hello all 

 

ive not had the car for very long but it is a 64 plate i have recently had ABS Traction Control Hill start assist and active city stop fault messages and and lights on dash, there is no decrease in power and still drives like it should im just a bit concerned on what this could be ive seen a few that state this could be the battery on its way out, is there a specific batter i need to get as my car has keyless start 

Hi,

With those messages, it could be a failing ABS sensor as well as a weak battery.

The battery is not different for cars with keyless start.  They are only different for cars with stop/start.  If your engine has stop/start then it needs an EFB battery.

Yeah I’ve just researched it and it’s stop start. Can you replace a efb battery yourself or does it need to be done by a pro so they can re program it ? 

2 minutes ago, TRP93 said:

I don’t think I have start stop it’s just Keyless start and active city stop if that’s stop start 

No.  Stop start is when the engine stops while you are stationary at traffic lights.  There is a button to switch it off low down on the dash.  The button symbol is a capital A in a small circle.  Most Mk3s did need start/stop for emissions purposes so check carefully if yours does.  Or check for the letters EFB on the battery itself.  (If the battery is not original, the previous owner may have fitted the wrong one, so this is not a perfect test).

Active city stop is a totally different feature.  That applies the brakes for you if it thinks you're going to hit a pedestrian or a car in town under 20mph.

yes it has the Capital A with the arrow around it, i should probably check the charge of the battery or see how old the battery itself is, can this be replaced as easy as taking the old one out and putting the new one in ?

 

Just now, TRP93 said:

yes it has the Capital A with the arrow around it, i should probably check the charge of the battery or see how old the battery itself is, can this be replaced as easy as taking the old one out and putting the new one in ?

Yes, the physical battery replacement is still as simple as it's always been.

After replacing the battery you will need to reset the BMS.  But that is just done using a button combination on Fords, no need for any other tools.  (Something like 5 presses of fog light button and 3 presses of heated window button - but there are YouTube videos showing the process that you can copy from).

You will also need to reset the end points for the one-touch windows.  They will not be one-touch initially.  Again I'm sure you can find videos on the process, but essentially it's just open fully, then hold the button in the open position for up to 5 seconds.  Then close fully.  And hold the button in the closed position for up to 5 seconds.  Each window needs to be reset individually.  There is no radio code to worry about on Mk3's.

ahh that's perfect I'm glad i can do this myself as a certain automotive company wanted over £200 for the battery and fitting, 

would it be worth charging the battery before i replace it to see if it is the battery first and would i then have to do the fog light thing because the battery terminals have been disconnected 

8 minutes ago, TRP93 said:

ahh that's perfect I'm glad i can do this myself as a certain automotive company wanted over £200 for the battery and fitting, 

would it be worth charging the battery before i replace it to see if it is the battery first and would i then have to do the fog light thing because the battery terminals have been disconnected 

If the battery is fairly new then it's worth charging.  But if it's still original at 10 years old then it's probably not got much life left anyway.

The BMS reset is only to be done after fitting a new battery.  Not after charging.  Also you do not need to disconnect the battery to charge it.  You can charge it in the car, which is recommended.  If you do that then put the negative charger clamp on any piece of earthed bodywork instead of the negative terminal.  This will allow the BMS to 'see' the charge that goes into the battery and tell the car the battery has been charged without needing to reset anything.

ok thats brilliant thank you so much will have a look on YouTube how to do that and give ago in the next couple of days