10 minutes ago, Turvey said:

Think I'm going to hunt for the fuse and remove it,

Think you might have a problem there. If it was as easy as removing a fuse to disable the alarm system I'm quite sure every car thief would have done that.

Use FORScan and check the DTC and it will most likely show what triggered the alarm. My money will be on the bonnet catch, it's the most common failure.

16 minutes ago, Turvey said:

I don't like the alarm going off in the Focus at 3am this morning! Second time it's happened in the last couple of weeks 😡

Think I'm going to hunt for the fuse and remove it, not like anyone would want to steal it 😃

Does anyone bother stealing cars at all there?  Can't be many places to hide them! 🤔

You can unplug the sounder, but it'll still drain battery flashing the hazards all night so better to fix as Unofix suggested.

kind of off topic,[could go in either like or dislike] bur theres a movment afoot to rethink the 2030 move to full EV. They also mentioned the fact that if you buy a petrol car 1 day before the change you will have 20 years grace.

3 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

...They also mentioned the fact that if you buy a petrol car 1 day before the change you will have 20 years grace.

'Grace' for what? Oh, last year I approached 3 x bookies to accept my money on a bet that the 2030 ICE deadline would be pushed back, none wanted my money!

3 hours ago, unofix said:

Think you might have a problem there. If it was as easy as removing a fuse to disable the alarm system I'm quite sure every car thief would have done that.

Use FORScan and check the DTC and it will most likely show what triggered the alarm. My money will be on the bonnet catch, it's the most common failure.

Yeah, did a bit of reading and bonnet catch is a common culprit indeed. I'm guessing it has to be replaced then?

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Does anyone bother stealing cars at all there?  Can't be many places to hide them! 🤔

You can unplug the sounder, but it'll still drain battery flashing the hazards all night so better to fix as Unofix suggested.

Occasionally one gets taken but it's usually so someone can get home after the pub! 😃

 

Unplugging sounder would be a start I suppose, it's parked on a hill so I can always bump start it! 😃

5 hours ago, Turvey said:

Yeah, did a bit of reading and bonnet catch is a common culprit indeed. I'm guessing it has to be replaced then?

If it is that then it would be cheaper to just hot wire the switch at the Latch.

It might not be that though, when I had a Mk2.5 it was the front passenger door switch that was throwing an intermittent fault, impossible to tell what  is triggering the alarm without something like FORScan.

9 hours ago, Tizer said:

impossible to tell what  is triggering the alarm without something like FORScan.

Trying to remember if I've got it anywhere 🤔

Hotwired bonnet for now.

I watched "The British Miracle Meat" presented by Greg Wallace on By 4 yesterday, and found it quite disturbing - like a sci-fi horror movie.

It's repeated on Friday if anyone wants to catch it, but basically involved people getting money for donating bits of flesh  from which "steaks" were grown in the lab. 

Next step canibalising the dead, least it will free up burial space.

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I watched "The British Miracle Meat" presented by Greg Wallace 

It turns out it was a "mockumentary" intended to highlight the situation of those struggling to meet their bills and the extreme lengths they may go to, for a bit of cash.

Nowhere was this indicated and I feel it was in very bad taste. Not that far removed from reality in some places though where people are paid for blood donations, etc.

I watched it in disbelief . Then thought it was a bit late for April fools day. Penny dropped about half way through. 

10 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

It turns out it was a "mockumentary" intended to highlight the situation of those struggling to meet their bills and the extreme lengths they may go to, for a bit of cash.

For decades now, people of exceptionally poor countries have sold their internal organs for transplant to the rich in the 'west'. (liver, kidney etc.) Even in the UK, we always treat blood donation as something altruistic and a worthy thing to do. In USA it's quite common for folk to be paid for their blood.

It's all, 'horrible', till you find yourself in the situation where you or your family will starve to death without funds to buy food...

Feel like I need to sell a kidney. Had initial quote for the patio glass without them coming round to look at glass. £310. I thought that was a good price. I agreed Then yesterday a man came round to measure up accurately and said the initial quote was way off due to the type of patio door it was. Had new quote for glass and for whole replacement. £980 for glass or Just over £2k for the whole patio door set. Ouch!! 

 

4 minutes ago, iantt said:

.... Had new quote for glass and for whole replacement. £980 for glass or Just over £2k for the whole patio door set. Ouch!!

That was one very expensive lawn cut! Maybe pave it over for next year? 😂

Just now, StephenFord said:

That was one very expensive lawn cut! Maybe pave it over for next year? 😂

Get rid of the dog who moves the stones on to the grass

May have to go in to work early for a few weeks or more and work harder to pay for it. Not keen On that really. 

 

Am a glazier by trade, done all the positions within double glazing companies, manufactur to sales to management. Are the doors internally beaded, if so easy to do. Measure from bead edge to bead edge and subtract 10mm, you may be lucky and it have the unit thickness on the internal sliver spacer bar, either 24 or 28mm. gets a bit more complicated if the door panels are built around the glass units. £900 is quite exessive, and at that price i'd be tempted to claim on the insurance if you have it.

Apparently the door is built around the glass. Hadn't thought of house insurance. 

On 7/24/2023 at 1:21 PM, TomsFocus said:

Does anyone bother stealing cars at all there?  Can't be many places to hide them! 🤔

You can unplug the sounder, but it'll still drain battery flashing the hazards all night so better to fix as Unofix suggested.

So this happened this weekend! Apparently crashed the car after! 

Better get that alarm fixed quick, crime in Orkney is spiraling out of control. It'll be worse than London by next month !! 🤣

Is this some sort of Beetlejuice thing.  Last night my car alarm went off! 🤦‍♂️

Ignored it for about 10 mins, assumed it was someone else's.  (Proof that car alarms are pointless!)

Plipped it through the window to unlock, alarm stopped, but it wouldn't relock.  Couldn't get down there to deal with it manually with it so had to leave until this morning.  Was fairly sure the battery would be dying.

Struggled with the Maypole and a heavy 230v powerbank down to it first thing.  Turned out it hadn't actually unlocked...and didn't have enough power to remote unlock now.  First time in 5 years I've had to use the keyblade in the door.  Fortunately that worked fine (which begs the question - what do Ford do to their key barrels lol?).  

Bonnet handle is on the drivers side, so no issue with accessing that, unlike the Mk4 Focus.

Hooked the maypole up...and as usual, the damn useless thing wouldn't work when I really need it!   Battery voltage is 7.9v, which it decided is a fully charged 6v battery and pressing the mode button does nothing at all. 

Tried the GB40 to jump start it, but forgot to recharge that after jumping the Focus a few months ago.  That was only at 2 bars full...and although it did turn the engine briefly, not fast enough before that went flat.

So that was a 30 minute exercise in futility.  

GB40 is now charging, so can hopefully jump start with that later, to get enough juice into the battery for the Maypole to charge it...

6 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Is this some sort of Beetlejuice thing.  Last night my car alarm went off! 🤦‍♂️

 

Tom, how long was the car left without driving it?

Just now, StephenFord said:

Tom, how long was the car left without driving it?

Nearly 2 years.  

The battery has been failing for about 18 months.  But there's no point replacing it unless I can start driving it again.  That would be a huge waste of both cost and resources.

Up until this point, it had only dropped low enough for a slow engine turn over, so was easy enough to jump start it when needed and I did attach the Maypole for a few hours before having it collected for MOT earlier this year.  This is the first time it's dropped low enough for the locks to fail so the battery may be totally knackered now.

Funny thing is it's not even the correct battery, it's just a budget lead acid when it should be an EFB.  Despite that, the stop start still worked perfectly for the 3 years that I was driving it!  Only noticed when I went to read specs from it to buy a new one.

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Nearly 2 years.  

 

🤣 Well, was going to regale story of leaving mine for 3 months during lockdown and it started 1st twist of key, but you have way outdone me on 2 years LOL I'm not surprised you may have had an issue.

As for charging it with the Maypole, I think I've said before that I too had issues with another car when the voltage dropped below 8v. Luckily for me, I still own my 1st ever 1970s battery charger which is totally dumb, and when connected to any battery, just charges it! When it got back up to a level, I swapped to the Maypole which then took over. You see, the problem is you are too young and don't have old fashioned stuff invented before the smart chip 😂

7 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

🤣 Well, was going to regale story of leaving mine for 3 months during lockdown and it started 1st twist of key, but you have way outdone me on 2 years LOL I'm not surprised you may have had an issue.

As for charging it with the Maypole, I think I've said before that I too had issues with another car when the voltage dropped below 8v. Luckily for me, I still own my 1st ever 1970s battery charger which is totally dumb, and when connected to any battery, just charges it! When it got back up to a level, I swapped to the Maypole which then took over. You see, the problem is you are too young and don't have old fashioned stuff invented before the smart chip 😂

Yes, you mentioned it when both Focus batteries had dropped too low for the Maypole.  Though they were only 2v so sort of understandable - was not expecting it to fail at nearly 8v!  Both Focii were sold earlier this year though, having not been able to drive either of them.

And as I replied last time, the problem is that I live in a tiny upstairs flat and had to give away my dumb charger to make space for the 'Smart' charger!