Focus MK4/MK4.5 Battery Issue Petition

[LukeJQuinn]

Afternoon, after doing some research both on this forum and Facebook - I've found plenty of owners & ex owners who have owned/have Focus Mk4 onwards which has suffered battery issues. These issues stem from either dodgy batteries, broken battery monitoring systems, or flaky Sync3/4 updates. I would like to get a full list of names, model, and location and pass these to Ford Customer Care Europe. I already have a case pending where their Technical team are looking into Sync 4 being a total battery drain. However, they seem to think this is an isolated issue when I know it is not. 

I have also reached out to GeoffBuysCars and his Youtube channel to put this issue on his radar. He is also starting to look into this issue as it doesn't seem Ford care nor have any solution to the problem. 

I'll post a poll on Facebook and ask it to be shared and collate a full list of names, in the hope they sit up and take notice of this issue and offer a workable solution. For now, can affected owners or past owners please either response to this post or message me privately? Your feedback is very much appreciated 🙂

Once I have a full list of names and details, I'll collate it and get it over to Ford in a professional email. Please keep this post strictly related to the battery issue and requested details. Thanks. 😉

[Wino]

Had to replace our battery ( At our own cost during the first lockdown) at just over 6 months old due to some module not shutting down. It's been fine since it was replaced and the modules reset.

2019 MK4 Focus ST Line X ( 1.5 Diesel).

[ford focus 155 active]

2021 August build Focus Active. Last month I had a battery problem but Ford did not substitute it. They just charged the battery. My mildhybrid stopped working and no longer than 30min after that my air conditioning too. The battery wasn't charging while driving the car. -Incredible:(

[Andreea Horlescu]

Hi! 

we have a ford focus with 3800 km and today was the 4th service entry for the same problem with the complete discharge of the battery for no reason, although on the 2nd service entry the battery was replaced. We are from România and The local dealer says there are no other similar cases with ours and that we don't use the car enough even though it was used daily.we are going to make a complaint to the importer and to the factory in Germany where it seems that our car was produced. we will also ask for its replacement because we did not imagine that a new car could cause us such problems

 

[unofix]

4 hours ago, Andreea Horlescu said:

discharge of the battery for no reason

That's not actually true. There will be a reason, you just don't know what it is.

[Andreea Horlescu]

1 hour ago, unofix said:

That's not actually true. There will be a reason, you just don't know what it is.

You are right, i really hope that the mistery will be resolved 🤦🏻‍♀️

i have read the ,,adventure’’  of LukeJQuinn and i’m without any hope in this moment😐

[Dark Andy]

My car began displaying random error system failure messages from just over 12 months old. Various modules were updated by the dealer but random failures (auto brake, emergency sos system, etc) continued. Eventually at about three and a half years old, the battery died and was replaced at my own expense - the car and all these "faulty" modules have been fine since, implying that the battery was the root cause of them.

[unofix]

4 hours ago, Dark Andy said:

the car and all these "faulty" modules have been fine since, implying that the battery was the root cause of them.

In all probability the battery was the cause of the issues. In my opinion the current design of car batteries is significantly poorer than those used fourteen or so years ago. For example a 2010 car in most cases got at least 8 or more years useful life out of the factory fitted battery. Now it seems that if you get 4 years use it's something of an achievement !

So to save the dolphins and to please the likes of Greta we have abandoned lead acid batteries and replaced them with a technology that is only 30 to 40% as good. This means that during a vehicles lifetime it will use 3 or 4 more batteries than it would have if we'd continued with the likes of Silver Calcium technology. There's real environmental progress for you 🙄

[LukeJQuinn]

Since posting this, I decided to rejoin Facebook after 10 years and joined an array of Focus Mk 4 & Mk 4.5 groups. I've made contact with over 10 owners of Mk 4.5 owners and I've found some interesting results. I also ran the car for over 1 month with ALL connectivity features turned off. During this period the car performed perfectly without a sniff of anything not working (as in power was remained verified by testing the battery each week, lights remaining on and the infamous stop/start working on every journey) 

I'll post screenshots of the emails sent to Ford regarding the test above and the results I found after speaking to the 10 owners. Coming back to those results - it would appear the Sync 4 version is the issue causing battery drain. All owners reporting battery drain issues are running on Sync 4 - 21333 / Revision 284. The newer owners of the 4.5 are running 22130 / Revision 437. The Sync version also updates other modules on the car and the owners of the newer vehicles haven't reported any issues with battery drain issues nor flagged any issues to Ford. Some have also tested the current charge of batteries and all report correct or exceed the charge. Some owners including the one in the screenshot have only covered a small amount of miles, yet theirs is performing as normal and they are running the latest versions. Two other owners had theirs 2 weeks and covered double the milage and are reporting drain issues, again running the older version. 

 I am currently in discussion with Ford Customer Care to organise my vehicle being upgraded to the latest version of Sync 4 (the latest version is only available via Ford Dealers and hasn't been released via the normal update channels. All newly built vehicles come with the latest update as expected. 

II'll keep you all posted as to the results but this is the strongest evidence to date I've managed to uncover and Ford are also in agreement that this could well be the resolution we've longed for. I've spent endless hours covering this and I think I've finally solved it, and got Ford on side in the process. 

 

[StephenFord]

On 5/18/2023 at 11:05 AM, unofix said:

In all probability the battery was the cause of the issues. In my opinion the current design of car batteries is significantly poorer than those used fourteen or so years ago. For example a 2010 car in most cases got at least 8 or more years useful life out of the factory fitted battery. Now it seems that if you get 4 years use it's something of an achievement !

So to save the dolphins and to please the likes of Greta we have abandoned lead acid batteries and replaced them with a technology that is only 30 to 40% as good. This means that during a vehicles lifetime it will use 3 or 4 more batteries than it would have if we'd continued with the likes of Silver Calcium technology. There's real environmental progress for you 🙄

Wait till we see the battery issues that EVs will throw up lol 😂 of course, 500kg lithium Ion batteries are very 'green'!

[DaveTorq]

My car was purchased in April 23 and I have since got a patch for Sync4. I have battery drain issues. After like 1 day it goes into deep sleep. The battery drops from 12.42V to 12.00. Then seems to largely hold at the 11.50-12V mark. Not great as the battery is spending a lot of time at 40-50% charge. Turned off wifi and bluetooth. However, the comms to Ford stay on for the app. 

I just had to replace my wife's 2018 Ford Fiesta battery. Replacing the original manufacturer Varta battery on a 5-6 yr old car that doesn't do massive journeys but does 20-30 minute journeys 2-3 times a week, which should be enough. You can feel the difference at low revs now when you are driving it.

[StephenFord]

10 hours ago, DaveTorq said:

My car was purchased in April 23 and I have since got a patch for Sync4. I have battery drain issues. After like 1 day it goes into deep sleep. The battery drops from 12.42V to 12.00. Then seems to largely hold at the 11.50-12V mark. Not great as the battery is spending a lot of time at 40-50% charge. Turned off wifi and bluetooth. However, the comms to Ford stay on for the app. 

I just had to replace my wife's 2018 Ford Fiesta battery. Replacing the original manufacturer Varta battery on a 5-6 yr old car that doesn't do massive journeys but does 20-30 minute journeys 2-3 times a week, which should be enough. You can feel the difference at low revs now when you are driving it.

I despair at 'new' cars. My 1st car, a 1973 Datsun 120Y, in my ownership of 4 years never had a replacement battery. Of course, the only thing 'electric' in it was the radio, but still, it started 1st time every time and I never worried about it stranding me. You'd think with all the electronic cr*p that cars are now fitted with, they'd design a battery that could cope...

[Botus]

24 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

 You'd think with all the electronic cr*p that cars are now fitted with, they'd design a battery that could cope...

they did fitted on mercs and BM 17 years ago and still work just fine if you top them up every 6 years or so - the replacements allegedly the same spec now last 18 months as they have learnt not to make them so well and magically the car places now only offer 3 years on AGM batteries !!!!

moto don't buy ANY products made or designed in germany - they spent the last 25 years ONLY focusing on how to make them die earlier and earlier

 

 

 

[DaveTorq]

Bought 3 Ford's wont buy another. Just got off the phone to Ford Customer Relations regarding the latest issue I have had with my MK4.5 Ford Focus ST I bought a year ago.

Matrix LED headlights failed within 6months, which meant driving on single carriageway country roads at 30mph (no high beams). When I rang around dealers they said they were unaware of a known issue - yet someone on a Ford Owner's website had found the service number for it for me no problems. Contacted my point of sale dealer, and the first slot they had was in 3 months time (booked up apparently). Had to drive 30miles to another dealer and back. Was given a transit van as a courtesy car as they had no cars available. The software they were using failed so the car had to be kept overnight. They did fix it in the end, which I was obviously pleased with. 

The battery has degraded over time to the point the car goes into energy saving mode after less than 24hrs. Meaning you get into a car with no lights at night until the engine turns on. The battery never reached a state of charge sufficient for the engine to cut out since day 1 of ownership. Rang dealers they said the car needs to hit specific conditions for it to work - so motorway journeys and 365 days of ownership and it never reached the optimum conditions. I managed to get a dealer to look at it at the first service and they assured me the battery charged fine, and there was nothing wrong with it; essentially I imagined the FordPass warnings, the dash energy saving warnings and the fact  the car reports it has done 0 stop/starts. 

In the end got a new battery fitted outside of Fords, and surprise surprise the car is now fully functional almost a month later. Worth pointing out that the Ford Owner's Forums are littered with messages about battery issues on Ford's. Apparently all these customers have active imaginations too. Ford wouldn't reimburse me for the £110 battery I had to buy for a 1 year old car. 

My experience of Ford is they will do everything they can to weasel out of fixing things under warranty - I therefore see the warranty as a marketing ploy, and not a guarantee. Anyway lesson learnt, next time it is a Honda Civic Type R for me, and wave goodbye to the big blue oval with no regrets.

[unofix]

30 minutes ago, DaveTorq said:

Worth pointing out that the Ford Owner's Forums are littered with messages about battery issues on Ford's. Apparently all these customers have active imaginations too. Ford wouldn't reimburse me for the £110 battery I had to buy for a 1 year old car. 

My experience of Ford is they will do everything they can to weasel out of fixing things under warranty - I therefore see the warranty as a marketing ploy, and not a guarantee.

You're just not giving them a fair chance.

Where do you think the weasels from the Post Office work now ? 🤣

[DaveTorq]

30 minutes ago, unofix said:

You're just not giving them a fair chance.

Where do you think the weasels from the Post Office work now ? 🤣

=> Selling 2nd hand Ford PowerShift boxes, wet belt design blueprints and extended warranties to the chronically naive

[Lee Ratcliff]

Hi Luke,

I have a 21 Focus Active 1.5 diesel estate and am having the same problem, a regular flat battery for no apparent reason. The Ford dealership that sold me the car can find no problem. I found your earlier piece from last year and wonder how you got on with it.

Many thanks, 

Lee Ratcliff 

Edited August 7 by Stoney871
removal of email adfress for members privacy

[StephenFord]

22 minutes ago, Lee Ratcliff said:

Many thanks, 

Lee Ratcliff 

Hi Lee,

I've requested your email address be removed. You can seek answers directly on this thread, or even a Private Message (PM)  Welcome to the forum...

[Daz-UK]

I’ve a 72 Plate Focus and I’ve had problems with the battery for many months.

it was never fully flat, but I lost functionality like Aircon, interior lights, 12v socket, Sync 4 opening and closing correctly and much more.

My car has been at the dealer who confirmed the battery had completely failed and was holding about 55% charge at best

They have replaced the battery and the Charging module as well, so going to see if that resolves it.

I'm wondering if there is a bad batch of batteries out there?  

[Eric Bloodaxe]

14 hours ago, Daz-UK said:

I'm wondering if there is a bad batch of batteries out there?  

Given the number of issues with Mk 4 Focuses (and Mk 8 Fiestas) it must be a very big batch.

I'm more inclined to agree with Unofix's comments earlier in the thread combined with "intelligent" charging systems.

On 5/18/2023 at 11:05 AM, unofix said:

In my opinion the current design of car batteries is significantly poorer than those used fourteen or so years ago. For example a 2010 car in most cases got at least 8 or more years useful life out of the factory fitted battery. Now it seems that if you get 4 years use it's something of an achievement !

 

[NeoThomas]

Hey there. I have a manual Focus MK4.5 (2023) and just yesterday I started noticing the mild hybrid won't engage and the car seems to "stutter" or has hiccups when I try to accelerate. Also the battery won't charge when I take my foot of the gas (it tries to start charging then goes back, then it tries to charge again and goes back again, and keeps doing this until I start accelerating again). I feel like this is the same issue and I have already contacted my local dealership and will request them to look at the issue. Also, my start stop system isn't working as well (although no warnings are displayed anywhere in the car).

[RaduF86]

Hi Tomas, 

Let's try and split the problem a little bit.

If your 12V battery is ok (your car starts fine, AC is working, you do not get Deep Sleep activation right after locking the car) it means that both the 48V Generator/Motor and the 48V-12V DC-DC converter are fine. Or in other words, if these two (and their control system) were not fine, your 12V would drain out and your car would not start.

This leads the problem towards the 48V battery and/or its charging system. What I believe for now is that the 48V battery has a problem and the charge/discharge (the mild hybrid system really) cannot engage because of this. The Start Stop feature is also linked to the 48V battery so that cannot work either.

Why it does not show any DTCs? I don't know. But maybe some are stored and the garage can read them.

 

If you still have the warranty, then Ford must change whatever is wrong with the 48V system

[NeoThomas]

On 9/25/2024 at 7:47 AM, RaduF86 said:

Hi Tomas, 

Let's try and split the problem a little bit.

If your 12V battery is ok (your car starts fine, AC is working, you do not get Deep Sleep activation right after locking the car) it means that both the 48V Generator/Motor and the 48V-12V DC-DC converter are fine. Or in other words, if these two (and their control system) were not fine, your 12V would drain out and your car would not start.

This leads the problem towards the 48V battery and/or its charging system. What I believe for now is that the 48V battery has a problem and the charge/discharge (the mild hybrid system really) cannot engage because of this. The Start Stop feature is also linked to the 48V battery so that cannot work either.

Why it does not show any DTCs? I don't know. But maybe some are stored and the garage can read them.

 

If you still have the warranty, then Ford must change whatever is wrong with the 48V system

Hello again, 

Sorry for the confusion. Only after posting did I realize that this post is mainly about the 12v battery but fortunately (or not) I'm ok in that regard.

For now the issue really seems to be the 48v battery. The car works and I can drive it, albeit horribly, as the car shakes like crazy. It feels to me that the car is looking for the mild hybrid engine for help (as normal) and starts shaking and stuttering as that help never comes. 

Today for the first time while driving to work the wrench light came on and a message appeared on the dashboard saying "service needed soon".

I've already contacted the two of the official Ford dealerships in my area but unfortunately the earliest I could manage to schedule was to the 18th of October. 

Anyways, thanks for the help and I will be updating you guys on the matter.

[unofix]

I'm not sure what you are expecting to do ?

The vehicle is under Ford warranty, any attempt by you or anyone else to carry out work on the vehicle will invalidate the warranty. Your only option is to get the vehicle looked at by a Ford main dealer.

[RaduF86]

57 minutes ago, NeoThomas said:

Hello again, 

Sorry for the confusion. Only after posting did I realize that this post is mainly about the 12v battery but fortunately (or not) I'm ok in that regard.

For now the issue really seems to be the 48v battery. The car works and I can drive it, albeit horribly, as the car shakes like crazy. It feels to me that the car is looking for the mild hybrid engine for help (as normal) and starts shaking and stuttering as that help never comes. 

Today for the first time while driving to work the wrench light came on and a message appeared on the dashboard saying "Service needed soon".

I've already contacted the two of the official Ford dealerships in my area but unfortunately the earliest I could manage to schedule was to the 18th of October. 

Anyways, thanks for the help and I will be updating you guys on the matter.

I am curious if now with confirmed fault the car drives differently. If it confirmed a fault on the 48V battery (and again I mention the battery because I believe the rest of the 48V-12V system is ok), it should not try to engage it so it should not shake anymore?