Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone else on the forum does dog trials/car boot sales and can offer advice!

I attend dog competitions and with weather warming up its not feasible to shut pooch in the boot for extended time.

At the weekend I left the car unlocked and key in the car. Boot was open quite a large part of the day and doors intermittently open/shut although was reaching in open windows most of the time.

By 5pm I received the "remote features disabled" notification on ford pass which I knew was battery drain (we left shortly after so no issues starting).

My questions are:

1) did leaving the key in the car cause the car to remain "on" and not shut down properly causing battery drain? 

2) is there any way to have car unlocked and boot open without draining the battery? Ideally would like to crate dog in the boot with boot lid open or partially open to allow air flow.

I have a 21 plate Ford Focus Estate (titanium X)

Any advice appreciated!

 

 

I would imagine leaving the interior lights and boot light on all day did it.

If you want the doors open then just turn off the interior lights

If you want the boot open then pop the lamp out and either remove the plug or the bulb

Or, take a 10mm spanner with you, park up and disconnect the battery negative cable

I think the main issue will be keeping BCM awake, that'll take more power than a boot light.  Every time you open or close a door that'll get woken up.  

Leaving the key in the car won't matter as it's a sleepy key, that gets switched off after 30 seconds stationary.  The car shouldn't be searching for it until you press the clutch/start button anyway.

Disconnecting the battery isn't a bad idea but you won't be able to close and reopen the boot if you do that.  Will also have to go through the hassle of resetting the one touch windows etc afterwards.

Best option is probably to fully charge the battery at home the night before.  Then just start & run the engine for 15 minutes if you do get a FordPass warning during the day.

I'm sure the interior lights switch themselves off after a small amount of time unless the ignition is switched on.

I do think that your Battery has seen better days. When I service my car the Hatchback is left open all the time and the Doors are opened and closed and I've never had a Battery warning.

I've switched my interior lights off anyway. Obviously you don't need them in daylight, and even when you get in after dark there's enough stuff lights up on the dash to see what you need to start the car.

All the interior lights including the boot light, time out and switch off after a maximum of 10 minutes inactivity, even if you leave a door wide open. No need to turn anything off or remove bulbs.

No reason to leave the key in the car, you can just leave the tailgate open and unlocked, something which I often do with my Mk4 Focus. 

It's only if you are constantly opening and closing doors or the tailgate which causes all modules to start the wake up process which runs the battery down. 

Thanks for all the replies and advice. Some things to try this weekend at the next show (unless it's raining 😅)

I did check and the interior/boot lights do switch off after a certain amount of time and possibly the opening/closing of doors/boot through the day kept waking the BCM up, would make sense.

I'm hoping the battery isn't on the way out... I had this replaced under warranty Nov23!