[jake_the_pake]

Hi there,

Apologies for gate crashing your forum here - seemed like the only place to post something electronic based. I also gather that this is a predominantly American site - so please bear with my thorough Englishness. Lovely place you have here though

Anyways, recently bought a 2007 Focus auto Ghia. It's my first car so naturally I'm a bit precious about it. I've noticed that the centre dash display (the one that shows mileage, mpg, distance to empty, etc) seems to be constantly on. At first I thought it just remained illuminated for a while after I got out and locked the car. But then I noticed it was on when I returned to the car after some time.

Can someone tell me the deal with it or what the (if any) problem could be? Is it something I should be taking back to the dealer to sort?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Elizabeth]

Is it on just because you open the door?
Or, is it on and you can see in from a window without opening the door, or without unlocking the door with the remote?

(I wonder if it is coming on because you unlock the door/open the door?
(So then it is not on 100% of the time.)
Please clarify.

If it is on 100% of the time. clearly something is not right.
But parts of mine turn on as soon as the door is opened, it shows a 'FORD" emblem, and the mileage.
And when I turn the car off. The radio stays on until I open the door (design feature)

If yours stays on all the time, someone may have connected a wire to 'on all the time' power, instead of 'on with ignition' wire.

 

[jake_the_pake]

Hi,
thanks for the reply and apologies for any vagueness in my first post.

I can see it's on from outside the car when the car is locked. I have determined this seems to be for a set period of time though, as when I got to work this morning, someone came to me after an hour or so and said it was on. I went to check 30 minutes or so later and it had gone out by then.

And thinking about it, when it stays on after me returning home at night, the light is not on in the morning. So it's definitely not stuck in a permanent 'on' state. But it just seems to be on longer than I would expect.

Perhaps it's a daylight thing in some way synced with the auto lights? Weird though...

 

[02fordsvt]

I can't tell you what's wrong, but personally, as long as it's shutting of eventually and not draining the battery, I'd just leave it.

By the way, welcome. It doesn't matter where you are from, any Focus owner is welcome here. [welcome]

 

[Elizabeth]

If it is staying on for say 75 minutes..
It may be a variable that can be set by a service tech. And they set it wrong sometime in the past in error.
Agree if it does go off after a time it is not so bad. The screen does not use a lot of power.
Maybe sometime if you have your car in for some service you could ask the service dept if this has an adjustable time to off feature? (it may be more than just the screen is still on too..)

PS some folks here have been having problems with an external gauge keeping the car 'alive' and wearing down the battery.. Do youu have any external devices added? The one discussed was a scan gauge connected to the OBD.