Fiesta st line hill assist

[Joyzy]

Has anyone had the problem with hill assist turning itself off, this happens about once a week, keep having to into the menu to turn it back on 😡

[unofix]

It will always turn itself off whenever the cars battery state of charge (SOC) falls below 70%

Charging the car battery once a month helps it to operate most of the time.

[Joyzy]

On 9/24/2022 at 7:07 PM, unofix said:

It will always turn itself off whenever the cars battery state of charge (SOC) falls below 70%

Charging the car battery once a month helps it to operate most of the time.

Thanks for the info, is there any configuration with forscan that will stop this from happening?

[unofix]

4 minutes ago, Joyzy said:

Thanks for the info, is there any configuration with forscan that will stop this from happenin

Yes and No !!

If you have a 2018 Focus Mk4 then you can use FORScan to adjust the battery State Of Charge (SOC) from the default setting of 80% and increase it to 95% which many owners have done. It will not guarantee that the problems associated with low SOC will never occur but it greatly reduces the issue.

Before adjusting the SOC of my car to 95% it used to like to disable keyless entry on the passenger doors.

[Joyzy]

2 hours ago, unofix said:

Yes and No !!

If you have a 2018 Focus Mk4 then you can use FORScan to adjust the battery State Of Charge (SOC) from the default setting of 80% and increase it to 95% which many owners have done. It will not guarantee that the problems associated with low SOC will never occur but it greatly reduces the issue.

Before adjusting the SOC of my car to 95% it used to like to disable keyless entry on the passenger doors.

Again thanks for the info, does this mean that at the moment the car will allow the battery to drop to 80% charge before it starts charging it back up? I guess if this is the case the car shuts down certain features, or have I got that wrong 🤔

[isetta]

I know this might be a provocative statement.  I keep hill start assist turned off as I don’t want to forget how to drive a car properly. 

[unofix]

4 hours ago, Joyzy said:

does this mean that at the moment the car will allow the battery to drop to 80% charge before it starts charging it back up?

No.

The 80% State Of Charge is the Maximum the alternator will charge the battery to.

So at the moment your car battery will never be charged to more than 80% of it's capacity even if you drive around the world (twice) !!

It's all to do with manufactures trying to manipulate the emissions in order to get government type approval for the car.

Given that at around 70% SOC many things start to be disabled by the car in order to preserve the battery it doesn't leave much room for maneuver when the starting point is only 80%

[martinf64]

This use to happen on my previous Fiesta, the hill start assist would just turn off and importantly (and dangerously) not tell you it had turned off...so you're stopped on a gradient and end up rolling back. You can sense whether the hill start is still active by the feel of the brake pedal as it tends to firm up if you release it ever so slightly and reapply pressure...although it would be much better if Ford had actually provided a light or message saying it as been disabled.

In the manual it suggests that over revving the engine might turn it off...why I have no idea as you have to rev the engine a little to start on a gradient. Maybe battery charge is another issue although with the commute I do that as never been a problem...amazingly I've never had an issue with the Stop/Start system, always seemed to work whenever I've needed it.

Anyway, I leave the hill start assist enabled permanently, well until it turns itself off...and I haven't forgotten how to drive properly 😛

In the new Mhev Fiesta I tend not to use it because the engine turns off anyway, so its back to using the handbrake for me.

[TomsFocus]

Half the cars sold nowadays have automatic transmission...driving properly is a thing of the past!

 

[Joyzy]

2 hours ago, isetta said:

I know this might be a provocative statement.  I keep hill start assist turned off as I don’t want to forget how to drive a car properly. 

I never really use it but I am a driving instructor so I always teach pupils how to do hill starts using the handbrake first, that’s why I chose a car with a traditional handbrake, the problem I have is where I live one of the test routes involves a really steep hill and if you don’t pull the handbrake on really hard the car will roll back, some struggle to get it off again, when they are ready for test I like to give them the option of hill assist if they get that route 😁

[Joyzy]

2 hours ago, unofix said:

No.

The 80% State Of Charge is the Maximum the alternator will charge the battery to.

So at the moment your car battery will never be charged to more than 80% of it's capacity even if you drive around the world (twice) !!

It's all to do with manufactures trying to manipulate the emissions in order to get government type approval for the car.

Given that at around 70% SOC many things start to be disabled by the car in order to preserve the battery it doesn't leave much room for maneuver when the starting point is only 80%

Wow, that is crazy, can’t believe that the battery is never fully charged, surely that can’t be any good for the battery either, thanks for your help, I will set it to a higher level and see what happens 😁