New battery

[Steve Radford]

Guys so much conflicting imformation around, ford have given me a 390a 43ah as standard.?? Can get next size up500a 52ah.,but the bosch item ive taken off is 62ah.what you running, need to exchange asap if thats smart thing to do.cheers.

[mrsimmers]

Bosch S5 is the one to get Steve.

[Clayton]

I have always managed with the original battery supplied but has to be on a trickle charger if left standing. Was a known common problem with the RS to drain the battery if left standing for a week or two.

As mrsimmers says, lots have upgraded to the Bosch S5

[Derbyshire DUK]

Which Bosch S5 exactly please gents as I am going to upgrade too ?

[PAUL W]

I had mine from Euro car parts as they have good discounts online plus 5 year guarantee

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/ca...0758&0&cc5_995

[Derbyshire DUK]

Thanks Paul , that's great

[PAUL W]

Look out for the discount codes aswell as I think you can get 30% off that at the minute

[Derbyshire DUK]

I have upgraded to the Bosch S5 this morning . 30% off at the moment , bargain at £86 delivered 😉

[crm250]

I just replaced mine too. After a week of being parked it was always a struggle.
Was rumour correct in saying the OE head unit caused a drain issue on the RS ? needed the unit switched off before you took the key out to prevent the drain ?
I noticed when i replaced mine and put an aftermarket unit in - battery life was far better when parked for any period.

I returned the head unit back to standard recently and sure enough the battery seemed to take a dive too. coincidence ??

[Clayton]

I just replaced mine too. After a week of being parked it was always a struggle.
Was rumour correct in saying the OE head unit caused a drain issue on the RS ? needed the unit switched off before you took the key out to prevent the drain ?
I noticed when i replaced mine and put an aftermarket unit in - battery life was far better when parked for any period.

I returned the head unit back to standard recently and sure enough the battery seemed to take a dive too. coincidence ??

From experience the battery will drain between a week and two if not left on a trickle charge. When I had my second Focus RS which I had from new I had the battery exchanged under Ford warranty.

It was said back in the day that it was the head unit draining them but never really heard of people owning a standard Focus complaining of a dead battery in a week or two if stood still. I thought if this was the case there would be all models and not just the RS suffering a drained battery and you would of heard a lot of it with there being so many standard models sold back in the day.

I have always had the feeling it's the GT alarm that drains them.

Very interesting to hear you had a change in battery life when the head unit was exchanged though Paul and thanks for sharing.

[w2w]

Went to start mine after it sitting under cover since October and the battery was flat as a pancake. Charged it up and the alarms started going garritty. Could not disable the alarms no matter what I did. I tried loads of things and through process of elimination , thought I may as well change the battery. It had a Bosch s4 on but God knows how old it was. Clay tipped me about the Bosch S5 in Eurocarparts and got one for £84 with the 30% off [WEEKEND30 code] I had to reprogram the key and now everything's hunky dory again

[Clayton]

Went to start mine after it sitting under cover since October and the battery was flat as a pancake. Charged it up and the alarms started going garritty. Could not disable the alarms no matter what I did. I tried loads of things and through process of elimination , thought I may as well change the battery. It had a Bosch s4 on but God knows how old it was. Clay tipped me about the Bosch S5 in Eurocarparts and got one for £84 with the 30% off [WEEKEND30 code] I had to reprogram the key and now everything's hunky dory again

Pleased you got it sorted in the end Lee.