28 minutes ago, mad-mushroom said:

A bigger battery probably increases the standing time but other than driving when I neither want or need to, I have reluctantly accepted that I just need to keep my Focus battery topped up with my smart charger.  It’s relatively easy for me, as I keep my car garaged when not in use.  🤔 Perhaps I should have bought a PHEV!?

You should have bought a full EV if you have easy charging access and don't use the car every day.

PHEV's are the worst of both worlds.  Lugging around a heavy petrol engine when on battery, and a heavy battery when running on petrol.  They were only really useful for commuters who need long motorway range every day but also need to drive into ULEZ city zones at each end of that commute.

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

You should have bought a full EV if you have easy charging access and don't use the car every day.

PHEV's are the worst of both worlds.  Lugging around a heavy petrol engine when on battery, and a heavy battery when running on petrol.  They were only really useful for commuters who need long motorway range every day but also need to drive into ULEZ city zones at each end of that commute.

Yes, I totally agree with this view @TomsFocus. My PHEV comment was an (obviously failed) attempt at sarcastic humour. If I wanted an EV then I would indeed go ‘all in’.  But I don’t want an EV.  When I bought my ‘petrol’ Focus, I simply hadn't appreciated that my (low mileage) driving pattern would necessitate keeping it attached to a battery charger while not being used. 

53 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

PHEV's are the worst of both worlds. ….

Also, it seems likely from the last budget, that PHEVs are soon to be hit with a double whammy tax take on EVs. That is unless our government does yet another economic U-turn. 

9 hours ago, mad-mushroom said:

I would strongly recommend using Forscan to change battery SOC to 95% whether you upgrade the battery or not. It’s a relatively cheap and simple hack, just the price of the data cable, and at least your Focus will put a useful charge back into your battery; when you are driving.  Certainly helped with my Focus, but the basic problem remains that unless you use your car a lot, all that modern click, click, background magic will slowly drain your battery until it hits saver mode. A bigger battery probably increases the standing time but other than driving when I neither want or need to, I have reluctantly accepted that I just need to keep my Focus battery topped up with my smart charger.  It’s relatively easy for me, as I keep my car garaged when not in use.  🤔 Perhaps I should have bought a PHEV!?

This now done a day later as the "vLinker FS OBD2 USB" arrived today.

Update 3. The glove box light stays on permanently, even with engine off and alarm set. The glove box light switch does not get depressed enough and the door is designed to cover the light so it looks dark at night even with a smart phone time delayed picture from the inside. A design flaw or engineered sabotage? If you find a dark place to park and you place your eye close to the top of the door you can just faintly see the light stays on. That is probably contributing to some folks destroyed batteries. I have just now wedged glove box switch with a cloth and put the Maypole charger back on.

1 hour ago, david757 said:

Update 3. The glove box light stays on permanently, even with engine off and alarm set. The glove box light switch does not get depressed enough and the door is designed to cover the light so it looks dark at night even with a smart phone time delayed picture from the inside. A design flaw or engineered sabotage? If you find a dark place to park and you place your eye close to the top of the door you can just faintly see the light stays on. That is probably contributing to some folks destroyed batteries. I have just now wedged glove box switch with a cloth and put the Maypole charger back on.

That is very interesting, thanks.  I will check mine.

Nice catch there.  I guess you could take a movie with your camera, then out it in your glovebox to test

I've seen this mentioned on some other forums a while ago.

1 hour ago, Dixy said:

I've seen this mentioned on some other forums a while ago.

It's been mentioned on the FOC forums for years.

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/160052-new-car-battery-dead/#comment-1101623

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/104896-mk7-fiesta-glovebox-light-stays-on-whilst-closed/#comment-743011

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/138944-ford-focus-st-22-battery-drain/page/6/#comment-970540

That's just three of the threads that have talked about the light staying on. The bulb is typically only 1W or maybe 2.5W at most. It would take nearly two weeks to make an impact on the battery.

Does it really stay on, forever, until the battery drains? I innocently ask 🤔  wondering whether the glove box would ‘time out’ in the same way that boot & interior lights do if you leave them open*. Guess that could be easily tested by leaving the glove box wide open, with/without locking the car. What the heck,  I might even try that myself when I next use my Focus.

 

*Do they ‘time out’ or am I just making that up?! 

29 minutes ago, mad-mushroom said:

Does it really stay on, forever, until the battery drains? I innocently ask 🤔  wondering whether the glove box would ‘time out’ in the same way that boot & interior lights do if you leave them open*. Guess that could be easily tested by leaving the glove box wide open, with/without locking the car. What the heck,  I might even try that myself when I next use my Focus.

 

*Do they ‘time out’ or am I just making that up?! 

*Yes, my interior and boot lights "time out" but I will now also check the glove box light.  I know @unofix says that the drain is minimal, but with these batteries being as they are, obviously the less discharges that happen, the better. 

Does anyone know which module controls the glovebox light?  I'd be more concerned about the power being taken by a module staying awake than one single bulb.

live supply comes from BCM battery saver circuit. Same line supplies interior lights, luggage comp light, vanity mirrors, etc. All of which shut down 20 mins after vehicle is locked. It also shuts down if any door is left open after several minutes. Not sure if it shuts down if doors are all closed, but not locked though. 

I've had this problem on my Focus and Transit Custom. Never affected battery though, just annoying. I've taken both switches apart and trimmed down the metal contact, so instead of the light going off, being pressed  5-6mm it goes off after only being pressed for 1-2mm. That fixes the problem

 

16 minutes ago, Apollogary said:

Not sure if it shuts down if doors are all closed, but not locked though. 

Yes still turns off even if not locked. 👍

This ghetto fix worked for me. Cut some self adhesive floor protection pads to size. https://www.diy.com/departments/beige-felt-protection-pad-l-25mm-w-25mm-pack-of-12/1725340_BQ.prd

3 hours ago, david757 said:

This ghetto fix worked for me. Cut some self adhesive floor protection pads to size. https://www.diy.com/departments/beige-felt-protection-pad-l-25mm-w-25mm-pack-of-12/1725340_BQ.prd

Brilliantly simple - thanks for posting.

On 12/31/2025 at 10:37 AM, mad-mushroom said:

I would strongly recommend using Forscan to change battery SOC to 95% whether you upgrade the battery or not. It’s a relatively cheap and simple hack, just the price of the data cable, and at least your Focus will put a useful charge back into your battery; when you are driving.  Certainly helped with my Focus, but the basic problem remains that unless you use your car a lot, all that modern click, click, background magic will slowly drain your battery until it hits saver mode. A bigger battery probably increases the standing time but other than driving when I neither want or need to, I have reluctantly accepted that I just need to keep my Focus battery topped up with my smart charger.  It’s relatively easy for me, as I keep my car garaged when not in use.  🤔 Perhaps I should have bought a PHEV!?

Actually it isn't about "modern click click" being responsible of this, but simple and pure bad software engineering. 

On 1/4/2026 at 7:47 AM, mad-mushroom said:

Does it really stay on, forever, until the battery drains? I innocently ask 🤔  wondering whether the glove box would ‘time out’ in the same way that boot & interior lights do if you leave them open*. Guess that could be easily tested by leaving the glove box wide open, with/without locking the car. What the heck,  I might even try that myself when I next use my Focus.

 

*Do they ‘time out’ or am I just making that up?! 

I have a MK4 and left it open the other evening to check with the car locked
 

it turned off automatically after about 5 minutes of the car not being locked 

Evening everyone. 
 

I’ve come across this forum after putting a deposit on an Estate 1L 155 MHEV St-Line X. We’re going to pick it up next weekend - what signs should I look out for when test driving it to make sure there aren’t any issues? Or is this an issue with all of the MHEV engines? 

Thank you in advance. 

5 hours ago, Nout said:

Evening everyone. 
 

I’ve come across this forum after putting a deposit on an Estate 1L 155 MHEV St-Line X. We’re going to pick it up next weekend - what signs should I look out for when test driving it to make sure there aren’t any issues? Or is this an issue with all of the MHEV engines? 

Thank you in advance. 

Lovely car!

 

honestly there isn’t much you can do. It seems that Ford has underspecced the battery on these cars (I believe it’s a problem on kugas and pumas too).

If you have access to forscan, change the state of charge to 95% (though don’t tell the garage this). If you’re having battery issues (including fordpass) try to get the garage to change the battery. They’ll probably put the same (underspeced) battery back in.

Others have put bigger batteries in with success. I have the same OEM battery replaced (garage wasn’t interested in the issue being the battery too small) and I found in the cold it’s turned off the FordPass connection after about 2/3 days but otherwise in the warmer climate it’s fine 

If your finding that the message keeps happening I can tell you ford will tell you that the battery will need charging but that is not the case I also had this problem I ended up changing the battery for a new agm battery after for wanted 300 pounds for a battery I paid alot less and fitted it my self and as soon as I reset the car and told the ecu I changed the battery all the messages stop happen from time to time I get headlight malfunction but its a missing message error you may consider seeing if the car needs updating through ford but I very much doubt it 

8 hours ago, captaincadet said:

Lovely car!

 

honestly there isn’t much you can do. It seems that Ford has underspecced the battery on these cars (I believe it’s a problem on kugas and pumas too).

If you have access to forscan, change the state of charge to 95% (though don’t tell the garage this). If you’re having battery issues (including fordpass) try to get the garage to change the battery. They’ll probably put the same (underspeced) battery back in.

Others have put bigger batteries in with success. I have the same OEM battery replaced (garage wasn’t interested in the issue being the battery too small) and I found in the cold it’s turned off the FordPass connection after about 2/3 days but otherwise in the warmer climate it’s fine 

Thank you! 

From intensive research, it looks like a bigger battery may be required. 

It is a 2024 plate with only 7000 miles on the clock - I was scratching my head as to why it already has had 3 owners. I think I figured out why..

 

 

4 hours ago, Nout said:

Thank you! 

From intensive research, it looks like a bigger battery may be required. 

It is a 2024 plate with only 7000 miles on the clock - I was scratching my head as to why it already has had 3 owners. I think I figured out why..

 

 

That in itself sounds odd. Perhaps it was a demo car? Or a company car?

 

low mileage doesn’t bother me but mutiple owners in a short period of time does 

12 minutes ago, captaincadet said:

That in itself sounds odd. Perhaps it was a demo car? Or a company car?

 

low mileage doesn’t bother me but mutiple owners in a short period of time does 

It was pre-reg in Aug 2024, used as a demo I presume. Sold to its first owner in May 2025, then change of ownership again in Nov 2025.. before they traded it in a month later in December.

Just doesn’t seem right, maybe the car just wasn’t for them. More likely, it’s to do with the battery issue and it sitting around for 1.5 years only doing 7k miles. 
 

 

Possibly pre-reg, so already on it's second 'owner' within the first few months.  But to move to a 3rd owner, and then be for sale again, by 2 years old definitely raises suspicion... 🤔

(Edit - Posted at the same time.)