Car won’t start, loud clicking, battery appears to be delivering charge – dash lights aren’t dimming etc..so looking at solenoid problems perhaps.

But, in addition, the headlights briefly come on of their own accord as do lots of various seemingly random dash lights..

It’s a bog standard diesel focus. Any ideas before I take a hammer to it?

Any ideas before I take a hammer to it?

bigger hammer? – try having the headlights on to start with (IIRC) if they dim when you try to turn it over then that should confirm the solenoid….. which can be solved with a tap from a hammer – so long as you know what to hit

Battery is dead.

Could be an earth fault, try sticking a jump lead between the engine block and the battery negative terminal. If it starts replace the main engine to chassis earth strap.
Had similar symptoms on my campervan and mx-5, both were down to old corroded earth straps.

Does sound like a dying battery, are the dash lights flashing when you try to start the car?

Could be power not getting to the starter motor. Or could be the starter motor itself fubared.

Could be an earth, as mentioned above.

Or could be an immobiliser playing up.

Battery is dead.

Battery died on my A3 a while back. All the voltages were fine until you tried to put it under any load. Wasn’t even enough to turn it over.

My money is on the battery being dead.

Well you seem ok at this self diagnosis thing, so if you have checked the obvious then check the engine earth strap.

Edit, way; way to late.

Which mark/year of Focus? Just had quick look round the Ford Focus Owners Club website for you, since I’m a member (and you have to be for most of it) and it could be a electrical feed.

Suggestions were:

Internal fuse box, or multiway connector inside the A pillar where the cables come in from under the bonnet. Water gets in and corrosion does the rest!

Starter motor sticking? Have you tried rocking it in gear and trying again or hitting the starter with a hammer in case it’s stuck?

Same symptoms I had ?ith a dead battery

Cheers all – I’m a random angry hammerer rather than actually knowing which bit to tap. Just wanted to check there wasn’t something painfully obvious I was missing.

Car has had battery problems in the past – but this battery is about six months or so old, so shouldn’t in all honesty be buggered yet, and it’s certainly got enough to work the headlights and internals, including central locking etc. Haven’t stuck a meter on it though, so can’t be sure.

Might try the jump lead trick to see if it’s an earth strap problem.

Greybeard: Thanks – It’s an 07 Tdci 1.8

I thought bad earth too, we used to kid about ‘Ford Electrics’ when we used to see Mk2 Escorts doing the disco tail lights thing. Though if it’s going clickclickclickclickclick and not actually turning over then yeah, could well be dying battery.

I would say you have lost a cell or two in the battery. When the dash goes mad and the dials wander all over the place it’s a low voltage fault. Get some jump leads hefty ones if it’s a diesel. If it fires up Bob’s your uncle.

The bit about dash lights not dimming makes me think that it’s not the battery, the starter could be toast so first obvious point of call would be to stick direct power to the starter & bridge the solenoid if access is easy 🙂

Sounds like a flat battery as above, though if a relatively new battery, it maybe your alternator is suspect

Mystery solved.

Congrats to all those who went for the simplest option – knackered battery.

Turns out the motor factor place I got my last two batteries from had been selling me batteries rated for a Focus petrol rather than a Focus diesel, hence earlier than usual failure… 👿

So, £87 lighter and back on the road. Cheers everyone for the help.