Fiesta battery disconnection megaprobs

But you have to admit that there are some really nice new ones too like the Audi R8.

 

Nah. All new cars come from the same mold. They're all jelly mold cars with a bit of styling. Ok, I must admit I envy some of the newer engines and suspension setups, but I don't envy the disproportionately higher costs of maintenance. And when something goes wrong in a newer car, as it will, well you need to track down Scotty to fix it, because only someone who's spent their life holding an interstellar space ship together has a chance of understanding it.

 

It is quite amazing how they manage to get so much horsepower from such small engines these days.
Well actually it's all due to electronic wizardry and the use of turbos which like you say only adds to the costs when things go wrong.

What is quite popular here is to lease the car for say 3 to 5 years after which your premiums go up a bit but you get a new car.
The upside is you never worry about maintenance except for tyres, windscreen wipers and things like that but the downside is you never actually own any of the cars.

Not if you have an OBD-II interface.

 

OBD is only as good as the kit interrogating it and the person driving the kit. It has just taken me a month on and off to get to the bottom of my mates Ford Fester cutting out/not starting intermittently. I knew why, but finding what was causing the why was another matter.

To be fair to them, most of them are doing it all day with the most basic kit. They would be unlikely to solve complex faults roadside, so the car is transported somewhere else. Not getting the chance to see a job through gives them zero opportunity for skills development.
That said, your guy strikes me as a liability!

Not sure if it would carry any weight if you were to contest it.

 

Absolutely and not all parameters seem to be reported.
A few months back, the wife's car developed a strange battery discharge problem.
When left overnight, the next morning it wouldn't start as the battery was sitting at around 8V.
After much fiddling, fuse pulling (to isolate different circuits) it turned out to be mobile phone cradle (factory fitted) which it was not receiving the CAN bus commands to go into sleep mode with the ignition off and thus continued to consume a current of around 1.2A/h.
Still can't understand why it needs such a high current considering it's function, but once I disconnected the CAN bus+power connections to it, problem solved.
Not once did the interface report it.

 

You could google "My Ford xxxxxx car will not start after battery changed"

http://www.justanswer.com/uk-ford/62dr6-ford-galaxy-changed-battery-ford-galaxy-key-fob.html

You will then get how to correct it
MAKE SURE you use the correct car detail

As you said your car would be in Ford today, Please let us know how you got on

Regards Jack McH

 

Good body control readers are bleeding expensive - ten grand minimum.
My fault was a rogue signal going to the ECU (via CAN BUS) from a unit that should not generate a signal, but receive one instead. As the instrument cluster is coded trying another one to eliminate it was not an option.

 

Which are a tad more expensive than by $200 unit.
The only way I could detect the battery drain was to fit a dead-man's switch in series with the battery and an ammeter in parallel with it.

Are you sure that the transmissions were not repeated attempts to "acknowledge" the last command sent?

A favourite trick amongst manufactures.

 

No but also German, Mercedes.
Sounds like they may use the same units, Bosch perhaps??

 

Not a command but a shared signal. Cock-assed way of doing it but that's Ford all over. 99.99% certain that this intermittent issue is fixed based on;
a] Ford parts man saying "sold a few of these lately" when I took the plunge and ordered it
and
b] my friend saying that the traction control no longer shakes the car to bits!

Had troubles with Mercedes SAM modules for years. Across the range. Useless trying to interrogate them without MB STAR.

 

I hate those SAM modules.
Took the car to a Merc dealership and I assume that they connected what would be a MB STAR and about 20 minutes later the chap came back to me saying that nothing obvious "pops up" and I should leave the car there for further investigation.
That was my cue to say "thanks, but no thanks" and had a go at it myself.
Once I discovered the fault, phoned Merc spares and inquired as to the replacement cost, still get heart palpitations thinking about it.
So needless to say the wife is now driving with a non functioning mobile phone cradle.

The factory fitted CD-shuttle and central locking system are also notorious for giving problems.

Between lying or uneducated (or both) sales people, to outrageously overpriced spares, this whole car business is a big rip-off.
No wonder there is a thriving pirate spares market.

 

No fault codes = nothing obvious. They/I would have just done the same as you, but using a plug in ammeter designed to use the fuseboard.

Don't buy a BeeEm then!

In the old days they used vacuum. Reliable, but cheap to fix when they did finally fail.

Totally agree.

 

I did think of it, but couldn't find a compatible fuse socket to accommodate the original fuse in series with the ammeter and it would have meant a 40KM round trip to get one.

Actually had two.
First a 325i (E30), had it for about four or five years before it was nicked.
Never had a days problem with it.
Then got a 325i (E36) and after that vowed to never buy another beemer.
Never been so happy to get rid of a car.

 

After that second BeeEm, I discovered what BMW actually stands for:
Buy Mechanic With.