recommend to only press the lock once? What's the main difference. Is it to make sure kids are locked in the car if you nip into shop?)

 

10 minutes ago, Jawz said:

(P.s. I have always pressed lock twice. 1 to make sure it's pressed and 2 because I thought deadlocks would be best. Is it recommend to only press the lock once? What's the main difference. Is it to make sure kids are locked in the car if you nip into shop?)

 

I do mine twice because I get a visual sign it's locked as the indicators flash twice. If you lock with one press, you have no visual confirmation what the h*ll has happened!

1 hour ago, Jawz said:

 I have always pressed lock twice. 1 to make sure it's pressed and 2 because I thought deadlocks would be best. Is it recommend to only press the lock once? What's the main difference.

The big difference is that if you only single lock then if someone breaks a window they can open a door by pulling an interior handle, whereas they can't do that if it is double locked.

Car theft is not a big problem where I live so I just single lock my car most of the time with the occasional double lock to exercise the mechanism because I don't want to be stuck like you were and have to muck about to get to bonnet open.

Hi, enter car manually with key.

Remove remote key from keyring

Remove rubber mat from front of centre console (under A/C controls)

place remote key in area (it should be shaped)

press brake and clutch pedal

try and start engine

If battery is too flat to start engine this should, at least, disengage double locking to enable you to open bonnet and charge battery