Focus diesel, non starter.... any bright ideas?
Discussion
a morning brain teaser for you……
Here’s the issue…. Care to guess the fault – I haven’t a clue at the moment!
My brother went to his TDDI Focus to drive home from work, and the car dash lit up as usual, interior lights were fine. He then went to start the car, and the solenoid on the starter clicked, and that was it. After he’d clicked the starter all the lights were dim, and the dash bulbs were barely lit. He couldn’t get the car started, so called me.
I drove out to him, tried initially to start his car using jump leads. We checked the voltage his car was reading when the jump leads were connected and my car’s engine was running, and his dash reported 14v. We tried to crank his car, and my car’s headlights dimmed, but his car just clicked.
Now the odd thing is that prior to trying to start his car, we flicked his headlights on, and they were as bright as you’d expect for a car connected to a running car. After the attempt to jump the car, despite the jump lead connections to the focus being absolutely fine, all the interior lights were dim again, and ditto the headlights – I’m 100% sure the connection between the cars was still good, as trying to start his car again made my car’s headlights dim. Incidentally the car being used to jump the Focus is a Mondeo TDCI so the battery / charging system is well up to the job.
Okay, so we gave up with the jump start, and decided to see if it would start if I towed his car. It did….. once started we turned the car off, and then tried starting it again – same issue of dim lights…. Etc. So I towed him again, and bumped started his car.
We decided at that point to make a run for home (about 12 miles), which went fine until his traction control kicked in leaving a junction, then the dash went haywire, and the car died about a mile further up the road. Luckily the car died on a steepish hill, so he stuck the car in reverse once stationary, and bumped the car in reverse. It started, so we made a dash for the final mile home.
When we got home, the dash was flickering / gauges jumping when the engine was at low revs (low alternator speed), but everything was fine when the revs were increased to 1500 rpm.
I can’t believe it’s the battery, as the car was absolutely fine in the morning, and even when given a healthy voltage over jump leads the car wouldn’t start…..
I’d be grateful to hear any bright ideas? We ran out of time / patience last night to look into the problem any further than stated above.
Thanks.
Here’s the issue…. Care to guess the fault – I haven’t a clue at the moment!
My brother went to his TDDI Focus to drive home from work, and the car dash lit up as usual, interior lights were fine. He then went to start the car, and the solenoid on the starter clicked, and that was it. After he’d clicked the starter all the lights were dim, and the dash bulbs were barely lit. He couldn’t get the car started, so called me.
I drove out to him, tried initially to start his car using jump leads. We checked the voltage his car was reading when the jump leads were connected and my car’s engine was running, and his dash reported 14v. We tried to crank his car, and my car’s headlights dimmed, but his car just clicked.
Now the odd thing is that prior to trying to start his car, we flicked his headlights on, and they were as bright as you’d expect for a car connected to a running car. After the attempt to jump the car, despite the jump lead connections to the focus being absolutely fine, all the interior lights were dim again, and ditto the headlights – I’m 100% sure the connection between the cars was still good, as trying to start his car again made my car’s headlights dim. Incidentally the car being used to jump the Focus is a Mondeo TDCI so the battery / charging system is well up to the job.
Okay, so we gave up with the jump start, and decided to see if it would start if I towed his car. It did….. once started we turned the car off, and then tried starting it again – same issue of dim lights…. Etc. So I towed him again, and bumped started his car.
We decided at that point to make a run for home (about 12 miles), which went fine until his traction control kicked in leaving a junction, then the dash went haywire, and the car died about a mile further up the road. Luckily the car died on a steepish hill, so he stuck the car in reverse once stationary, and bumped the car in reverse. It started, so we made a dash for the final mile home.
When we got home, the dash was flickering / gauges jumping when the engine was at low revs (low alternator speed), but everything was fine when the revs were increased to 1500 rpm.
I can’t believe it’s the battery, as the car was absolutely fine in the morning, and even when given a healthy voltage over jump leads the car wouldn’t start…..
I’d be grateful to hear any bright ideas? We ran out of time / patience last night to look into the problem any further than stated above.
Thanks.
It sounds very much like a battery.i would disconnect the battery and then do a check across the terminals.I would suspect he has lost a cell. The lights working on his car can be suported by your car and leads, but with a diesel, they use a lot of current draw, due to high compression to start, hence the lights dimming.I would also get the alternator checked, as driving with a duff battery can overwork the alternator.
I tried charging the battery overnight, despite it registering 12.5v when disconnected. I couldn’t get to the car at lunch, but tried starting another car with the removed battery, and it did not have the juice to do anything other than activate the solenoid on a 2 litre petrol.
The battery is clearly toast, so another has been bought, and will be tried tonight. The only slight concern is why the battery would die so suddenly – it seem plausible that something shorted on the car and deep cycled the battery whilst the car was parked up yesterday…. We’ll see later when we try the new battery I guess.
Thanks for the replies so far.
The battery is clearly toast, so another has been bought, and will be tried tonight. The only slight concern is why the battery would die so suddenly – it seem plausible that something shorted on the car and deep cycled the battery whilst the car was parked up yesterday…. We’ll see later when we try the new battery I guess.
Thanks for the replies so far.
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