1 hour ago, unofix said:

Why would they even test the battery back in February, it is not part of a service.

Even though it was putting a low battery warning out almost on a daily basis. Surely they would see that when they checked the car?

In a word "no"

When you pay to get a 'service' done then you will get exactly what is on the service schedule and not one iota more. If you were fortunate then a garage might mention to you that you should have a problem looked at, but that would be chargeable, not something they would do for free.

3 hours ago, unofix said:

Why would they even test the battery back in February, it is not part of a service.

Assuming it was an official Ford service point, I'm not so sure about that. I'm looking at the 30 point "Ford e-check" from my last service. Underbonnet items checked include:

- Engine oil and coolant

- Water, oil and fluid leaks

- Alternator, belt, and battery condition (they recorded the voltage)

I've had the same document with my last 7 years of services so I presume it is a standard thing.

Ford service is also supposed to include a video of them doing the checks, which I also get.

17 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

and battery condition (they recorded the voltage)

It was my understanding that checking the battery condition was purely a physical check. They check terminals are tight, that the battery is secure and it's not leaking. I've never known a voltage check to be carried out. You could check the charging voltage from the alternator but to check the standing voltage of the battery would require the vehicle to be left undisturbed for at least an hour otherwise the voltage reading would be meaningless.

The whole point of servicing is to upsell parts like tyres, brakes, wipers, etc.  Checking battery voltage is a good way of flogging post-warranty customers a new battery.

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

...  Checking battery voltage is a good way of flogging post-warranty customers a new battery.

That's why the 'free' Halfords battery check usually finds that you need a new battery 🤣

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Checking battery voltage is a good way of flogging post-warranty customers a new battery.

My Ford dealer has always checked and recorded mine - accurately too, as I check it myself before it goes in. 

it's seldom the desirable voltage as per our "usual chart" though, and often gets an amber mark in the advisory column on the check sheet!😀 In fairness, they've never tried selling me a battery, though, even out of warranty.

👍

Did you ever get any traction with this petition?

 

I've been going through the Ford UK CRC without much luck so wondered whether a better method would be a collective email to them with those impacted as cc'd contact POCs....... 

my ford focus 2024 has constant battery problems been in main dealer twice but they say cant find problem not satisfactory for a new car

7 hours ago, micky53 said:

but they say cant find problem

It could be a firmware problem. Have they tried replacing the driver ? 😉

17 hours ago, unofix said:

Have they tried replacing the driver ?

That's wetware .

On 2/2/2025 at 7:40 PM, LSMC77 said:

Hi new member here, had four Focus previously, first was 2007 MK2 black ST2, next 2008 Black Zetec Mk2.5 1.8 TDCi, after that a 2013 Mk3 Titanium X Navigator. 

Never had an ounce of bother with any of them, great cars. 

However... I got my self a Ford-DIrect 12 month old Mk4.5 ST-line X 155 MHEV in April 2023. 3K miles on the clock. beautiful car, love driving it. 

I have been having similar 12v battery issues to every one else in this thread.

I didn't realise what was happening at first, I just got messages on the central display telling me the system was shutting down to save battery, which I took as a precautionary measure to stop you playing the radio  too long with the engine off.

Then came the messages on the Ford Pass app, about remote features being disabled to preserve battery, and the nail in the coffin was when going out in the dark mornings, opening the car resulted in no puddle lights, no interior lights, and a frozen sync 4 display. I couldn't even change drive modes by pressing the physical button. The only remedy was to turn the car off, open the door, close it again and start the car again. I began looking at forums, including here and have found others who share my frustration.

I bought a maypole 4A smart charger and charged the battery until the display showed full bars and was green. This appeared to solve the issue, but only for it to return a few days later. 

My daily mileage is two trips to take my wife to work which are about 7 miles there, 7 back, twice a day, thus about 28-30 miles. this is 2-3 times per week, with my days at the office adding an extra 20-25 miles. then I usually take a 40 mile round trip once per week and have some weekend miles in there too.

Thus far since owning the car I've covered about 7000 miles. (holiday last year included).

to my mind its covering more than enough miles, I've done much less in previous cars and never had battery issues, except for during the pandemic when my diesel sat for 6 months doing nothing, and the battery failed but that was a 7 year old battery at  the time!

I don't buy this nonsense of too few miles, if that truly is the case then the vehicle is not fit for purpose is it? or at the very least the vehicle battery is not fir for purpose

I have booked the car in to my nearest Ford dealer, (not the Point of Sale dealer, who was in Yorkshire as they had the right car for sale at the right time). Dealer has said if they cant find anything wrong warranty wise, I will be charged £115 for the privilege of them diagnosing the issue! I was flabbergasted! It seems these days that a warranty means nothing at all. 

Dealer even mention a charge of £20 for the courtesy car.... I know its not much but its the principle, its not a courtesy car if I have to pay for it is it? 

All in all I am not happy, it has really soured Ford for me. 

Anyhow, that's my Rant over. 

I may return here and post results of my dealer visit (mid Feb).

I have always found forums to be a good source of info and thought I would contribute my experience for others.

Cheers, 

LSMC77

 

 

Hi again all, I'm back again after my previous visit in Early Feb this year 2025 (My first post quoted above).

I took the car into the dealers, I explained my dissatisfaction with the car, and the excuses including the proposed £115 cost if the battery was not defective and only required a charge.  They kept it over night to charge it and check battery health in the morning.

I got a call mid-afternoon next day, they said the battery was knackered and had replaced it under warranty. they also said they had updated the "PCM" software too.  

no charge for the courtesy car, likely due to the fact the battery was dead. 

I think the reason for the dead battery was that when i purchased the car it was 12months old exactly. but had only covered 3770 miles. So its been sat still for most of that first year. 

Anyway, End of October comes and I'm back in the same predicament. It started with courtesy lights, puddle lights boot lights etc not coming on when opening the car in the dark.  a charge overnight 12+ hours on the smart charger sorted this for about 2 weeks. Then back to same.

Past two weeks I've been getting the  "system off to preserve battery " warning on the infotainment screen. 

I have just taken the car off an overnight charge which lasted 24 hours.

Upon removing the negative charging lead of the Maypole 4A charger then immediately reconnecting it the charger reads 12.6v. this appears to be normal according to that little table I have seen posted on these forums. 

A cheap multi-meter reads 12.36v.

The result though, is that there are still no interior lights coming on or puddle lights. the car starts ok.  It has basically eaten through another battery in 9 months. my driving habits have not changed I'm still using the car every day for roughly 10-30 miles of town based driving and some motorway stints. I am aware of charging only happening during  engine braking/regen charging when slowing the car, And I have always used that anyway on all my cars mainly because its more fuel efficient and easier on your brakes. 

I'm going to have to take it back into Ford, its 3 year warranty will be up in April 2026 and I want this sorted. I'm afraid I will not being sticking with Ford for my next car. 

I was tempted to do the FORSCAN change on the software to change max charge level to 95% and buy the bigger Yuasa battery but that's going to cost night on 60-70 quid to buy the OBDII connector and the FORSCAN app  and 100 odd quid for the battery and to my mind it will only kick the can further down the road, taking a bit longer to end up at the same place with a dead battery. 

Your thoughts  were and are very much appreciated! 

Cheers, 

LSMC77

 

23 hours ago, LSMC77 said:

going to cost night on 60-70 quid to buy the OBDII connector and the FORSCAN app  and 100 odd quid for the battery

vLinker FS cable = £29

FORScan = free

Battery = £87

Unofix,  

My mistake, I must have incorrectly read somewhere along the line that FORSCAN required a paid licence to be able to make changes to the cars software. 

is it guaranteed that swapping in the bigger capacity battery and fiddling the battery SOC in the software to max out at 95% will eliminate these problems for good? 

if so I might just do this. 

Cheers, 

LSMC77

On 12/30/2025 at 11:10 PM, LSMC77 said:

is it guaranteed that swapping in the bigger capacity battery and fiddling the battery SOC in the software to max out at 95% will eliminate these problems for good?

Ah!!!

If you're after a guarantee, then you would be better off buying a 'Toaster' from Curry's 🤣

All anyone can say is that it will help and for many people it has eliminated the problem. For those who dive the car once a week to Asda and back then it's not going to solve the underlying issue.

FORScan comes with a 60 day free licence, after that it costs £12 per year if you want to use the programming side of the software. Diagnostics remains free even without the licence.

On 4/7/2024 at 8:59 PM, unofix said:

FORScan (for use with Windows Laptop) : https://forscan.org/download.html

It's what many Ford owners use including some Ford technicians.

• vLinker FS, cable for laptop: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vgate-vLinker-Adapter-FORScan-MS-CAN/dp/B0952P4MLP

OR

• OBDLINK EX, cable for laptop: https://www.amazon.co.uk/OBDLINK-EX-FORScan-OBD-Adapter/dp/B081VQVD3F/ref=sr_1_5

For diagnostic use only:

• vLinker FD, for android phone: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vgate-Bluetooth-vLinker-Scanner-Diagnostic/dp/B08H82WC8L
• vLinker FD+, for iPhone: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vgate-Bluetooth-vLinker-Scanner-Diagnostic/dp/B08H8JHWP2

 

I got nowhere with Ford. Wasted 2 days giving them my car they charged the battery said it was good.  I picked it the car next morning.  Did a battery test before starting the car. Something like 11.93. Took Unofix got the Yuasa battery...so far so good.  3 weeks later and issues are away.  Car hadn't moved for 8 months when I bought it.  Buy the battery.  Save yourself the hassle and get your life back 

Late to the party........

I originally brought a 2019 Vignale 182 estate in December 2019 - 9 months old, 1600 miles which soon needed a new battery. I put that down to lack of use in its early life and had no further problems.

I upgraded to a 2023 model ST estate in July (20 months old, 12k) and I've been getting the "battery saver mode" notifications for the last few months. I was happy charging the battery as the 2 year service was due. Of course the dealer only looked at the battery 10 minutes before I'm due to pick it up (despite the car being dropped of the previous afternoon). No great surprise, they're a crap dealer and I was happy to go to halfords & get a decent battery. However, their tests showed the battery to be healthy and the alternator working fine, so I'm following this and other similar threads with interest.

Both cars are ex-Ford fleet, the first brought through a main dealer, the second through a car supermarket

Afternoon, after doing some research both on this forum and Facebook - I've found plenty of owners & ex owners who have owned/have Focus Mk4 onwards which has suffered battery issues. These issues stem from either dodgy batteries, broken battery monitoring systems, or flaky Sync3/4 updates. I would like to get a full list of names, model, and location and pass these to Ford Customer Care Europe. I already have a case pending where their Technical team are looking into Sync 4 being a total battery drain. However, they seem to think this is an isolated issue when I know it is not. 

On 4/12/2023 at 11:58 AM, LukeJQuinn said:

I have also reached out to GeoffBuysCars and his Youtube channel to put this issue on his radar. He is also starting to look into this issue as it doesn't seem Ford care nor have any solution to the problem. 

I'll post a poll on Facebook and ask it to be shared and collate a full list of names, in the hope they sit up and take notice of this issue and offer a workable solution. For now, can affected owners or past owners please either response to this post or message me privately? Your feedback is very much appreciated 🙂

Once I have a full list of names and details, I'll collate it and get it over to Ford in a professional email. Please keep this post strictly related to the battery issue and The hi details. Thanks. 

On 4/12/2023 at 1:12 PM, Wino said:

Had to replace our battery ( At our own cost during the first lockdown) at just over 6 months old due to some module not shutting down. It's been fine since it was replaced and the modules reset.

2019 MK4 Focus T Line X ( 1.5 Diesel).

Hi

i have a ford focus ecoblue 1.5 active x and experiencing the the battery drain problem. Am having to recharge it every 2 or 3 days to keep the auto stop/start working. Took the car to Halfords to have the battery tested and it passed with flying colours, 97%. I updated the sync 3 software but was unable to download sync 4.

Ford focus mk4.5 72 plate, United Kingdom

52 minutes ago, dugthebug said:

Afternoon, after doing some research both on this forum and Facebook - I've found plenty of owners & ex owners who have owned/have Focus Mk4 onwards which has suffered battery issues. These issues stem from either dodgy batteries, broken battery monitoring systems, or flaky Sync3/4 updates. I would like to get a full list of names, model, and location and pass these to Ford Customer Care Europe. I already have a case pending where their Technical team are looking into Sync 4 being a total battery drain. However, they seem to think this is an isolated issue when I know it is not. 

Hi

i have a ford focus ecoblue 1.5 active x and experiencing the the battery drain problem. Am having to recharge it every 2 or 3 days to keep the auto stop/start working. Took the car to Halfords to have the battery tested and it passed with flying colours, 97%. I updated the sync 3 software but was unable to download sync 4.

You should have a read at this, Ford have a very distant relationship with 'customer' and 'service'...🤣

9 hours ago, StephenFord said:

You should have a read at this, Ford have a very distant relationship with 'customer' and 'service'

And older members on here still remember:

Factual America Podcast

Ford Pinto Scandal: Consumer Reporting Exposes Deadly Des...

Discover how consumer advocacy reporting unveiled the Ford Pinto's fatal fuel tank flaw. Learn about the 1970s scandal that reshaped automotive safety standards and consumer protection.

On 5/18/2023 at 9:02 PM, LukeJQuinn said:

Since posting this, I decided to rejoin Facebook after 10 years and joined an array of Focus Mk 4 & Mk 4.5 groups. I've made contact with over 10 owners of Mk 4.5 owners and I've found some interesting results. I also ran the car for over 1 month with ALL connectivity features turned off. During this period the car performed perfectly without a sniff of anything not working (as in power was remained verified by testing the battery each week, lights remaining on and the infamous stop/start working on every journey) 

I'll post screenshots of the emails sent to Ford regarding the test above and the results I found after speaking to the 10 owners. Coming back to those results - it would appear the Sync 4 version is the issue causing battery drain. All owners reporting battery drain issues are running on Sync 4 - 21333 / Revision 284. The newer owners of the 4.5 are running 22130 / Revision 437. The Sync version also updates other modules on the car and the owners of the newer vehicles haven't reported any issues with battery drain issues nor flagged any issues to Ford. Some have also tested the current charge of batteries and all report correct or exceed the charge. Some owners including the one in the screenshot have only covered a small amount of miles, yet theirs is performing as normal and they are running the latest versions. Two other owners had theirs 2 weeks and covered double the milage and are reporting drain issues, again running the older version. 

 I am currently in discussion with Ford Customer Care to organise my vehicle being upgraded to the latest version of Sync 4 (the latest version is only available via Ford Dealers and hasn't been released via the normal update channels. All newly built vehicles come with the latest update as expected. 

II'll keep you all posted as to the results but this is the strongest evidence to date I've managed to uncover and Ford are also in agreement that this could well be the resolution we've longed for. I've spent endless hours covering this and I think I've finally solved it, and got Ford on side in the process. 

 

what about sync 3 cars ?

3 hours ago, dugthebug said:

what about sync 3 cars ?

Indeed, Ford are bound to listen to a bunch of customers whinging about something that they find unsatisfactory with their cars. It's well know they have a sympathetic ear, and no doubt will supply y'all with a cheque to cover any repairs needed... 🤣

On 2/28/2026 at 9:53 PM, StephenFord said:

Indeed, Ford are bound to listen to a bunch of customers whinging about something that they find unsatisfactory with their cars. It's well know they have a sympathetic ear, and no doubt will supply y'all with a cheque to cover any repairs needed... 🤣

Myself and others have had Ford replace the battery for a higher Amperage battery, or issue compensation of around £200 which enabled them to replace the battery for something higher rated.

I am surprised you take such an attitude towards members when your profile displays "FOC Supporters". Why not try and live by the badge instead of berating members.