jrowe30 Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Hi, I was wondering if anyone on here might have some advice - I bought myself a 12' plate Ford Focus 1.6TDCI about a month ago, and overall, the car is fantastic. The only problem I have is that the Start/Stop system seems to have stopped working. For the first week of owning the car it worked fine (all be it, a bit intermittently, but I put that down to the numerous factors that the system takes into account before deciding whether or not to activate). For the past 3 weeks it hasn't worked at all, despite the A/C being off, the engine being up to temperature, the ambient temperature being correct, etc. Has anyone has similar issues that they've managed to rectify? I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do myself to possibly fix it before I take it back to the Ford garage as it's under warranty. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Two possibilities I can think of, battery is too low, or it's trying to regen. What sort of journeys are you doing? Also a 12 plate will have a 5yr old battery, which could struggle to stay in the stop/start window. Particularly if it has been abused by the previous owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makeu Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Hi, i did encounter a similar issue, on my Mondeo 2008 model, couple of years ago during my journey back to Italy... It just didn't work the start/stop button anymore... Luckely it was looking like was a reject from the car, as i drove it quite too long time, stopping only to put fuel... after 20mins it started back again without any further issues... (i didn't touch anything... i remained in the petrol station as i was also quite exausted and waiting early morning to call the service).. Not sure if it is same issue, but well.. it may happen :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrowe30 Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 Thanks for the replies guys. Makeu - the issue you had does sound a little different to the one I'm having, but thanks for your response all the same :) Alex - My daily commute to work is around 15 miles, roughly 2 thirds of that on A-roads doing around 50mph, the rest town driving. Then the same again to get home. The first week of me owning the car it was at certain parts of this commute (traffic lights), when the start/stop would engage, usually about 15-20 minutes into my journey. My first thought was maybe the battery, I bought the car from a Ford Dealership so I hoped the battery should have been checked before being sold though?! I've seen on other posts about others having similar problems, that when the battery is too low the 'A' symbol on the dashboard lights up grey - mine isn't doing this, it just comes on briefly on ignition (lit up green), then goes off again as normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 If it's not trying to regen then it's probably just the battery. The dealership won't have checked it unless there was a problem. Most they'd have done it top it up, which would have allowed stop start to work for a few weeks, until the level drops again. Stop/start needs a healthy battery over 80% charge. As the battery gets older, it spends less time in that window, without top ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrowe30 Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 Thanks Alex, that makes sense I guess. When you mention about it trying to regen - do you mean with regards to the DPF? Will the car tell me if it is attempting a regen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Yeah DPF regen will prevent stop/start triggering. 15 miles might not be enough for it to complete. Car won't actively tell you, but normally you can tell as the fan will be running with the A/C off and the exhaust tends to burble a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrowe30 Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 Now you mention it, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed after getting home from work, that the fan was running after the ignition was turned off, it wasn't a hot day, or a journey in slow moving traffic (basically not the sort of journey to normally cause the fan to run). I googled it, and a few responses were that it was attempting a 'DPF regen', and so I put it down to that, it hasn't done it since. Do you think this could be causing the issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Could be. Otherwise just get yourself a trickle charger and top up the battery a bit and see if it works again. That's what I did for my Mum's Focus. The charger was cheaper than what Ford wanted to top it up, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrowe30 Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 Sounds like a plan. Thanks. I do have a charger that I used to use that has the option of 'fast/trickle' charge, will this work on the battery of a focus? (Just wondering as from what I've read the focus has a larger capacity battery than a normal car). Also if I unplug the battery to trickle charge it, once I plug it back in again will all the systems/radio work? (just thinking of cars I've had in the past whereby I've had to get a code off the internet for them after being unplugged). Thanks for all your help Alex, it's much appreciated :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 A 2012 Focus has no radio code. I used a trickle charger designed to connect to the battery while it is still in the car on my mum's. It does reset the ECU when you disconnect the battery, so I wouldn't disconnect it too often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrowe30 Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 Ah, right. I didn't realise you could charge them whilst still wired up to the car - I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to this sort of thing. I'll look into getting one of those. Same with the radio code thing - I've never owned a car as new at this focus - all my previous cars have had tape decks. lol Cheers for all the help :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff-d Posted April 19, 2017 Share Posted April 19, 2017 The newer start/stop system appears to work much better than the older ones. My '15 plate one works perfectly all the time. My '12 plate had a mind of it's own. If the car was left unused over the weekend, then on Monday it would work fine all day - even for short journeys. Tuesday may work sometimes. Wednesday, Thursday & Friday wouldn't work at all. I strongly suspect that there's a software bug in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roker99 Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 Hi I was just wondering if you managed to test the chargering the battery up to see if it worked as I have exactly the same prob my car is a 2011 and has the stock battery still as I checked well I think it is. I have had my car for about 11 weeks now it was fine for the first few weeks as it was prob boosted up in the showroom as it was sitting there a fair while but now will only work after a long journey till the next day then stop again. thinking mine is needing a new battery as well thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrowe30 Posted May 11, 2017 Author Share Posted May 11, 2017 Hi guys, Just a quick update - I took the car back to the dealer just over a week ago as it was still under warranty, they told me the battery wasn't quite up to scratch (or something along those lines). I had the battery replaced free of charge and it's worked fine ever since. So seems likely it was just the battery not being 100%. Cheers John 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liamhoughton Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 My stop start wasn't working when I picked my new (to me) Focus up, gave the battery a good charge for 15 hrs and it's all working fine now. SS needs a higher performance battery, so needs a smart charger to charge them properly. I used the 'repair mode' on a Halfords smart charge 200. Worth a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liamhoughton Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Sorry, should read the comments before posting lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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