Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - fiestamk7

Just over a week ago I came back to my car (Fiesta mk7 09 1.4 tdci ~50k miles) to find the remote fob not working to unlock the car. Assumed the fob battery had died, so unlocked manually via the key. Got in the car, realised there was absolutely no electrical power, completely dead, no dashboard/interior lights, turning key in ignition did nothing.

Assumed the battery had randomly died. Checked under bonnet for connections etc., all seemed fine. Was about to call break down, then suddenly all power came back and I was able to start the car. Assumed it was some electrical glitch, didn't think much of it.

All fine been driving as usual all of last week until today - came back to car, unlocked fine, all power fine and then electrics go completely dead just as I'm turning key to start engine. Thought I was scuppered this time, but then suddenly, again about 5 minutes later, all power came back and I was able to start engine and drive home fine.

I noticed both times the clock had lost about 5 mins of time, so I assume somehow using the key fob in the first instance was what caused the power cut? I can't think what the problem is, the battery should be perfectly healthy as it was replaced only a couple of years ago. I don't know much about these things, but perhaps an issue with the alternator? Or just battery connections/terminals?

In any case, it probably needs a trip to the garage but I thought I'd ask here if anyone has any idea what the problem might be and if there is a simple fix that could be tried? In the meantime I assume I am ok to drive the car until it goes into garage (if it comes to that) - I'm worried now that the electrics could go dead while driving which I don't think would be a pleasant situation to be in!

Thank you in advance for your help.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - elekie&a/c doctor

I would start with a good clean up of the battery posts and terminals.Unbolt both terminals and give the mating surfaces a good scrape.It could still be an internal fault within the battery.Unlikely the electrics would fail while driving. If it is a battery related fault,the alternator would keep the systems running.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Cyriljohnson

Helo.. My fiesta is facing the same problem. Can u pls tell how you solved it if u did?

... Cyril

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - GNB1971

Hi, did you ever get this fixed? Mine has done exactly the same thing this morning. Thankyou

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Xileno

That was the one and only post by the OP and they've not logged in since so unlikely to respond. The advice given in one of the other posts seems a good place to start.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - GNB1971

Do you have a link for it please?

i'm totally lost on this one, would love to know what the issue is

thanks

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Xileno

I was referring to the post above at Tue 13 Jun 2017 08:21

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Gibbo_Wirral

Check all earth points would be my suggestion. Can't speak for Fords but on Peugeot's there's often a hidden one under the battery tray that causes a similar issue.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Ashley Barrett

Hello all,

My Ford Fiesta 14 is having the same issues as this. Intermittent loss of power from the key fob into turning the car's electrics on and then having it finally come on when the ignition is turned on. This had been working mostly fine bar a couple of days ago when it took a few moments after trying the ignition several times for the electrics to finally come on. On top of this the dashboard clock can sometimes reset the time and date to 2014, and will occasionally flare up a 'traction control off' message on the dash panel but no actual warning symbol on the dash popping up. It also tries to connects through sync to the phone but the sync bluetooth had been reset to default settings after some brief problems there with playback before so it shouldn't be trying to do that.

The battery was only just replaced last March so I don't believe its that.

I've got the car booked into a ford garage to be seen at but unfortunately the earliest time they could see it is in a month. Reading through this thread I was wondering if it could indeed be a bad earth connection or some other wiring issues.

I wanted to post in this thread to see if anyone else had any updates with their situations and to post my own when it hopefully gets seen to and fixed.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - elekie&a/c doctor
The fact that the clock reverts to default time suggests low battery power . Basic electrical system needs testing. Battery, alternator charge rate and key off drain .
Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - bathtub tom
The fact that the clock reverts to default time suggests low battery power . Basic electrical system needs testing. Battery, alternator charge rate and key off drain .

Battery terminals. Battery lead connections, particularly earth connections.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Xileno

I think I would be taking this to an auto electrician rather than a main dealer.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Andrew-T

I think I would be taking this to an auto electrician rather than a main dealer.

Definitely.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Ashley Barrett

I tried phoning my local auto electrician after this and they said they can't do anything if the engine does turn on because it wouldnt read any diagnostic faults? He said my best chance was to keep my appointment with my local ford dealer but that if there was still issues after to try him again so I guess I'll just have to go with that.

I'd be surprised if it was the battery since that was last replaced back in March. And after it does this the car seems to run fine afterwards for approximately 2 weeks or so before it loses the ability to activate with the remote key fob until the ignition is turned on, whereby the process repeats again. It's probably the terminal connections or an earth/ground wire but I guess I'll have to wait and hopefully see. It's a very odd occurrence.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Andrew-T

You could easily check yourself whether the battery terminals are tight ? There are probably many other places less easy to check, but I hope you have at least looked at the battery.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Ashley Barrett

Just checked and they seemed tight, although I was able to tighten one a bit further. Is there any issues with having them too tight? Silly question perhaps I know, but I know nothing when it comes to the workings of cars and electrical systems like this.

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - elekie&a/c doctor
You don’t need fault codes to carry out basic tests . Find an electronic tech that understands what’s happening . It’s not NASA technology (yet) .

Edited by elekie&a/c doctor on 04/10/2021 at 16:43

Ford Fiesta - Lose all electrical power, suddenly comes back - Guillermo Beltrán Morales

hello, do you have any solution to your problem?, i have something similar to this problem.

Edited by Guillermo Beltrán Morales on 26/02/2024 at 16:38