Mk3 1.6 Tdci - Constantly Discharging Battery To Zero

[Livefast]

Hello all, I have a '63 Mk3 Focus Zetec S estate of the 1.6 TDCI variety. I've owned it for about 3 months and it has been a cracking drive until recently.

2 weeks ago I took it to Newcastle (5 hour drive) parked it up and went away for 3 days, on my return the car started fine and i drove back. I parked the car on the drive as normal (nothing in USB, lighter sockets etc) and left it for a day and a half. When I went to start it the car was completely dead, no dim lights on dashboard so had to get emergency key to open and a booster pack to start. I then took it on a long drive (1h30min) and left it on the drive. At 0330 am the alarm started sounding waking the whole estate. It wouldn't switch off and again the car was dead, funnily I opened the car with the emergency key and opened the bonnet and the thing stopped.

I booked the car in with Ford and they kept the car for 2 days, the result was that the mechanic couldn't find a drain....and had put the battery on a trickle charger overnight. I was assured this this would fix the problem, I wasn't so sure.

I used the car all week and parked it up Friday night, I then went to use it this afternoon and the car was again completely dead. I'm pulling my hair out as I swapped my old car for a new one to get away from problems.

Anybody have any idea what is causing this parasitic drain.

[jeebowhite]

Hi Owen,

the car is still under warranty so I would take it back and leave it with Ford with orders to fix it once and for all.

It sounds to me like there is a bad sensor somewhere, by the sounds of it, the bonnet sensor may be the issue, as this if its not connected fully will not lock the car completely, and as such will not shut down the electrics and can bus which allow it to drain.

What you need to do is get the bonnet open, lock the car and walk away for half an hour, then you need to start poking around with a multimeter to find the circuit thats opening the CAN Bus and draining the system. At the moment though, my money is on a faulty bonnet switch, I think that the switch is not closing altogether, or, is closing so far, then it has a bad moment such as at 03:30 circuit shorts or opens, the car thinks its being broken into and goes nuts.

[Livefast]

Thanks for the info Jeebo, I will pass it on to Ford when it goes into the garage for the second time on Wednesday. I hope they fix it as we are off to the lakes for a week with the kids on Saturday! I would love to get the multimeter out but don't want to do anything that could invalidate the warranty, with all the spy software out these days.

Having come from VW it's quite worrying that the dealers round here don't really give a monkeys when you've got an 8000 mile car stuck on the drive.....

[jeebowhite]

I wouldnt worry about it Owen, using a multimeter will not invalidate the warranty.

What you need to do is get the battery charged up and then check that you have the full 12v in the battery, close the doors, and get the car ready and make sure no electrics are on.

Set the multimeter to amp reading, set it on the 10 amp scale should be fine. Disconnect the negative cable,

Stick the ammeter in series and between the negative lead and the negative post and check what you get. If you get more than 50mA then you have a drain.

What you then do is attach the meter in series so you see the drain. Then go through and pull the fuses out of the aux box until you find the one that turns the meter from whatever reading it is to a seriously low number. If you need to, move to the interior fusebox and start pulling each fuse until you find the one that drops the number.

When you get the fuse that pins down what the issue is, you then go looking at the circuit, so for example, interior lights, radio or instrument cluster. Then get yourself a wiring diagram if necessary and have a look if you can track the issue further.

Generally speaking though if you pull the fuse for say radio and the amps drop, then you just send it back to Ford and tell them this is what you do.

NOTES:

Make sure you keep the key out of the system

Make sure that you dont short it out

If you dont find the drain from the engine box, disconnect the meter before you go in to do anything else, then just disable the door switches to make sure that it doesnt run the lights etc.

Start off with the Amp setting at its highest (10 or 20 normally)

anything over 50mA is a drain you need to get looked at.

Hope this helps.

[Livefast]

Again, thanks for the info. The multimeter is ready to go but the car is dead at the moment, the service guy in the first Ford garage to work on the car told me that under no circumstances should I try and charge the battery because it is fitted with a new type of lead acid battery that is filled all the way to the top..........and you need a special Ford charger for it.

I'll go and see how easy it is to get the battery out and charge it overnight. I've seen that a lot of 2012 Mk3's were fitted with dud batteries and a few have reported the body control module draining the battery.

[jeebowhite]

Fingers Crossed for an easy fix!

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[artscot79]

they are silver calcium batteries and dont need special chargers guy sounds like hes talking rubbish to be honest all fords since 1998 have used silver calcium batteries

[jeebowhite]

to be fair, I have used a standard "universal" battery charger on a silver calcium without any issue, so I agree with Arthur on that point, sounds like just another money making scam!

[artscot79]

the power control module which is likely the same as old ford focuses can have an issue where it doesnt switch off and will as a result drain the battery so its a possibility it could be that the battery despite being nearly new is duff and not taking the charge or the smart charge isnt working correctly

as said ide tell them as well its under warranty give me a courtesy car and fix it

[Livefast]

Thanks for all the advice, fingers crossed they fix it. I'll update the thread with the fix when they eventually find it to hopefully help others.

[Livefast]

Bit of an update, car has been in the garage for 2 days now, they have found that there is a drain but are having a hard time locating it to a module as they are apprently interlinked.

Countdown to family holiday in lake district - 1 day.......if it's not ready apparently they will approach Ford for a hire car.

[Livefast]

Just to update the thread on the cause of all my woes, it turned out to be the bluetooth / SYNC module. The unit was staying live and not allowing the car's computer to shut down even though it seemed like it had. Ford replaced the module but I then had no end of trouble getting SYNC / voice control / bluetooth to work.

The car has been updated with all the latest software this week and is now working as it should!!

[jeebowhite]

Result! Did it cost much to repair?

[Livefast]

Apart from my time, absolutely nothing as the car is still under Ford warranty!

It took them about a week to diagnose in the end and then a couple of days to work put why they hadn't installed the software updates in the first place

Just had it's first service so hopefully I won't see the garage for a year!

[jeebowhite]

Good stuff :-)

[smokieno1]

Hi

Just checking if youve had any further problems...?

[Dee_82]

I wonder if the BT module not being able to communicate with a HU would also keep the car up past its bed time... I have a similar issue since I changed the HU.....

[Livefast]

Nope, no issues at all since Ford replaced those bits. Car is going great!....touch wood

[smokieno1]

Got my car back today. Dealer said there was a small battery drain from the instrument cluster which they found a software update for and the problem was now solved.

Let's hope so... Watch this space!

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

[jeebowhite]

Excellent result!