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Old 10-21-2013, 11:18 AM   #1
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2014 Ford Focus Battery disconnect

The 2014 ford focus owners hand-book requires the negative terminal on the battery to be disconnected for towing. The negative terminal has the grounding cable as well as (what i think is) the Battery management connection (a small black box with two leads).......

has anyone done a disconnect on this?? and if so---- your advice and/or recommendations would be appreciated....

rich
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Old 11-11-2013, 07:33 PM   #2
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2014 Ford Focus Battery Disconnect

I just purchased a 2014 Ford Focus (automatic) and the manual says to disconnect the Neg post on the battery. The positive post is much easier to disconnect. Did you try that and if so any problems.

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Old 11-11-2013, 08:00 PM   #3
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No problems disconnecting the positive side. The negative is a major pain to get to. Especially the battery covers.
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Old 11-12-2013, 02:17 AM   #4
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I only have about 500 tow miles on our 2014 Focus so far. But I do disconnect the positive terminal and no problem so far. Another thing I have looked at doing is to reverse the battery in the battery box putting the negative terminal in the open. I think the negative terminal will reach ok, but a new longer positive cable would be needed. Also once you disconnect the battery you can remove the key to use for locking the drivers door.
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Old 11-12-2013, 06:04 AM   #5
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Another thing I have looked at doing is to reverse the battery in the battery box putting the negative terminal in the open. I think the negative terminal will reach ok, but a new longer positive cable would be needed. Also once you disconnect the battery you can remove the key to use for locking the drivers door.
Keep us posted on your battery flip. I am interested also as I have one coming next month. What all loses memory that needs to be reset? Do you have the outside keypad? Thanx
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Old 11-12-2013, 06:12 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Patchy View Post
The 2014 ford focus owners hand-book requires the negative terminal on the battery to be disconnected for towing. The negative terminal has the grounding cable as well as (what i think is) the Battery management connection (a small black box with two leads).......

has anyone done a disconnect on this?? and if so---- your advice and/or recommendations would be appreciated....

rich
I saw on here or other forums where people did not disconnect all the grounds from the battery and had trans issues.
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Old 11-12-2013, 06:36 AM   #7
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I saw on here or other forums where people did not disconnect all the grounds from the battery and had trans issues.
Yes you can if the battery voltage is not totally eliminated. Removing a clamp from the battery post will eliminate this possibility though. I have seen some quick disconnects for battery post that seem to work very well also. Helps from getting the factory battery clamp from wearing out from constant removal and installation.
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Old 11-12-2013, 11:48 AM   #8
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I do my 2012 model just like the manual tell me to. I would be upset if something went wrong and the warranty did not cover it because of a battery cable.
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Old 11-16-2013, 02:11 PM   #9
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2014 Ford Focus Battery Disconnect

Just wanted to post the answae I got from Form Customer service about flat towing my 2014 Ford Focus (Titatium) Automatic Hope it helps.


"Thank you for contacting Ford Motor Company. This is Jamie with the Ford Customer Relationship Center (CRC).

I received your follow up email regarding your inquiry about your 2014 Ford Focus.

I have looked into your inquiry about flat towing your vehicle.

Upon checking my resources, it is recommended that the negative battery cable terminal be disconnected from the battery to avoid any adverse effect to the battery performance and durability as this may also affect the performance of other electrical systems in the vehicle.

As such, we highly recommend following these guidelines in your Owner’s Manual if you have a need for towing, such as towing your vehicle behind a motorhome and the like. These guidelines were designed to prevent damage to your vehicle’s transmission. It is best to follow these directions for your specific vehicle configuration.

In addition, reconnection of the positive battery post can cause inaccurate measurements of the battery condition and potential incorrect system operation.

In reference to your inquiry about the black cable, I have determined that the negative cable is also the black cable from the battery.

Again, thank you for contacting Ford Motor Company."


"So with that, I guess its ok to disconnect that black ground cable outside the box. We are on our way to California from Austin Texas, so wish us luck.

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Old 11-30-2013, 11:23 AM   #10
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Ford Focus 2012

I just purchased Ford Focus 2014 and am getting it ready to tow. With all of this battery disconnect I am lost.

With no power how can you operate your Brake Buddy?

Do I understand correctly disconnect negative at post, leave positive alone ?

Thanks
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Old 11-30-2013, 03:20 PM   #11
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I just purchased Ford Focus 2014 and am getting it ready to tow. With all of this battery disconnect I am lost.

With no power how can you operate your Brake Buddy?

Do I understand correctly disconnect negative at post, leave positive alone ?

Thanks
We have now had installed on our 2014 auto-trans ford focus a blue-ox base plate, and I installed (temporarily) the RVI2 12 v socket directly wired to my focus battery. We have towed it several times, the longest distance 220 miles.

I have been disconnecting the positive battery clamp. I then put on a new terminal clamp that I clip the hot lead for my 12v plug for the rvi2 and use that only when I tow my focus. I clip onto the negative strap at its connection to the car body.

I would have removed the negative (like the focus handbook states) except that rear battery cover is a Pain.

The negative clamp, at least on my car and i presume all the 2014's, has a small black box with two leads on it.....I believe this to be the Battery management system.....but really am not sure. I asked at the dealer about it and, well, they aren't so sure also......

Just disconnecting the ground strap at the frame is very inviting since it is so accessible....but that still leaves that little black box on the neg. terminal clamp connected.......

So...I will tow my focus several more times to confirm I am happy with it and the rvi2 brake system, which so far seems promising. Once I conclude I am happy with my set-up I will install a battery disconnect switch on the negative strap, and install two toggles to switch off the two leads to that little black box, and have the 12v plug installed more permanently in the car(right now I have the wire passing thru the area of the drivers door hinge, thru the top of the fender and into the engine compartment with alligator clips on the end to clip on to the pos and neg connections. Its not pretty but ok for the trial period)

I also bring along my infrared thermometer when I tow and check the focus tranny and brake temps when I stop to see if anything funky is goin on with the toad....so far so good.

I would hook my battery disconnect switch to the positive cable except that there is no place that I think I can fit it.....and the easier choice is on the neg with the two toggles for that black box.
rich
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Old 12-01-2013, 10:09 AM   #12
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DANGER

For those of you who are not disconnecting the ground first. You are doing something that is very dangerous. Any time you are working with battery wiring, the ground wire is Last On, First Off. The reason for this is that if you're using a wrench to disconnect the positive without first disconnecting the ground wire and your wrench touches a metal part, you're effectively shorting out the battery, and the wrench could get welded to the metal. If that happens the battery could melt down or explode within a few seconds. If you disconnect the ground first, you have eliminated the path of current to the metal. I hope I've explained this sufficiently. I just wanted to let you know how dangerous it can be.
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Old 12-01-2013, 10:19 AM   #13
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For those of you who are not disconnecting the ground first. You are doing something that is very dangerous. Any time you are working with battery wiring, the ground wire is Last On, First Off. The reason for this is that if you're using a wrench to disconnect the positive without first disconnecting the ground wire and your wrench touches a metal part, you're effectively shorting out the battery, and the wrench could get welded to the metal. If that happens the battery could melt down or explode within a few seconds. If you disconnect the ground first, you have eliminated the path of current to the metal. I hope I've explained this sufficiently. I just wanted to let you know how dangerous it can be.
Thanks you for a good post. All this is true.....disconnecting the positive is dangerous......While searching for battery disconnect switches I read a post written by a fella that nearly lost his finger when a short thru wrench-to-auto-body contact melted his ring requiring hospitalization to remove the melted ring and a lengthy period of medical attention to save his finger.

In my case i use a short hand size ratchet to loosen the top-nut then put the wrench down and loosen the nut by hand to remove the clamp......and wear no metal on my hand or wrist.

rich
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Old 12-01-2013, 11:52 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by ChasA View Post
For those of you who are not disconnecting the ground first. You are doing something that is very dangerous. Any time you are working with battery wiring, the ground wire is Last On, First Off. The reason for this is that if you're using a wrench to disconnect the positive without first disconnecting the ground wire and your wrench touches a metal part, you're effectively shorting out the battery, and the wrench could get welded to the metal. If that happens the battery could melt down or explode within a few seconds. If you disconnect the ground first, you have eliminated the path of current to the metal. I hope I've explained this sufficiently. I just wanted to let you know how dangerous it can be.
This is exactly why I bet Ford says to remove the negative and has nothing to do with electronics problems from removing the positive.
Removing the negative first has been the standard procedure for a long time now.
Removing the positive by a careless or uninformed person could be disastrous. I can't believe any mfg. would recommend it to the consumer for any reason.
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