2006 Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 - Ford Focus - starting problems

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Wed 26 Feb 2014 21:51
2006 Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 - Ford Focus - starting problems - chrisc1

Before Christmas I noticed the car was not always starting first time when turning the key, it seems it turned over, started and for a few seconds felt like it was going to stall before recovering and running as normal.

A few weeks later I tried to start the car to go home after work and was met with the immobiliser light flashing a sequence, a lot of relay chatter from passenger fuse box and a ticking/whirring from under bonnet - after a few attempts it died completely as if the battery was flat.

I jumped the car the next day and had the battery / alternater checked and all looked good (alternater is 18 months old, battery around 4 years)

All has been fine until today, tried to start the car again, same problem, flat battery.

Not sure where to start - battery tested OK, alternater is newish so am I looking at a PATS fault?

Any help appreciated

Chris


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Wed 26 Feb 2014 22:54
2006 Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 - Ford Focus - starting problems - elekie&a/c doctor
If the battery is flat,the car is not going to start,but will it start from another battery and leads or a power boost pack?if that gets it going,then I would suggest the battery and charging circuit needs to be retested.Unlikely to be a pats fault,unless the fuse in the engine bay fuse box has blown for this system.hth
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Thu 27 Feb 2014 00:20
2006 Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 - Ford Focus - starting problems - chrisc1

Thanks for the reply.

The battery is definitely flat, I couldn't even use the remote central locking and had to lock the doors manually.

I'm going to give it a jump tomorrow as I had to ditch it tonight but going off last time this happened it did start with a jump and once I had driven it around for 30 minutes I had no problems restarting it, until today!

Not sure if this is related but I have had trouble recently getting the car to lock/unlock via the remote and doing the boot release took a lot of frantic waving of the remote to get it to function - not sure if this points to a problem or is unrelated!

Thanks

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Thu 27 Feb 2014 12:09
2006 Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 - Ford Focus - starting problems - chrisc1

Just an update...

Got the car jumped, it started up but went straight into limp mode with "Systems engine fault" on dash and restricted speed to 20mph.

Looks like I will need to get it in for a diagnostics to see whats going on

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