This morning my Focus decided to go on strike and refused to start its engine.

Looks like the battery suddenly become flat, which is weird as I dove the car yesterday for about 50 miles straight. Surely that is enough to charge battery?

The car is 4.5 year old, done 35000 miles.

I'll try to kickstart it tomorrow and see how it goes.

What shall I check before I start kicking dealer's door (the car was sold with 12m warranty)?

Can you please recommend any specific battery for this car (2.0 TDCI 136ps engine)?

Hi

I have found that ford focus car batteries need to be replaced every 3 to 4 years so 4 to 5 years is very good.

My old 2000 1.8 estate, I had to replace them at least every 4 years, the batteries run down as the years go by and do not hold there charge for very long. I blame the manager for draining the battery or should I say the on board electronics which draw power even when the car is not used.

You can check out the alternator and battery, I find a multi meter in the cigar socket tells you a lot, the battery should read between 14.4 and about 14.8 volts when the engine is running, when you switch the engine off it should still read over 12 volts for a few days. If it falls below that then you have a fault, the manager could be drawing too many milli amps when stationery, but I suspect it is the battery. I always replace with same specification or better than the original.

My car is now 3 years old and I know the battery will need replacing in the next year, I do not do a lot of miles so I keep it charged up with solar panels. If I did not do that I would have a flat battery every time I came to use it.

I hope I have given you some food for thought,

Barry T

It needs a silver calcium or double calcium battery bosch silver are good and cheap off ebay you could buy a ford one but they are over £100

I got myself the Bosch S5 Silver Calcium 74ah, comes with a 5 year warranty so if it dies in that time ill get a new one for free :) since fitting this battery ive never had any issues, almost 2 years now. abit pricey but its one of the best out there

Didn't manage to jump start the car - the starter turns but nothing else happened.

Tried to charge the battery but it didn't accept any charge, the voltage was around 10.2V and didn't move.

As I need the car to go to work, called RAC and their guy said that one of the cells in battery is dead, that's why it wasn't accepting charge.

He didn't succeed jump starting the car either (I though that if he'll start it, I'll go straight to Costco or Eurocarparts and get a new battery).

At the end he offered to swap the battery there and then with their RAC Premium R1-096 (aka Exide EA722) with 5 years warranty.

Their list price was horrendous (120+) so I refused but then he dropped it to 95 quid and I agreed,as I need the car for commuting.

Once the battery was fitted, as soon as tried to turn the ignition on, the car sprang back to life.

I know that this is not the best deal in town (even Euro Car Parts sells this battery for 20 quid less but they don't have it in stock in where I live), but at least my tomorrow's commute is now sorted :)

The battery spec:

http://www.racshop.co.uk/SiteData/Root/File/Battery-Documents/RAC/R1-096-100.pdf

Its a calcium battery very overpriced though