rear end electrical issues

[20focus05]

We have an LS sedan

The boot wont open with out pressing the button many times, notice that the number plate lights come on when the button is pushed.

when the lights are turned on "boot open" warning comes on.

when the lights are on, number plate lights are off.

Reverse lights also dont work.

Found dirty connection at connector on left hand side of boot, behind carpet.

cleaned it but still no go.

any ideas, I have looked at the wiring diagrams but are hard to follow.

Thanks

[leakey]

I reckon you're on the right track. There are some really good electrical cleaners in spray can available from the likes of Jaycar, although I'm not sure if they are in SA? The stuff I'm thinking about cleans, but also has some pressure behind it to dislodge dirt etc. Has a plug in nozzle.

Lot of mucking about, but maybe try and clean any connections you can get to at the back.

It does sound like a cross signal with something or a lot of things "on" which is confusing things.

[foxtrot3]

Hi Look for a broken/loose/dirty/corroded earth wire in the rear of the car. Cheers MD

[20focus05]

Looks like I have to look towards the front more, the next connector
Yeah we got jaycar. But we used contact cleaner at work for connectors etc on trans

Yeah I thought it was an earth issue from the start, but finding the buggas is another story.

Thanks guys

[20focus05]

mmm followed wires to front of car

along back edge of passanger foot well, infront of the front seat wiring runs there under the carpet. there is a cut out in the carpet.
lots of dirt stones and grit jammed around wiring. but wires look all good.

checked earths, one on pacel shelf passanger side, 3 passanger side under plasic scuff panel.

still no prize!!

unpluged a couple of connectors and checked

NOW NO IGNITION AAAHHHHH

key still locks and unlocks remotely.
well disconnected battery and will leave for a while. maybe I disconnected something that has disables ignition.

[20focus05]

Fixed ignition problem

one of the connectors behind passanger kick panel does ignition and i did not reconnect it properly.
does horn and radio too.

[20focus05]

well finally got to have good look at the car the other day.
found a broken earth wire in the rubber tube from body to boot lid.
I should have known!

[dave_vic_ozz]

That was a good find.

[LaserLikeFocus]

I have a boot that won't open. Could it be a fuse I need to replace?

I'm going to get my Focus serviced soon, but I plan to go away this weekend and the bootspace would be good.

How much to get the boot fixed if it's more than a fuse, on top of a regular service?

Can I buy fuses from a regular hardware/automotive place?

Sometimes I wish the Focus had a redundant system, i.e the damned KEYS...

How did you guys open the boot to work out it was the cabling without being able to open it remotely in the first place?

I really don't want to tear a car apart, I haven't done that since I was a student and did it to my old TP Magna.

[20focus05]

do the number plate lights work and does the boot open warning come on when you turn the head lights on? If so it could be the same problem I had.
It took me about 1/2 hour to fix but thats not including diagnosic time in which I checked all the earth points(pulled interior out of rear end of car).
Fuses are cheap maybe a couple of bucks. Often bought in a pack of a few.

look in your owners manual and look at the fuse section of location of fuse box(in passanger footwell under glovebox, flips down from front) and fuse that may relate to boot.

Our boot opened but only after pushing on the button about 10-30 times made a slight opening noise each time the button was pushed. we also just put stuff in the boot via the back seat.

[LaserLikeFocus]

Okay, get this:

I check out the fuse box. #59, the boot power fuse, is 25A, NOT 20A as stated in the manual. The fuse is intact. (I'm not sure if my lights work but they turn on when the remote entry thingy is used...as a dummy I didn't check the light fuses this morning).

Is this common? Did this happen since the last service? Is this even a problem? If so, why did it ever work?

My boot makes no clicking sound AFAIK.

I'll try my spare key, but other than that, if it is beyond the fuse or a trick of going through the backseat to adjust a latch or lever, it's a dealership based problem...earth points/wiring...no thanks. I ripped apart an old TP Magna just to clean it once and I had a hell of a time putting it back together. I suspect I'm not as mechanically minded as you guys.

Thanks. You guys are great. The XE rebuild pages are pretty good too.

[LaserLikeFocus]

I changed the fuse and nothign happened except my engine/EMS took a few seconds to figure out what was going on. Guess I'm packing light until we get serviced.

How much would this cost to get fixed, BTW?