[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.

has anyone replaced their battery yet? i have zero confidence in the ford supplied one which shuts down things if its not fully charged all the time,in the past ive had the puddle lamps stop working,the entire sync 4 screen stop working until id driven a couple of miles to get it charging again etc,my dealer checked it over and said it was fine so that was the end of my hoping to get a freebie anyway i was looking at halfords and the ones that are recommended for the car are 700ah /75 where as my orig one is a 600 /60 has anyone fitted a more powerful one to thiers?

I went for varta 700cca 70ah. looks like mk4 had this and the miserable gits went for 600cca 60ah in mk4.5 . They also removed the plastic drains to the wheel arch covers in the front wings too .You will need to reprogramme it using forscan or get a garage. Bsm reset won't pick up the new battery size. If you need info let me know

 

[DaveTorq]

yes that wouldnt suprise me, fitting the minimum battery they can get away with i know someone who can do the reprogamming so thats no problem but like you say it shouldnt be necessary on a nearly new car,i had my mk3.5 for nearly 6 yrs,still on its orig battery with no problems at all

Same here. The MK3.5 was a cracking car. On the smaller engine sizes the clutch slip recall was obviously a black mark and the head gasket on the RS focus on release.

Reducing the battery size is a bit of a joke. My mk4.5 has heated seats, steering and all the gismos.........yet my wife's 1.0 100PS ecoboost Fiesta had a bigger battery. I've noticed when you turn on the power to the car without ignition, there is like a continuous 14amp draw. God knows what is chewing that up

Most likely the short battery life is Ford setting the alternator to only charge the battery to 80% state of charge (can be changed on ForScan), smaller batteries and the fact that the car is probably busy talking back to the mother ship every 5minutes sharing data with the world. If I could be faffed, I would take my Hall effect current meter, and look around the wiring looms with the car powered down. However, for what gain - not like Ford would do anything if you found the issue anyway.

 

[DaveTorq]

How do you do the reprogramming through forscan?

Ive read that you can do the following(Ford Focus MK4 Battery - Page 2 - FORScan forum):

bodycm for as built (hex stuff) .
take backup (saved the settings as abt file)
mk4.5
726-02-01 = 1111 | 0909 | 0C70
600cca 60ah and h5(small size)
11(hex) = 17(decimal)

sounds like mk4 was
726-02-01 = 1C1C | 0909 | 0C86
1C (hex)= 28 in dec

write it

Then go into body control module (not the "as built" hex one) with the standard key value pairs

search for battery

Change "battery type factory" from 17 to 28 (shows as 720 CC 70ah h6)

While you are there you might want to change your Battery State of Charge % from 80% to 90-95%(based on what I have seen on forums people have done). Seems Ford set it so the alternator stops charging the bat when it gets to 80% to improve fuel economy and/or preserve battery life.

Then reset the bms using the headlight/brake trick or use forscan.

You would be better off with the Civic for sure. Unfortunately that car plays in the league of its own, both in terms of driveability and price. If you were to buy an FK8 used, be aware of the infotainment crashes and the gearbox grinding issue (which I might add, was not treated very well by Honda, despite the many customer complaints). The FL5 does not have these issues

test drove the civic type R (model before latest with the £47k price tag and the waiting list longer than Fords list of outstanding field actions) before I went for ST. Has to be said that thing is built for the track. Way better handling and the engine is something else. I believe they squeezed another 40bhp out of it on the new one. Also I see the Focus ST track pack gets floored by a standard Civic Type R on every circuit hot lap review I've seen. Appreciate if you lob a mountune on focus you can take it to 365bhp (Focus RS territory) but I found the honda front diff way better than Focus....so can use more of that power on corner exit. Also the Type R beats the Focus RS (with awd and the extra power) round the Nordschleife. The gearbox on civic is a work of art n'all. Main benefit I see on focus was it was nicer inside, had 5 seats not 4, cheaper and a better all rounder (more comfortable for day to day). Must say why oh why do Ford not allow ppl to select Sport mode but with the dampers set to Normal. VW, Hyundai and Honda both allow it.Civic is stiff and twitchy and hates you if you don't drive it fast. Read a review saying it is too widefor British B roads, almost as wide as an Audi etron. Honda are super reliable, built well and hold their value better than precious metals, which is why I will be going that way next time.

Guess the other option is i30N if my wife won't let me spend that kinda a money

 

[DaveTorq]

Thanks, this post and the link will come in handy if I were needed to upgrade the battery down the line.



Yes, as I said as well, the CTR is a better driver's car in every metric and every non-quantifiable quality when it comes to driving, by every review and opinion. There were never any questions about that. The question really is what do you want?

To me, the ****-ass infotainment and over the top looks for the FK8 is a big no-no. I were to be keeping these cars as a secondary only for a weekend blast then I would care less about these things and more about how it is to drive, but since the idea is to have a daily driver, these factors come into play bigtime. Just two thoughts here though: In the FK8 there are no customizeable driver profiles either, so you can either have Sport with firm dampers or Comfort with soft dampers, but no Sport settings with soft dampers, exactly like it is in the Focus. I do not necessarily agree with the value keeping claim either - I see MANY FK8s on the second market in my small country (Hungary), the car looks and feels to drive like a boyracer's dream so it was a very sought after car within a certain demographic, hence many of them are on sale today. For quite cheap, I would add. Based on just comparing the prices,it does not hold its value better than a Megane RS, i30N or ST.

Now the FL5 is a different situation. They ironed out the biggest flaw of the previous one (the infotainment system), added custom driver profile, upgraded the interior quality by quite a margin, dialed down the looks and fine-tune the car here and there just to make it even better than the legendary FK8. In the meantime they bumped up the price considerably. For some reason there are very long waiting times for it too. So indeed this means that there are not so many cars around and the three I currently see on sale as used are very expensive, going for not so much less money than a new car. The FL5 will probably hold its value exceptionally well, given is GOAT status and the scarcity of it. In any case, given the huge difference in prices, I dont see the Focus ST vs FL5 CTR as a fair comparison to be honest. If you are willing to shell out that much amount of money for a FL5, you are probably getting the best FWD sportcar ever made, no questions asked. And since this segment is dying out, this claim will be probably true after 20 years from on, too.

The i30N is a more fair comparison to the ST. I was struggling for a very long time to choose between one and the other. The i30N is a better driver's car, infinitely more customizable and sounds amaziong for a 4-pot (even if it is a bit too loud to my taste, to be honest). However I prefer the looks of the Focus way better, the interior is nicer and also the Hyundai is missing out on some features which are important for a daily, like adaptive cruise control and a like, you also cannot order a towbar, premium audio, matrix headlights etc for it. I feel like once again that the Focus is a better daily driver, whereas the i30N is much more of a weapon, more focused (no pun intended) and more serious. So as always it is about your preference and what you are buying these cars for. Although I have to admit, the i30N seems to be plagued by less quality issues than the Focus (although I have not heard great things about Hyundai's warranty service either).

Ultimately I see the Focus as a sporty and yet practical daily which can be decently fun around corners if the opportunity arises. The I30N is more of a B-road weapon, and even though suitable for a daily it is not the best for that. If you want the best of the best, possibly in every regard, you get the FL5, no doubt.. If I were to buy a secondary car for a weekend blast then I would probably get the FK8, as mentioned in my country you can scoop up those relatively cheap (especially compared to the FL5).

totally agree. my mate did have some issues with sunroof on his i30n but hyundai got right too it. ps I'm comparing new civic type R to track pack with bells and whistles and there's not much in it price wise. However, standard for standard you are right 10k is a big difference.

Be really careful changing battery values. They change depending on calibration (firmware) there is not a one size fits all. I changed mine by looking at the asbuilt of a diesel built around the same time using the same calibration and copied that.
Forscan UI values are often wrong it didn’t recognise my factory as built value or the one I changed it to.
That said, I did it more as an OCD/because I could. It’s really not necessary. It makes 1 or 2% difference to the SoC calculation. Just change the battery reset the BMS and that’s enough.

Yeah I've got a mate who works for garage who has proper kit did it for me. I was toying with doing the above looks like it would work.

Defo messing with as built settings is risky

Ive read that you can do the following(Ford Focus MK4 Battery - Page 2 - FORScan forum):

bodycm for as built (hex stuff) .
take backup (saved the settings as abt file)
mk4.5
726-02-01 = 1111 | 0909 | 0C70
600cca 60ah and h5(small size)
11(hex) = 17(decimal)

sounds like mk4 was
726-02-01 = 1C1C | 0909 | 0C86
1C (hex)= 28 in dec

write it

Then go into body control module (not the "as built" hex one) with the standard key value pairs

search for battery

Change "battery type factory" from 17 to 28 (shows as 720 CC 70ah h6)

While you are there you might want to change your Battery State of Charge % from 80% to 90-95%(based on what I have seen on forums people have done). Seems Ford set it so the alternator stops charging the bat when it gets to 80% to improve fuel economy and/or preserve battery life.

Then reset the bms using the headlight/brake trick or use forscan.


test drove the civic type R (model before latest with the £47k price tag and the waiting list longer than Fords list of outstanding field actions) before I went for ST. Has to be said that thing is built for the track. Way better handling and the engine is something else. I believe they squeezed another 40bhp out of it on the new one. Also I see the Focus ST track pack gets floored by a standard Civic Type R on every circuit hot lap review I've seen. Appreciate if you lob a mountune on focus you can take it to 365bhp (Focus RS territory) but I found the honda front diff way better than Focus....so can use more of that power on corner exit. Also the Type R beats the Focus RS (with awd and the extra power) round the Nordschleife. The gearbox on civic is a work of art n'all. Main benefit I see on focus was it was nicer inside, had 5 seats not 4, cheaper and a better all rounder (more comfortable for day to day). Must say why oh why do Ford not allow ppl to select Sport mode but with the dampers set to Normal. VW, Hyundai and Honda both allow it.Civic is stiff and twitchy and hates you if you don't drive it fast. Read a review saying it is too widefor British B roads, almost as wide as an Audi etron. Honda are super reliable, built well and hold their value better than precious metals, which is why I will be going that way next time.

Guess the other option is i30N if my wife won't let me spend that kinda a money

Thanks, this post and the link will come in handy if I were needed to upgrade the battery down the line.



Yes, as I said as well, the CTR is a better driver's car in every metric and every non-quantifiable quality when it comes to driving, by every review and opinion. There were never any questions about that. The question really is what do you want?

To me, the ****-ass infotainment and over the top looks for the FK8 is a big no-no. I were to be keeping these cars as a secondary only for a weekend blast then I would care less about these things and more about how it is to drive, but since the idea is to have a daily driver, these factors come into play bigtime. Just two thoughts here though: In the FK8 there are no customizeable driver profiles either, so you can either have Sport with firm dampers or Comfort with soft dampers, but no Sport settings with soft dampers, exactly like it is in the Focus. I do not necessarily agree with the value keeping claim either - I see MANY FK8s on the second market in my small country (Hungary), the car looks and feels to drive like a boyracer's dream so it was a very sought after car within a certain demographic, hence many of them are on sale today. For quite cheap, I would add. Based on just comparing the prices,it does not hold its value better than a Megane RS, i30N or ST.

Now the FL5 is a different situation. They ironed out the biggest flaw of the previous one (the infotainment system), added custom driver profile, upgraded the interior quality by quite a margin, dialed down the looks and fine-tune the car here and there just to make it even better than the legendary FK8. In the meantime they bumped up the price considerably. For some reason there are very long waiting times for it too. So indeed this means that there are not so many cars around and the three I currently see on sale as used are very expensive, going for not so much less money than a new car. The FL5 will probably hold its value exceptionally well, given is GOAT status and the scarcity of it. In any case, given the huge difference in prices, I dont see the Focus ST vs FL5 CTR as a fair comparison to be honest. If you are willing to shell out that much amount of money for a FL5, you are probably getting the best FWD sportcar ever made, no questions asked. And since this segment is dying out, this claim will be probably true after 20 years from on, too.

The i30N is a more fair comparison to the ST. I was struggling for a very long time to choose between one and the other. The i30N is a better driver's car, infinitely more customizable and sounds amaziong for a 4-pot (even if it is a bit too loud to my taste, to be honest). However I prefer the looks of the Focus way better, the interior is nicer and also the Hyundai is missing out on some features which are important for a daily, like adaptive cruise control and a like, you also cannot order a towbar, premium audio, matrix headlights etc for it. I feel like once again that the Focus is a better daily driver, whereas the i30N is much more of a weapon, more focused (no pun intended) and more serious. So as always it is about your preference and what you are buying these cars for. Although I have to admit, the i30N seems to be plagued by less quality issues than the Focus (although I have not heard great things about Hyundai's warranty service either).

Ultimately I see the Focus as a sporty and yet practical daily which can be decently fun around corners if the opportunity arises. The I30N is more of a B-road weapon, and even though suitable for a daily it is not the best for that. If you want the best of the best, possibly in every regard, you get the FL5, no doubt.. If I were to buy a secondary car for a weekend blast then I would probably get the FK8, as mentioned in my country you can scoop up those relatively cheap (especially compared to the FL5).

in uk Hondas defo hold price well though I think it's because Honda don't sell much in UK. the dealer I went to said each dealer was given 2 when the 2023 type R came out. Think in uk 500 were sold to loyal customers who preordered them. You don't see many of the previous gen type R in Uk either . They tried to sell me a 2nd one, for a price I thought was too steep. The previous gen ones looked too wild for me and my wife would have divorced me for sure. Interior was bloody awful too. .

It is a shame I do love my ST - just interactions post sale and reliability of components took shine off. I personally don't want to give a business money who can't be trusted to honour a warranty, and clearly trains up /incentivizes dealers to fob customers off.

 

[DaveTorq]

Fundamentally these cars keep drawing 100-200mA on the battery 24/7 might reduce a bit in energy saving mode. Unless you drive the car regularly you are going to end up with a dead battery. Smaller batteries will die quicker.

My wife's fiesta mk8 doesn't have this. 0 draw after the car fully shuts downs.

I heard that when the mk4 came out people had 700mA draws and it needed a software update if I recall the video (German chap with subtitles) . He posted a lot on mk4 focus.

 

[DaveTorq]

I have had my brand new 4.5 built this February for 3 weeks. It had stood in the dealers compound for two weeks. I did around 100 miles first week and didn’t use it again until Friday so stood for two weeks. So basically this car has stood unused most of the time since being built. It has never sent any sleep mode or shutdown notices, I started it Friday and drove 1/2 mile to a junction where it immediately activated the stop function even though it was still effectively cold, the stop start worked consistently just as it did all the time during the first 100 miles. What I am trying to say is this is a car that has mostly stood since being built yet shows no battery issues whatsoever.

They seem to have done something with the latest version wether it is just software or updated hardware who knows. But I know my others would have sent messages, gone into sleep mode and the stop/start stopped working in that period, but not this one. There has always been a benefit in getting last versions of model runs imho

Presumably it isn't software or they'd patch all cars on service to save fitting new batteries. So perhaps it is a hardware update. Be interesting to know if and when this happened if theory is correct. What battery is in your mk4.5 2025 Feb ?

 

[DaveTorq]

They generally don’t and won’t fit new batteries as there is nothing whatsoever wrong with the batteries as long as they haven’t been standing around for months and allowed to discharge, a lot of ST’s stand around at dealers for many months and during covid at the factory end. Otherwise most issues are the BMS not calibrated or functioning properly resulting in incomplete charging . My battery is a Varta 60 A/H EFB

Mine had now been standing best part of another week so that’s about 26 of last 30 days unused and stood for 3 weeks since manufacture before that. Battery and everything else functioning perfectly, all remore functions operational

All I can say is mine was bought knackered. So that sticks with your argument.

Had new one fitted and calibrated worked for a few months then it's back doing the same. There are so many people complaining about it and not just on the ST forums on the non st model.

I've put a hall sensor on my negative cable and I can see it continually draws 100ma. After shutdown it is 700ma for a few mins which I understand with the oil pump etc. However days later 100ma. Wife's fiesta 0ma.

To be clear my car is driven at worst once a week for at least 1.5hr (not town driving). That's more than enough to keep it alive. Do agree it isn't the batteries and i suspect larger batteries just buy you more time.

Also the 80% SoC setting that Ford set it to can't help either.

Also interesting 2 guys who have bought 2025 ones have noticed the difference out of the blocks (cars a few months old now). Obviously a sample size of 2 doesn't send off fireworks but still interesting.

Ford have always denied an issue here. However they have form. There is nothing wrong with wet belts there is nothing wrong with wet belts. Oh ppl in US get litigious yes we will repair replace engines with oil starvation or snapped timing belts. RS focus fitting the wrong bloody gasket to the block. Ford Kuga Pehv in uk first releases held back a year to replace charging equipment. 2023 St having issues with matrix led not working (I had this) it stayed dipped fun on late night country roads. When mk4 focus came out they realised they hadn't torqued the suspension bolts correctly. List goes on.

Read this not so long ago: https://fordauthority.com/2024/10/persistent-ford-quality-issues-dent-manager-bonuses/

 

[DaveTorq]

After a complete battery (12v) failure a month ago on my wife’s Kuga, I’ve just logged into FordPass and received this notification…no available resolution as yet.

Great.

"May" have a problem. Nice.Oh and don't use that key feature you purchased, while we are waiting to get our butts into gear. Ford have really dropped the ball.

I remember when the first mondeo and focus came out. Ford were very much on their A game then. I get the feeling they only care about the US pickup / ute / suv style cars now as that is where the real sales are. The stuff for the European market went downhill. The mk3 focus had loads of issues with coolant pipes etc I waited for mk3.5. I heard mk4 had loads of issues waited for mk4.5.

Mind you just realised the US market argument falls flat with the kuga as they sell that as the escape over the pond.

Puma’s and especially mhev versions are even worse. Totally unnecessary battery replacements going on there. I used to get sleep mode messages from my previous mk4’s but never failed to start or go flat even after many weeks in the garage. I used to do a BMS reset when the stop start packed in and that usually gave months of zero problems afterwards

yeah to be fair I've had it go into power saving mode weekly but after 2 weeks it fired. Pretty sure the battery must have been down to 50% by that point or worse. Doesn't fill you with confidence in the winter. Also sucks getting into a dark car at night when you've paid good money etc

You wonder how much environmental damage has been caused with all the premature battery replacements with batteries that continually drain down to damage inducing levels.

Keep an eye put of for legal firms in future saying did you ever own or lease a vehicle. No win no fee etc

 

[DaveTorq]

I feel the root cause of the battery issues in the Mk4 & 4.5 is the smart charging system limiting charge to 80%. I have changed mine to 90% and fitted a higher amp hour battery.

see how you go in a few months . I did it and ended up back at square 1 after 6months . fundamentally on mine it is constantly draining battery at background level so you can charge it all you like if you leave it more than a week it will go into battery saver.