Minnesota Focus Owners Club

I don't know why your doors locked after you pulled the handle halfway out, but the keyless entry remote is disabled when the vehicle is running. As far as your crappy spare key....you can have it re-traced or if you use some steel wool and scuff it up a bit. That should help it turn in the door

i was going to post an opinion about the situation..... BUT, what ever Dave says ^^^^^ go with. i would say black is white when it came to Foci if it came rfrom him

There is a wire you can cut on the GEM module to make the key fob work when the car is running (best to splice in a toggle switch). Forget the wire color or which site it was on.

It's got nothing to do with the Stratec key, we sell thousands a year and if they're cut properly theres no issues with them at all.

As for the car locking itself? Mine has done that in my driveway as well, If I'm anywhere other than home (where I have a spare key) I always open the window far enough so I can reach in and open it if it locks.

Mines only done it 2-3 times ever but I learn fast.

I suppose it's part of the vehicle security system cutting in and locking the door when it senses someone "test" the handle, I don't know if the system is that smart or not.

Mines also locked itself before when running. I carry a spare at all times, since I always warm my car up while im at work...

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:It's got nothing to do with the Stratec key, we sell thousands a year and if they're cut properly theres no issues with them at all.

Just so there's no misunderstanding, the Strattec key did NOT come from Tousley.

No worries Jim, we can screw up a key just like anyone else.

We actually use an automated key machine though so there's virtually no room for human error but the machine does goof up once in a while.

Another issue can be that lock cylinders and keys do wear over time and it can be hard to make a copy of a worn key so if they copied a worn key then that could be why it doesn't like the lock cylinder doesn't like the copied key.

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:Another issue can be that lock cylinders and keys do wear over time and it can be hard to make a copy of a worn key so if they copied a worn key then that could be why it doesn't like the lock cylinder doesn't like the copied key.

The car only had 6,000 miles on it when I had the duplicate key made, so the original key should have been in pretty good shape.

oldoutboardjim wrote:

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:Another issue can be that lock cylinders and keys do wear over time and it can be hard to make a copy of a worn key so if they copied a worn key then that could be why it doesn't like the lock cylinder doesn't like the copied key.

The car only had 6,000 miles on it when I had the duplicate key made, so the original key should have been in pretty good shape.

Sounds like they just did a bad job then, probably using an old school manual key machine. Those allowed plenty of room for error.

Guess I'm not the only one with a car that doesn't want me driving it.....

tgnorman wrote:Guess I'm not the only one with a car that doesn't want me driving it.....

Can you blame it?

Do you guys know why your car will lock on it's own? (I do)

You know how the doors will lock once you get to ~10MPH? Well that is based off the Vehicle Speed Sensor. When it's cold/moist outside the VSS doesn't like to work up to par; if your speedo has seemed sluggish or unresponsive you've seen this first hand, and it is related.
My theory is (has been for some time) that the ignition is causing interference with the VSS. The problem only seems to happen at low RPMs where the ignition is bleeding lots of voltage, higher EMI I assume.
Maybe bigger/better grounds will help. Maybe shielding the VSS better will help. Maybe shielding the plug wires will help. I really don't know. I've tried the bigger/better ground method and it helped some but didn't solve the issue.

Pretty much blame Ford and their piss-poor wiring.

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:

tgnorman wrote:Guess I'm not the only one with a car that doesn't want me driving it.....

Can you blame it?

Not when it's this cold.

i believe that wire cutting "mod" is on focushacks.com or whatever it is. i don't think i've ever had this happen to me. but, now i'm gonna be careful, i only have 1 key and 1 fob programmed.