07 Focus 1.4 battery keeps dying

irishguy

Car wouldn't start last week, got it jumped and it worked fine for a couple of days then again today won't start. Battery is less than 2 year old so took it back to the motorfactors and he said it was grand and it's charging. Any ideas what could be wrong? Can I pull a master fuze to stop anything pulling current

challengemaster

If the battery is fine and capable of charging/holding a charge, then the next thing to check is if the alternator is working or not.

John.G

irishguy wrote: »

Car wouldn't start last week, got it jumped and it worked fine for a couple of days then again today won't start. Battery is less than 2 year old so took it back to the motorfactors and he said it was grand and it's charging. Any ideas what could be wrong? Can I pull a master fuze to stop anything pulling current

I presume that the tests were done with battery "out" of the car?. As suggested above, check the voltage with car idling and it should be ~ 14/14.3V. The starter test above shows the battery is in a good state, also the 12.43V shows ~ 80/85% of full charge. If the alternator test is OK then you should see what current is being consumed (parasitic loss) with everything switched off, if you have a multimeter I can tell you how to measure it, if not the motorfactor may be able to do this test for you as its quite simple.

Atlantic Dawn

What kind of driving are you doing? Possibly short trips are using more power from the battery than is charging.

irishguy

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

What kind of driving are you doing? Possibly short trips are using more power from the battery than is charging.

I'm doing fairly short trips a couple of times a week, city driving for 10-20m. Not much less than normal, I don't do much milage, but it's normally fine.

We tested the battery in the car, he got me to turn it off/on lights off/on. Anyone know if there is a fuze I can pull to stop anything drawing power, until I get it checked. I don't have a multimeter to test

Have the same thing in a relatives car, and replaced to alternator to no avail. So I think it's shorting out somewhere. You could spend your life looking for where so it's going to god.

John.G

irishguy wrote: »

I'm doing fairly short trips a couple of times a week, city driving for 10-20m. Not much less than normal, I don't do much milage, but it's normally fine.

We tested the battery in the car, he got me to turn it off/on lights off/on. Anyone know if there is a fuze I can pull to stop anything drawing power, until I get it checked. I don't have a multimeter to test

A couple of times/week for 10/20 mins should be more than adequate, why don't you just disconnect the negative lead for say 4 days, then reconnect and see if the car starts.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

A couple of times/week for 10/20 mins should be more than adequate, why don't you just disconnect the negative lead for say 4 days, then reconnect and see if the car starts.

To prove that it's something draining it?

I must order a multi meter and pull out each of the fuzes see what it might be.

John.G

Yes, disconnect the battery to see if there is excessive drain. The multi meter will tell you immediately if it is.

khaldrogo

Alternators are a well known issue on these cars.

John.G

The battery was in the car and the alternator apparently was charging at 14.39V which is perfect.

Bunkernumber1

John.G wrote: »

The battery was in the car and the alternator apparently was charging at 14.39V which is perfect.

well its fairly simple the battery isn't holding the charge it either needs a battery or there's a big enough drain on it.

John.G

That's correct and a multi meter will quantify the amount of drain and could/should be able to pin down the particular circuit by removing fuses.

kirving

You've checked all basic things like interior lights, including the boot light and exterior lights? Anything else whatsoever added to the car, like dashcam or new radio?

Alternator was replaced on my mothers 07 Focus, only does short trips, but under load the whole time to make up for the regular starting.

bazz26

Also if the Focus has keyless entry/start then they it was known to cause issues with battery drain.

glomar

bazz26 wrote: »

Also if the Focus has keyless entry/start then they it was known to cause issues with battery drain.

I have this on mine .. 3 batteries in 4 years , most likely the iginition lock .
turn off the car and go away for 30 minutes , come back then dont open the car door , if the light is shining on the odometer ( wont happen all the time ) thats the culprit . By all accounts its and expensive repair .
My last drain was in march I am now using a solar trickle - battery maintainer and a volt meter , have the trickle charger atttached when the car is parked up and it seems to keep the battery at 12v test it everytime before turning over the ignition . its a sticky tape fix but it works ... 240,000km since ownership .. not replacing anything that isnt needed on this car hoping to replace it october - november this year

kirving

bazz26 wrote: »

Also if the Focus has keyless entry/start then they it was known to cause issues with battery drain.

Which I think was a common fitment option in '07. Obviously unsure of this is on the OP's car.

Ford seem to have added the keyless entry/exit system at a late stage in production, and you still need to use a dummy key to start the car. Seems likely that this add-on would be more likely to cause issues than a fully integrated system.

bazz26

It was only fitted on the Connect models. They had a LX Connect and Zetec Connect model which were introduced around 2006. They were based on the standard LX and Zetec but came with keyless entry/start, bluetooth, etc.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

That's correct and a multi meter will quantify the amount of drain and could/should be able to pin down the particular circuit by removing fuses.

Disconnected the battery. Charged it with a car battery charger, multimeter said 12.95v after the charge. tested after 10 minutes and it was 10.67v. I'm assuming that means it's the battery is an issue as I would have thought it should stay around 12v?

John.G

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this but can come back to it later... to check for battery drain, open the bonnet, then lock the doors, disconnect the negative lead only from the battery, change one of the multi meter leads to "10A" max scale. turn the rotary knob to 10 (A), put the positive lead on the (now disconnected) negative battery lead, put the other lead on the battery post and read off the amps, also wait for a few minutes and take final reading. (must go out for a hour, back later)

irishguy

bazz26 wrote: »

Also if the Focus has keyless entry/start then they it was known to cause issues with battery drain.

It does have keyless entry. I don't see any lights on the dash except the red intermittent flashing light that's always on when the car is parked. Looks like it's for an alarm(which I don't have)/immobiliser

Notmything

I've an 07 focus, had a similar issue when I got it. Replaced the battery and alternator but the problem persisted.

Turned out to be the keyless ignition that was at fault. Something to do with that and the steering lock meant the battery kept draining.

Replaced the keyless ignition with the one where you insert the key and that solved the issue. If I remember correctly it was a known fault.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this but can come back to it later... to check for battery drain, open the bonnet, then lock the doors, disconnect the negative lead only from the battery, change one of the multi meter leads to "10A" max scale. turn the rotary knob to 10 (A), put the positive lead on the (now disconnected) negative battery lead, put the other lead on the battery post and read off the amps, also wait for a few minutes and take final reading. (must go out for a hour, back later)

I updated it to make it a bit clearer as to what I did

John.G

OK, 10.67V is fully discharged, did it fall to 10.67 in 10 minutes with the battery still disconnected? or did you connect it up again?. One way or the other, I would still do that drain leakage test, if you can't charge it up again just do the test with the discharged battery.
It does look like the battery is kaput especially if it fell to 10.67V while still disconnected.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

OK, 10.67V is fully discharged, did it fall to 10.67 in 10 minutes with the battery still disconnected? or did you connect it up again?. One way or the other, I would still do that drain leakage test, if you can't charge it up again just do the test with the discharged battery.
It does look like the battery is kaput especially if it fell to 10.67V while still disconnected.

Yes it was still disconnected when it dropped to that. Last week it took a few days for it to drop to a level where it wouldn't start, but now it's nearly straight away. It's odd it didn't show up when they tested it at the motorfactors, they said the machine they used is the industry standard, they used a midtronics 335p. I'll do that other test later when I get a chance.

John.G

Very good, I'm not a great fan of these tests personally, I would prefer to watch the voltage drop across the battery while the starter is engaged but maybe that is what the M.factor did anyway. You certainly need to do that drain test because even a new battery if discharged below 50/60% regularly will have a very very short life.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

Very good, I'm not a great fan of these tests personally, I would prefer to watch the voltage drop across the battery while the starter is engaged but maybe that is what the M.factor did anyway. You certainly need to do that drain test because even a new battery if discharged below 50/60% regularly will have a very very short life.

Did the test as you described and it's .64 reading on the 10a setting . So that's normal right? Which would mean there is an issue with the battery.

Edit tested it after leaving it idle for 1h and it was a constant .63

irishguy

irishguy wrote: »

Did the test as you described and it's .64 reading on the 10a setting . So that's normal right? Which would mean there is an issue with the battery.

Edit tested it after leaving it idle for 1h and it was a constant .63

Can't see a specific Amp draw for this model of focus, but it appears <.50A to be normal. Not sure how strict that rule would be.

John.G

0.64A or 640 ma is extremely high, even 0.5A or 500 ma is excessive IMO, I would consider > 0.1A or 100 ma as excessive. I would find it hard to accept that ~ 0.5A is OK in Ford's eyes.
Your drain of 0.64A is 15.36AH/day so if you had a fully charged 60AH battery, it would only be 1/2 charged after 2 days idle, if it was only 1/2 charged to start with then 2 or 3 days would flatten it, even a brand new battery wouldn't last too long under those conditions if the car is only driven once/twice a week then I'd only give it maybe two years or so.
Re your own battery, I would suggest putting it on charge again for a few hours (disconnected) and if it then falls below 11V in 10 min minutes then its gone.

This gives a reasonable SOC (State of Charge) of a Battery, preferably with negative lead disconnected.

Volts SOC %
11.51 10
11.66 20
11.81 30
11.96 40
12.10 50
12.24 60
12.37 70
12.50 80
12.62 90
12.73 100

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

0.64A or 640 ma is extremely high, even 0.5A or 500 ma is excessive IMO, I would consider > 0.1A or 100 ma as excessive. I would find it hard to accept that ~ 0.5A is OK in Ford's eyes.
Your drain of 0.64A is 15.36AH/day so if you had a fully charged 60AH battery, it would only be 1/2 charged after 2 days idle, if it was only 1/2 charged to start with then 2 or 3 days would flatten it, even a brand new battery wouldn't last too long under those conditions if the car is only driven once/twice a week then I'd only give it maybe two years or so.
Re your own battery, I would suggest putting it on charge again for a few hours (disconnected) and if it then falls below 11V in 10 min minutes then its gone.

This gives a reasonable SOC (State of Charge) of a Battery, preferably with negative lead disconnected.

Volts SOC %
11.51 10
11.66 20
11.81 30
11.96 40
12.10 50
12.24 60
12.37 70
12.50 80
12.62 90
12.73 100

Thanks for you help. I tried testing while pulling out a few fuses and only a small reduction, so the issue is beyond my abilities. I booked it in with an electro mechanic to give it a go.

micar

I am having this exact problem for months.

2006 ford focus 1.4 lx

I initially got a new battery....that died.

I got the alternator replaced.....didn't solve the issue.

I got a charger and always kept a full battery in the car for when the one hooked up died. So I was rotating batteries.

Now, when parked up at home or if I'm going to be a way from the car for a few hours, I lock the car, open the bonnet and unhook one of the terminals.

John.G

Re keyless central locking, I did notice on one of my VWs that it only drew 45ma with locked doors but ~ 2A with un locked doors, another one, with central locking using the key, drew ~ 95ma with doors both locked and unlocked, the 2A draw with unlocked doors wasn't a problem of course as the car was then being driven, this may be common to most makes.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

Re keyless central locking, I did notice on one of my VWs that it only drew 45ma with locked doors but ~ 2A with un locked doors, another one, with central locking using the key, drew ~ 95ma with doors both locked and unlocked, the 2A draw with unlocked doors wasn't a problem of course as the car was then being driven, this may be common to most makes.

Took it into an electro mechanic today and it turns out it's the ignition lock. If I don't engage it there is no Drain. So just going to do that as he suggested, as it's pretty pricey to fix and no real benefit.

John.G

That's very interesting, wonder what the draw is without the lock engaged.

irishguy

John.G wrote: »

That's very interesting, wonder what the draw is without the lock engaged.

He didn't say actually. I'll have a look myself out of interest when I get a chance. Thanks again for your diagnostics help!!

glomar

did taking the lock off resolve it ?

irishguy

glomar wrote: »

did taking the lock off resolve it ?

Yes I just stopped engaging the ignition lock and no issues since.

XLR 8

My son had 2 Focus and both had the same issue. Constantly replacing batteries. Due to where we live he was in the habbit of never locking the car. Turns out that was issue number 1 as the cars computers remain active instead of shutting down until its locked properly. Issue number 2 was parasitic drain through the cigarette lighter. He had a multi usb thingy for charging iphone and playing music through the stereo constantly plugged in. If anything remains plugged into the cigarette lighter even with the car locked this too prevents the cars ECU from shutting down completely. The drain on the system is minimal to begin with but degraded the battery over a period of a couple of weeks till the voltage dropped too low to start the car. A tell tale sign is the odometer panel remaining lit. It should only illuminate with the light switch turned on. Got it squared away after months of re positioning and cleaning earth connections all over the car. Dodgy boot switches cause it also as the boot can be opened without the car being unlocked. So as far as the ECU knows the boots still open so I remain active and battery drain begins. Lost a lot of knuckle and blood on that car. Then the bollix crashed it. However the battery issue was solved by always locking the car and leave nothing in the fag lighter plugged in.

John.G

That's fairly logical but the steering lock engaged isn't, I'd like to know the difference in the parasitic loss with this engaged vs not engaged.

XLR 8

John.G wrote: »

That's fairly logical but the steering lock engaged isn't, I'd like to know the difference in the parasitic loss with this engaged vs not engaged.

Steering lock has no impact one way or the other. A steering lock is essentially a key way cut into the steering column that engages when correctly positioned with a spring loaded key. Its not an electric component.

John.G

See post #33.

XLR 8

John.G wrote: »

See post #33.

He seems to be referring to an ignition lock not the steering lock. I should probably point out that the model year I worked on was 07 I don't know if the systems have changed.

XLR 8

That is the steering lock. There is a cut away in the column that when the key is removed allows the highlighted part in the photo to engage.

John.G

I see your point, so wonder how do you "not engage the ignition lock", I thought the steering lock not engaged by not moving the steering wheel a fraction after removing the key had something to do with it.

This probably explains it, search (above) for 2007 Focus - dash light not turning off

XLR 8

It's odd but not unique to Ford. You can lock the ignition by removing the key. You can then lock the steering by turning the steering wheel till the lock engages. You will feel & hear a click when it engages. Only vehicle I've ever known not to use this system was SAAB. The ignition key locked the car in reverse.