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Asked: Jan 03, 2008 - 03:24 PM

Status: Closed

Flickering lights on 2001 Ford Focus 5 speed sedan

In August we had a new clutch, slave cylinder, seals etc. and a used tranny installed. Since then we've encountered off and on issues. On cooler days we'd see flickering dashboard lights & flickering headlights. Lately the problem has been more frequent - it seems to happen during colder weather. It has occured when I initially start up the car. Today, when initially started the car, the flickering started (dashlights went out and the guages swept). It appeared that when I depressed the gas and put the clutch in gear the problem went away. However, my husband has experienced headlights flickering at night while driving down the road, door ajar light comes on dash, sterero goes out, battery light went on. He encountered the same problems as above except that it seemed to him that a split second shut down occured. He's also experienced the flickering when he's approaching a stop sign. We've taken it to Ford & they hooked it up to (OASIS?); it said check chassis grounds & all related grounds were cleaned & checked. The alternator was checked. They couldn't find anything wrong with it & couldn't get it to act up (during a warm day) We replaced new battery recently but symptoms have occured before/after replacement. Its a 2.0 SPI engine. Could it possibly be a voltage regulator????? Any other ideas?

In Makes & Models > Ford > Focus
In Maintenance & Repair > Lights
3 answers - 584 days ago

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mr_shiftright

Date: Jan 03, 2008
Time: 07:13 PM

Don't think the voltage regulator would be the issue as your car could theoretically run on just the battery for a little while. So something is interrupting current to these items in a very irregular fashion sounds like.

You might open the fuse box and check for moisture and corrosion, or any wires going to it or coming out, for looseness.

Testing for bad grounds is a good idea. I hope they did what they said they did. A bad negative cable off the battery would cause these problems.

I'm wondering if when they dropped the transmission they forgot to disconnect something and caused a big YANK on a wiring harness.

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avatar

mr_shiftright

Date: Jan 03, 2008
Time: 07:13 PM

Don't think the voltage regulator would be the issue as your car could theoretically run on just the battery for a little while. So something is interrupting current to these items in a very irregular fashion sounds like.

You might open the fuse box and check for moisture and corrosion, or any wires going to it or coming out, for looseness.

Testing for bad grounds is a good idea. I hope they did what they said they did. A bad negative cable off the battery would cause these problems.

I'm wondering if when they dropped the transmission they forgot to disconnect something and caused a big YANK on a wiring harness.

avatar

coryc1

Date: Mar 22, 2008
Time: 10:12 PM

I have a 2000 Focus 2.0 that did the same thing. It actually died on I-75 on my way back to Tennessee. I waited a few minutes and it started back up. Only lasted 10 miles then died again. Gauges swept, lights flickered, etc. This happened a few times. I figured out that the connector nut that secures the wires to the fuse panel under the hood had worked loose. It didn't feel loose, but after tightening 3/4 turn the problem went away. I found out that the wires power the computer, gauges, lights,etc. All it took was the connection not being tight and all the systems shut down. I hope this helped.

avatar

tdorfh

Date: Apr 20, 2008
Time: 05:08 PM

I had the same exact problem. The dealer wanted 700 to replace the alternator. I did it myself for 200 and had the same problem. It turned out to be a corroded wire that is attached to the bottom of the alternator. There are tree of them all combined into one plastic clip located at the bottom of the alternator. Check that 1st. It took me 10 min. to pull out the old wire and splice a new piece in. Problem is gone...

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