System Faults

Justa3valve said:

So this morning when I went to start my car I was hit with two system faults and 911 assist is disabled; now my 2017 Focus RS with 36,600miles will not start. The faults are: steering assist fault, and headlamp fault. For all three the car is telling me to go to the dealer for service. The car was working perfectly lastnight when I drove home.

Has anyone ever had a problem like this pop up overnight? Any ideas on how to remedy this? I have owned the car since the middle of December, and have put roughly 4000 miles on it.

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Get an OBD2 scanner and check what codes are coming up.

Low Battery?

Yikes, check for mice in the wiring.... Unless it was in an accident or there is a short in the wiring, how could the steering and headlamp faults be connected? I could be wrong, but unless this is common, check for nesting rodents.

Before I changed the stock battery out, I was getting "Drive Modes Not Available" message over and over. I also believe it was the reason my Infotainment system went bad.

The stock batteries that come with these cars aren't the best.

I did find rodent evidence in my RS while changing the battery. Those pest are wiley little bastards.

I think the OE battery life has suffered as a result of how long these cars sat during the various steps they went through after production and before final delivery. My car went down the Saarlouis assembly line March 7, 2016. It arrived at the shipping port April 20, 2016, didn't get on a boat until May 10, 2016, and finally arrived at my dealer on June 15, 2016. All that sitting around certainly shortened the battery life. I noticed mine had permanently dropped below 79% state of charge (SOC) in November of 2018 as the auto start/stop function quit working, followed by other devices starting to behave erratically, so I replaced the battery and all was fine after that.

So I needed up getting the car fixed, the battery needed replace as well as the BCM. The dealership didn’t recalibrate the blend doors on my car after they replaced the BCM so now I have different temperatures of air coming out of every vent, not to mention the vents not closing all the way so I have air coming out of my defrost when it’s only suppose to be coming out the front vents.

Justa3valve said:

So I needed up getting the car fixed, the battery needed replace as well as the BCM. The dealership didn’t recalibrate the blend doors on my car after they replaced the BCM so now I have different temperatures of air coming out of every vent, not to mention the vents not closing all the way so I have air coming out of my defrost when it’s only suppose to be coming out the front vents.

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My bet is the dealer dipshits replaced the BCM before they replaced the battery. BCM was probably fine.
Here's a tip for any of these type of faults....check the battery. My wifes Kuga(Escape) 2.0L turbo petrol same basic car as the RS from an electrical perspective went totally apeshit the other morning on first start attempt with a long list of silly warnings that didnt seem to relate I wont go into but 4 year old battery. I immediately suspected a battery issue and put the multimeter across the terminals and 10.5 volts with ignition on. Toast.
First port of call........BATTERY

Ciao

Dipshit sums it up well....can't believe how dumb some of them can be.

Get a good battery charger and put it on the car once a month. These AGM batteries need much more TLC than the old wet lead acid batteries.

Something like this:

phillofoc said:

Get a good battery charger and put it on the car once a month. These AGM batteries need much more TLC than the old wet lead acid batteries.

Something like this:

Amazon.com: BatteryMINDer 128CEC1: 12 Volt-2/4/8 AMP Battery Charger, Battery Maintainer, and Battery Desulfator: Automotive

Buy BatteryMINDer 128CEC1: 12 Volt-2/4/8 AMP Battery Charger, Battery Maintainer, and Battery Desulfator: Battery Chargers - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

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I dont believe our std batteries are AGM but wet cell. Just changed the battery in the wifes Escape which is a Varta same as the RS (RS may be higher amperage due to stop/start) and its wet cell.
What makes you think its AGM?

Ciao

lucky phil said:

I dont believe our std batteries are AGM but wet cell. Just changed the battery in the wifes Escape which is a Varta same as the RS (RS may be higher amperage due to stop/start) and its wet cell.
What makes you think its AGM?

Ciao

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A few things
Part number has AGM in it: Vehicle Battery - Ford (BAGM-48H6-760) | TascaParts.com

If you use a wet cell battery on a car with start-stop, you will kill it in a few months:
and

The batteries in our cars don't get to a 100% charge rate in normal operation, the car likes to keep it between 70 and 90% it seems. I'll leave the charger on the car getting it to 100% capacity (per FORScan), the car will allow for a discharge on the battery to around 90% even while cruising on the highway.

Optima red batteries work great. I have used them for years.

phillofoc said:

A few things
Part number has AGM in it: Vehicle Battery - Ford (BAGM-48H6-760) | TascaParts.com

If you use a wet cell battery on a car with start-stop, you will kill it in a few months:

StackPath

and

If a standard flooded battery is fitted to a Start-Stop vehicle, IT WILL FAIL- - - -

A lot has been written about Start-Stop batteries, and now that nearly two thirds (60 per cent) of the cars sold in Europe today have either start-stop or energy recuperation technology or both, these cars are now finding themselves with the second user and it's important we understand the only choi

www.linkedin.com

The batteries in our cars don't get to a 100% charge rate in normal operation, the car likes to keep it between 70 and 90% it seems. I'll leave the charger on the car getting it to 100% capacity (per FORScan), the car will allow for a discharge on the battery to around 90% even while cruising on the highway.

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Ok interesting, I'll check my car and see if the battery is the same p/n. I do know from my experience with AGM batteries in my motorcycles that the AGM batteries are much more sensitive to charge voltage than a wet cell type.

Ciao

62K miles on the original battery and never once has the car not started. I have a wet cell battery not a AGM.