Mk3 (2012) focus estate TitX - push button start doesn't work for roughly 8 attempts [video included]

[R B Customs]

Hey,

I've got a (new to me) '62 plate focus estate titanium X, 1.6TDCI (115) stop-start engine with keyless entry and keyless start button. it has around 120k on the clock. Timing belt/chain has just been done.
I've had it arpund 2 weeks.

I have a problem where the car will not start using the button (have not tried the emergency key yet) it takes many attempts for the car to start. A faint, but dull click can be heard after pressing the button - sounds a bit like  the starter motor solanoid -but don't read too deep into that.

it cut out at the weekend when I was on holiday - it was either stop-start kicking in, or me fumbling about and made it cut-out, or it just cut-out its self - I'm not sure.
either way it wouldn't start, all signs pointed towards having a flat battery, that's what it felt like. THe AA came out and couldn't start it either, eventually it just started by fluke.140miles later after getting going again it did the same thing when I turned the car off to pick the dog up, got in the car and it would not start until about 8 tries of pressing the button, each time there was a faint, dull clicking noise from the engine bay.

there's no warnings that I can see, but I did see *something* about hill-start assist on the display as I got into the car for the first time on the day it first broke down.

here's a video (car was warm - I'd just stpped it to nip into doctors)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n9yszdu8wig847e/20160201_105618.mp4?dl=0
 

 

The AA ran diagnostics but their system didn't read the ford codes and he said there were 5 electrical faults in the memory but he could not tell me what the errors meant.

(p.s I'm not talking about the ~4 sec delay between pressing the button and waiting for the coils to warm up where the engine fires its self after the short pause. This happens with a warm car too)

[Jollyandy]

Could be a dodgy clutch switch.

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

[R B Customs]

Hey Andy, That's crossed my mind  - but start-stop has never failed to work (my initial confusion made me think that was the case too) so I'm not sure if it can be?

It happened this morning on a bigger scale, I actually thought that it woud never start, and was about to climb into my fiesta to get to work.
here's another video:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nlno3awkl7yha4q/20160205_084644.mp4?dl=0
 

I left the windows down this time - there's actually a sharp click coming from the engine bay, it's the first time I've had the windows down to hear it - sounds just like a solanoid on a starter motor. I hadn't noticed at the time until it eventually started and I drove off, that my heated seat was on and set to 5, so that could have been pulling a bit of power from the battery - school boy error I know! but this could be a useful note.

other notes you all should know is that I have replaced my boot compartment lights (w5w) with  decent LEDs, as well as my puddle lights - I dont know if these are part of the canbus system (if it has one? ) so I'm not sure if these would cause an issue - certainly haven't seen any warnings but I'm going to swap them back to standard halogens over the weekend anyway. Other than that the only changes I have made to lights is upgrading the cornering lights to slightly whiter looking halogen H1s (nightbreakers)

I don't know how comprehensive the 'test' was that the AA did on the battery, he may have just tested the voltage. My understanding is that a battery can pass a few 'tests' but still be bad, and my gut feeling is that the issue lies here - but it eventually starts!

baffled!