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Automatic Start/start


Ron A
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I own a 2014 Focus Zetec Turbo (1 litre ecoboost,115) since July 2014 and for some reason the automatic start/stop is so intermittent it has become very frustrating. It has been back to the garage (approved repairer) 3 times and it is still not right, put on their computer and was told there is nothing wrong but there could be many variables. I was told about outside air temperature, ac on, heater blower, battery condition and so the list goes on all affect the stop/start. The garage did on the last occasion replace the battery and I must say the automatic start/stop worked satisfactorily for a few weeks but now its back to be very intermittent. It is so annoying and very frustrating to have this.

Has anyone any idea what could be wrong? Help is needed!!!!!!

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Was it a ford dealer and was the battery monitoring reset? Needs resetting when new battery fitted.

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Ian, thanks for the response

Yes as far as I'm aware the battery monitoring system was re set.

It was a Ford approved repairer.

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Start/Stop is very sensitive to power fluctuations so if the car thinks it may not have enough power to restart cleanly it will suspend stop/start as a precaution.

Are you giving the car good long runs or just short commutes?

I was advised by a battery fitter that modern cars are very power hungry and due to this batteries don't always get the power they need to maintain them properly.

A good weekly (at the least) and a trickle charge every 2 - 3 months will be very beneficial.

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I would reset the battery monitoring just incase they didnt. You can do it.

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Clive, from your reply am I to take it that the power in the battery may well be the problem and at times the re-charge is not sufficient especially on short journeys?

Or is there a deeper problem?

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Id say repeated short journeys of less than 5 miles could have a effect esp in winter with lights heated windows etc putting battery below 65% charge.

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If the new battery gradually started to fail and you're doing sufficient long enough drives (say 5 miles +) makes it sound like an alternator issue.

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

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I would still reset battery monitoring , worth a try, the last person on here to try my suggestion got his fiesta working after 6 months not working, garage saying battery not charging fuly and no faults with stop start.

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Its a known issue honest john website will tell you owners have complained of this one of the owners stated a sensor was changed and his has worked ever since from what I can read on different sites you need to do long regular journeys for it to work at all

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It is true some of my journeys are only a few miles (less than 5 miles) and it seems the solution is longer journeys, but they don't tell you that do they? I will keep monitoring the situation and if necessary come back to the forum. Thanks for all the replies.

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Everything is a known issue on honest John. Even sneezing in the summer.hay fever he says.lol

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Ron, if you want to have a go at reseting battery monitoring, just do as follows

Ign on for 10 secs, press rear foglighr switch 5 times, press hazzard switch 3 times, wait 10 secs. battery light flashes. Ign off

use car, and see if thst fixes

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  • 2 years later...
On 22/05/2015 at 11:42 AM, iantt said:

Ron, if you want to have a go at reseting battery monitoring, just do as follows

Ign on for 10 secs, press rear foglighr switch 5 times, press hazzard switch 3 times, wait 10 secs. Battery light flashes. Ign off

use car, and see if thst fixes

Digging this post up because THANK YOU Ian! My Start/Stop has not worked since last year might have something to do with installing a new stereo, but just tried this went out and it's working again. Nice one :cool:

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Useful bit of info Ian. For a moment I was tempted to try it as my stop/start doesn't work because the battery is now a few years old. On reflection, though, I prefer not to have it working. Much kinder on battery and starter and I do hardly any town driving so not worried about emissions.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 22/05/2015 at 11:42 AM, iantt said:

Ron, if you want to have a go at reseting battery monitoring, just do as follows

Ign on for 10 secs, press rear foglighr switch 5 times, press hazzard switch 3 times, wait 10 secs. Battery light flashes. Ign off

use car, and see if thst fixes

My stop start hasn't worked for over a year, gave this a go and now it works perfectly! Amazing, thanks. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 22/05/2015 at 11:42 AM, iantt said:

Ron, if you want to have a go at reseting battery monitoring, just do as follows

Ign on for 10 secs, press rear foglighr switch 5 times, press hazzard switch 3 times, wait 10 secs. Battery light flashes. Ign off

use car, and see if thst fixes

Exact same issue on test menu in my car batter is 11.4v would that be the reason. And what does the battery monitoring system do. Should I be worried? 

Car usually does 2x 40ml runs a week as well as short trips. Did see online elsewhere to try charging the battery (with a smart charger) 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 22/05/2015 at 11:42 AM, iantt said:

Ron, if you want to have a go at reseting battery monitoring, just do as follows

Ign on for 10 secs, press rear foglighr switch 5 times, press hazzard switch 3 times, wait 10 secs. Battery light flashes. Ign off

use car, and see if thst fixes

This is going to be a long one,  so here's the summary:

1. Thanks very much, Ian, for taking the time to post this tip  - it transformed the way my car drives and got the Stop-Start working again after months

2. Any tips for what to do if the problem comes back after a few days and it starts degrading again?

The Back Story:

I want to describe this in case anyone else has the same issues I've had (and the same ordeal getting to the bottom of it! ).

My car had a subtle hesitation at low-ish revs, usually around 1800. This is essentially constant.  It's really noticeable to me, but I have never been able to convince a technician in more than half a dozen visits that there's a problem.

In addition, at cruising speed, 70 or so,  it sometimes loses power completely for half a second and immediately comes back. This sometimes happens three times in a journey then not for months.

The Stop-Start became less frequent over time and hasn't worked once for the last couple of months.

The only thing that had any impact was getting the air con recharged at Halfords. Driving away, I knew the problem had gone, but when I went back to the garage, they couldn't say what they had done (and they'd test-driven it and told me they couldn't find the problem beforehand anyway).

The upshot is that running Ian's sequence fixed it on the spot. It was like driving a different car. The Stop-Start kicked in after less than a mile at the next traffic lights.

However, it started degrading a few days later, and the Stop-Start is getting less reliable already.

I've been searching for months for help on this, so I hope this ramble helps someone else who's not mechanically-minded get to the bottom of things.

I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what the next step might be.

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14 hours ago, iantt said:

may be time for a new efb battery, how old is the car?

Would a smart charger not fix the issue mine works but only once been on the road a while so I’m guessing my battery needs topped up

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On 22/05/2015 at 11:42 AM, iantt said:

Ron, if you want to have a go at reseting battery monitoring, just do as follows

Ign on for 10 secs, press rear foglighr switch 5 times, press hazzard switch 3 times, wait 10 secs. Battery light flashes. Ign off

use car, and see if thst fixes

Should this work on an MK3 Focus?

Just tried it twice. No battery light flash sadly. 

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should work, make sure your pressing the rear foglight switch and not the front.

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  • 1 month later...
On 07/10/2017 at 7:32 PM, iantt said:

may be time for a new efb battery, how old is the car?

Hi Ian,

I missed your reply to me - apologies for that.

I should have included this up-front:  the car's a 2013 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi that has almost 60k miles.

I've just done a Google search re:  "efb" - are you suggesting that a replacement for the battery that's specific to the "Stop-Start" function of the car then?  Would this be something I should expect the Ford garage to have checked/detected?  I ask because it's been there at least three times.

I've taken the car to a number of garages, and none of them was able to find a problem.

Also, since my original post in October, the car has twice gone into Limp Mode when doing about 70mph, again with no codes being reported; turning the engine off and on basically "fixed" it (pulled it out of Limp Mode) both times.

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What are you using to check codes?

If it's gone in to limp mode it should have logged a DTC.

You can't always read them with basic scanners, even Forscan can't read all logs.

Ford's own IDS is the best for finding logged faults.

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Hi Alex,

The first time it went into Limp Mode it was a roadside breakdown guy who looked for faults, and the second time it was a garage (not Ford).  I have to say that I've got no idea what equipment they were using.

Since @iantt's "BMS reset" sequence temporarily resolves the problem, is that where I should focus?

Since seeing his post, I've read some stuff online about treating the battery as a "system" in Start/Stop-enabled cars due to the potential for other parts to affect (and even damage) the battery.  For instance, I was reading about the RAC patrols carrying around a new Midtronics test device that tells them more than just looking at the battery would (my technical comprehension of the subject fell off quite quickly, I'm afraid).

It makes me wonder if I should go back to Ford and request a specific type of test.  If that's right, do you know what I'd be asking for?

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