Ignition activation

Q I would really value your opinion with a problem on my wife’s 2018 Ford Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost. It is only 16 days out of warranty but doubt Ford will have much sympathy as it has been serviced by independents. We first noticed a problem when turning the ignition key on and the dashboard saying “Turn ignition off or start engine”.

I assumed this was a low battery warning and I checked the battery voltage – 11.6 volts. The engine was started and the battery showed 14.6 volts, so I assume it is charging OK.

The battery was charged for about 18 hours with my CTEC MXS 5.0 and the next morning showed fully-charged. It then had a 50-mile return journey. It has been used three or four times locally over the last three days.

This morning I checked the battery again at 11.7 volts. After a minute or so the interior lights went out and the voltage rose to 11.8 volts. After another few minutes I assume more systems closed down as the voltage rose to 11.9 volts.

I conclude the battery is faulty or there is excessive battery drain. The battery is a 65AH EFB Exide Start-stop, which

I assume is original as we bought the car at 15-months-old with 10,000 miles on it.

I would like to check for battery drain by disconnecting the negative lead and putting an ammeter in series. Will this cause an issue or lose any settings, as the car appears to have an Intelligent Battery System. The negative battery clamp has an extra block attached to it with a couple of light duty wires affixed.

What value of drain should I observe and at what time intervals as the car “goes to sleep”?

The car does not get an awful lot of use, but it gets the same use as her previous Corsa which never had a battery issue in the 13 years she owned it (except for renewing the battery at around nine years when it was time-expired).

If the Exide is failing at four years, it does not seem good, but this is my first experience of an EFB. At the moment, the battery is being charged again with the CTEK on the recondition mode. I would really value your opinion.

Melvyn Allen

Battery life can vary and although many batteries can go on, it is not unusual to find that after three years a battery is beginning to lose its shine. On older vehicles where the level of the supply voltage is not so crucial this would probably not be noticed, and the battery would continue to supply enough power to start and run the vehicle for some time still, but as the voltage levels on the modern vehicle are more crucial, then the battery can show up as defective at a much earlier stage.

Even though your vehicle is just out of its warranty period, the Ford cover on the battery does only last one year, so even if you had found this problem a couple of months ago, there is little chance that Ford would have replaced the battery. I have always found this strange as if you were to now purchase a battery from Ford it would come with a three-year warranty.

When using an ammeter you will need to wait around half an hour with the meter connected to ensure that all systems have shut down – on some vehicles it can be longer. You should then see a reading of between 10ma to 50ma

Your vehicle is fitted with a battery condition monitor and this would need to be reset using diagnostic equipment if the battery were to be replaced, reconnecting with the same battery will not effect this. When disconnecting the battery you should ensure that all electrical equipment in the vehicle including the courtesy lights, and the ignition have been switched-off for at last two minutes before the battery is disconnected. This should always be done from the negative terminal first.

Likewise when re-connecting the battery this should be done positive terminal first and negative terminal last.

The electric windows will also need to be reset after the battery has been disconnected as follows:

▶ Start engine.

▶ Lift and hold window switch to fully close window - release switch - lift and hold window switch for 1 second release switch.

▶ Press and hold window switch to fully open window – release switch – lift and hold window switch to fully close window – release switch – check window operates correctly.

▶ If not, repeat procedure. Repeat procedure for remaining windows.

▶ Switch ignition off.