When the battery\'s flat ...
This might help others -
With no previous indication, the battery on my 1998 1.8 Zetec went flat as I tried to start up. I thought it was a stuck starter motor because the next attempt caused all sorts of clicking from the relays on the scuttle (firewall).
Then all hell broke loose and the guages started swinging full scale and back, the dashboard lights all came on and went off at random, the relays again started clicking madly and the door lock solenoids clunked repeatedly in all doors. Some of this even happened with the key out of the ignition lock - spooky!
I assumed the ECU/computer or whatever had completely let go and that the electrics were shot.
TO cut a long story short, on the advice of the breakdown guy I replaced the 5 year old battery and the car is now completely fine.
The moral seems to be that Focus electronics will not tolerate a low battery level and will do weird and unexpected things if the battery falls below a certain linit.
Hope this helps other owners who hit the same snag.
The message is - don't panic, just charge or replace the battery.
This might help others -
With no previous indication, the battery on my 1998 1.8 Zetec went flat as I tried to start up. I thought it was a stuck starter motor because the next attempt caused all sorts of clicking from the relays on the scuttle (firewall).
Then all hell broke loose and the guages started swinging full scale and back, the dashboard lights all came on and went off at random, the relays again started clicking madly and the door lock solenoids clunked repeatedly in all doors. Some of this even happened with the key out of the ignition lock - spooky!
I assumed the ECU/computer or whatever had completely let go and that the electrics were shot.
TO cut a long story short, on the advice of the breakdown guy I replaced the 5 year old battery and the car is now completely fine.
The moral seems to be that Focus electronics will not tolerate a low battery level and will do weird and unexpected things if the battery falls below a certain linit.
Hope this helps other owners who hit the same snag.
The message is - don't panic, just charge or replace the battery.
