Ford Focus Mild Hybrid Deep Sleep = Flat Battery?

tony_matthews

We have a 2020 Ford Focus with a1.0L ecoboost mild hybrid engine. This has the Ford Pass app that lets you do things like remote start etc.

The car was on the drive for a week after we last used it and the app reported the car had gone into deep sleep. When we went to it, it would not open with touch or the fob. We got into it using the key and found it had a dead battery. We also checked that nothing had been left on - it hadn't. We called out roadside assistance and they jump started it and told us to run it for at least an hour to charge the battery, so we did that for 2 hours. That was Wednesday, after a trip to the shops and back yesterday and the app is again reporting that the car has gone into deep sleep. We went to it immediately and this time it did start.

It doesn't seem right to actively avoid deep sleep by running the car each time this is reported but we really don't want to have a car that you also can't rely on to start when needed... Has anyone else had problems with deep sleep and their battery going flat after the car has stood idle for just a few days?

daveyjp

New tech introduced before testing leading to problems seems to be Ford's expertise at the moment.  See Kuga hybrid problems.

forgotmyname

Charge the battery with an external charger rather than running the engine for hours at a time.

Alanp

This also happens on the new Puma, mine shows the message “ system off to save battery “ when it does this I usually trickle charge it overnight, the consensus is that the rombat battery fitted isn’t up to the job, some have had replacements fitted by the dealer which are varta branded, which seem to be better, good luck with getting your Ford dealer to replace it if it doesn’t show a fault, fords apathy towards its customers is legendary 

born_again

tony_matthews said:

We have a 2020 Ford Focus with a1.0L ecoboost mild hybrid engine. This has the Ford Pass app that lets you do things like remote start etc.

The car was on the drive for a week after we last used it and the app reported the car had gone into deep sleep. When we went to it, it would not open with touch or the fob. We got into it using the key and found it had a dead battery. We also checked that nothing had been left on - it hadn't. We called out roadside assistance and they jump started it and told us to run it for at least an hour to charge the battery, so we did that for 2 hours. That was Wednesday, after a trip to the shops and back yesterday and the app is again reporting that the car has gone into deep sleep. We went to it immediately and this time it did start.

It doesn't seem right to actively avoid deep sleep by running the car each time this is reported but we really don't want to have a car that you also can't rely on to start when needed... Has anyone else had problems with deep sleep and their battery going flat after the car has stood idle for just a few days?

Should be a well known issue to dealers. As the Kuga PHEV had this issue not long after it came out and there was a software update to solve the problem.

forgotmyname

Ford have had battery drain issues for years and quite often they sorted it 100%.

Their final answer is probably use it daily and dont leave it parked unless its on a

trickle charger.

Seen posts on a Polish or German site where owners have found the cars never goto sleep

fully even with the battery saver relay active. The cars will wake up at random intervals until

the battery is dead which may only take 2 - 4 days even with a top notch larger battery.

tony_matthews

Thanks for the comments. I checked and it is a VARTA 700A 70Ah battery that is fitted.

Fortunately, I have access to another 1.0 ecoboost mild hybrid. The battery on that sits at 12.55 volts with the car unlocked but without the engine started.

I measured this battery at 12.06 volts unlocked without the engine running. I will check it again in a few days to see how much it has dropped. Assuming it will start, I will then take it for a run and check it again to see how much charge it has regained.

It's going back to the dealer under the warranty if I don't like the results...

daveyjp

If it is now only reading just over 12v it may have been damaged when it went flat.  

During the first lockdown my car failed to start, the battery was reading just over 11v.  I managed to get enough charge in it to start it and then went on a long trip.

I checked it a few times afterwards, but it was always close to 12v.  I suspect the battery was on its way out and I would have changed it if I hadn't traded the car before winter.

The_Economist

Hi all,

I got a new focus last year and at about 6 to 8 months of owning it started playing up going in to sleep mode.

Ive taken it back to the dealer several times and still its not been fixed.

It even affects the air conditioning in the summer when driving it because of the low voltage in the battery.

Ive asked for a refund or exchange but to no avail yet.

The thing is when I've had one of there Loan cars they all work perfectly so why can't they fix mine.

Anyone got any updates on their cars, have the problems been fixed?

Alanp

I had this on my puma, low battery and deep sleep messages used to frequently appear, some on the forum had their rombat batteries swapped for varta ones with varying degrees of success others had modules updated again, with various success rates, I’m not sure they completely resolved this problem, I would advise you to join the focus forums and seek advice there, incidentally, I changed my puma for a Yaris cross, all fine until the Christmas break where my car stood unused for two days, the battery went flat and I had to use the Toyota assist, similar stories on the forum with owners changing their factory fit batteries for yuasa ones, it seems that manufacturers are fitting cheap or sub standard batteries which seem more problematic with hybrid/ mild hybrid cars..

forgotmyname

I fitted Yuasa batteries to our cars last time. No issues since.  You need to splurge on the best one and also fit the biggest
battery the tray/box can manage.