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Merloch91
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Does everyone's dashboard light stay on all night? Mine is glowing all night telling the world my mileage and is there a way to turn it off that anyone's found?

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Pretty sure mine turns itself off. When you lock the car and the courtesy light turns off.

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it monitors the engine whilst the car is off it will stay on anywhere from 10 mins to 45 minutes depending if you just went out to the car and opened the door then lock the car it will take 45 mins or so as it thinks you are going to use the car within that time when you dont it shuts off so open the door then lock the car and check in 1 hour if its still on you have a faulty timing module and need to take it to ford who will try updating it

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Ok thanks, ill monitor it then I only got the car yesterday and noticed last night as I kept going back and forth and the light was still on when I did, looked through the manual and couldn't see anything regards to setting so I thought I'm best asking the experts haha

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its all to do with engine monitoring as to how long it stays on for after a drive if you got out double locked the car and walked away its usually ten to fifteen minutes unless its a very hot day in which case the ecu monitors the head temperature so if the heat bulid up is too much it automatically starts the engine fan when you just open doors etc the car ecu assumes you will be getting back in at some point so keeps activated after a preset time limit is shuts down the more you open and close and lock doors the longer it takes as it basically resets each time

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Think you're right artscot.

Pretty much everything seems to stay on on the same basis... I fitted DRLs to a fuse in the fusebox and sometimes, after a long run, they also stay on for 10-15 minutes. Think the ECU keeps everything on until the engine has cooled to a respectable level. Then my lights, and all other "ignition lives" go out, including the dash.

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from what ford told me its all linked to the ecu and remains active while it monitors various temperature sensors in the engine bay which is why the radio goes off pretty quickly it also winds down arming the immobiliser and keeping the memory alive should you get back in after a trip all normal its only abnormal if it stays lit for 1 hour or more and theres a cluster issue where some stay lit permenantly which can be fixed with a software update from ford

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  • 3 years later...
On 14 October 2012 at 0:24 PM, Merloch91 said:

Does everyone's dashboard light stay on all night? Mine is glowing all night telling the world my mileage and is there a way to turn it off that anyone's found?

Hi did you ever get to the bottom off this problem with your dashboard light staying on all night and also did it flatten your battery 

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  • 2 months later...

Ive just found same problem !!! Pretty worried about this hope it doesnt flatten my battery.

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  • 4 months later...

Has anyone sorted this problem out yet ? As my st225 has just strated doing this. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Has anyone found a reason for this. Mines has done it too. I can't open my car automatically or manually looks like the battery has gone flat 😠

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My son's is doing this too, dash lights on all night, flat battery this morning. Key fob isn't even working, completely dead !! He's been having problems with the boot alarm coming on constantly too, it's going to Ford's on Thursday so hopefully will sort it out. It's driving him nuts !!!

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On 12/09/2016 at 5:43 AM, Angry woman said:

Has anyone found a reason for this. Mines has done it too. I can't open my car automatically or manually looks like the battery has gone flat 😠

I feel your pain !! Son's car going to Ford's next Thursday, will keep you posted 😊 

Just phoned Ford and they reckon it's the problem with my son's boot alarm coming on that's keeping the dash lights on overnight 😠 Next Thursdays appointment is too far away 😣

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  • 2 months later...

Sue 27. What did ford say. Mines doing the same think. Lights stay in on dash and battery flat in morning. Had new alternator and still doing it. 

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Hi. Did anyone get this sorted? Mines doing it too. I fitted a new battery as I didn't realise the display was staying on all the time. Now its flattening that new battery. I work 12 hour nights and it's still lit the next morning. Driving me mad!!!

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  • 1 month later...

Only thing I can recommend as a temp fix which may help you determine the problem: remove the instrument cluster fuse, think it's 43 but check the manual. Haven't had a problem in three months since, in comparison to draining dead if left for 24 hours. Obviously not ideal but...

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  • 2 weeks later...

My 2009 focus is having the same problem! Doing my head in now, it will be fine for a week then will just totally die. I have another problem which may be linked though. My travelpilot radio completed died a few weeks ago, I have found through these forums it is one of the models that were on recall until last year! However after driving without a radio for a week and noticing that my odometer was constantly lit I came to my car one day and the radio worked and the odometer switched off when double locking the car! A week later the radio stopped working and the odometer stays constantly on now 😢 Been like this ever since and battery drains completely every now and again if it is sat for a few days. Please help! I've checked fuses and removed the unit? Is it just the radio causing these problems or do I have two problems with the odometer light?? TIA Rob.

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Could I somehow completely disconnect the radio from the cars circuit just to see if this sorts the dash light problem? If it does it might simply require a new radio......

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12 hours ago, quan389 said:

Could I somehow completely disconnect the radio from the cars circuit just to see if this sorts the dash light problem?

One thing I must stress in this thread is that the battery drain is absolutely not caused by the odometer light. That is a tiny LED which would take many weeks to drain the battery. This light is just a symptom of a bigger drain, and I think Arthur (artscot79) had it right, it may be the ECU staying powered up. That can consume quite a lot of current. Information on the HS CAN bus can keep the ECU alive, which could come from alarm systems, or even from a radio, via the Instrument Cluster (IC).

Alarm systems and radios are known to be frequent causes of battery drain. Aftermarket ones may be faulty, badly designed or wrongly wired up. Ford ones tend to be connected to the car's MS CAN bus, which can keep the IC alive, which in turn can keep the ECU alive.

So completely disconnecting the radio would be a very good starting point. Removing items from the MS CAN bus does not seem to upset the car at all. I have a basic radio with no bus connection, and have replaced the Ford parking sensor system with a cheap eBay one (just as good!), leaving its bus connection not connected.

My car often sits for almost a week without use, with no appreciable battery drain.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone,

I have an Focus 2008 and the dashboard stays on all the time and it drained my battery. I also have a problem with the radio- sometimes is on, sometimes is off. In the beginning I thought is because of the fact that here er from -7 til -20 Celsius everyday.

I don't know what to do!  Please heeeeeelp!

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On 07/03/2017 at 3:27 PM, Alexandra said:

the dashboard stays on all the time and it drained my battery. I also have a problem with the radio- sometimes is on, sometimes is off.

Intermittent slow battery drains can be a real pig to track down. But a good starting point would be to remove and completely disconnect the radio for a while.

Modern radios are often connected to the car digital information bus (MS-CAN bus), which goes to the dashboard (IC). Unwanted activity on this bus can keep the IC alive, hence the odometer light staying on. In turn this can keep other, higher current modules alive, like the ECU or the GEM.

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  • 2 months later...

Bit out of date but my 2007 1.8 TDCI has the same issue by removing fuse F46 from the passenger fuse board this will stop it but also effect the OBD port so has to be plugged back in order for this to work. Fix to this is costly for such a small part so fuse removal for me 😝

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  • 1 month later...

When removing f46 can you still drive the car as normal with it removed?   And did it stop the battery draining ? 

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Hi, I've been having this issue for a couple of months now. 

Dashboard lights staying on permanently for a couple of days and completely killing the battery, but then it can go for a few weeks without doing it and it'll start fine then and it happens completely random. Done a parasitic draw test and it's running at 0.50 when dash lights stay on but runs at 0.18 when they're off.

I've disconnected amp, stereo, and drl's for a few days but the problem still occurred. Anybody solved the issue?

IMG_2516.JPG

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