I’ve got a 2012 focus estate and have had a few occasions where the battery has been flat when I’ve returned to the car. I’ve noticed that it seems to be when I leave and lock the vehicle after listening to the radio until it turns  its self off with engine not running.

if I wait for radio to turn itself off then start engine and immediately turn off exit and lock vehicle I don’t get a flat battery. Is there anyone that has had the same issue or knows what causes it.

Your battery is on the way out, listening to the radio is probably draining the battery too much to prevent it from restarting.

1: Get a new battery installed

2: Listen to the radio whilst idling

6 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

Your battery is on the way out, listening to the radio is probably draining the battery too much to prevent it from restarting.

1: Get a new battery installed

2: Listen to the radio whilst idling

2nd time I've followed your advice Dave LOL Yes, I learned that lesson years ago as I often sit in car waiting for her to finish shopping. I ended up parked in a narrow High Street when on a restart my radio listening had flattened the battery. When breakdown truck arrived, ended up blocking the road for a bit whilst he got me started.

Anyway, I now always leave the car on idle whilst sitting in it, screw the environment 😂

On the subject of flat batteries my own car had a bit of a 'melt down' yesterday. It hadn't been used for two days and when it started I was hit by a warning chime folowed by: (1)Auto Hold Not Available, (2)Park Brake Malfunction, (3)ESP Not Available, and lastly (can't remember the exact words) (4)Emergency Call Not Available.

I well see how many people would freek out at all these mesages and that each one had to be cancelled with the 'OK' button. A quick check with my phone version of FORScan showed that the battery SOC was at 56% and days in service were 555. So litttle surprise that the car was feeling a bit under the weather.

The is of course me being too lazy to check and put the battery on charge these last few weeks. So last night I hooked up the trusty Maypole charger and 16 hours later the SOC is now at 77%

I have to go out now, but when I return the battery will be going back on charge.

How coincidental. I have just put my smart charger onto my car's battery as, despite changing the SOC to a higher level, the cold weather and shortish journeys have led to the heated screen not working just when I needed it. The good old mechanical scraper had to be deployed. I used to have a Mk4 Mondeo and a Skoda Octavia, both with heated screens and they worked whatever the weather and usage. Sometimes progress feels retrograde.

3 minutes ago, Paulius55 said:

...I used to have a Mk4 Mondeo and a Skoda Octavia, both with heated screens and they worked whatever the weather and usage. Sometimes progress feels retrograde.

You see, in the olden days, it was considered that the driver was 'smart', then GenZ decided that computer chip was much smarter - big mistake! 😁