Hey folks, I have some problems with my 2003 Focus svt and hope someone else has experienced the same and knows of a fix. 1) The car dies from time to time while coming to a stop or turning. 2) The battery light comes on just prior to the car diing and sometimes while driving down the road. 3) The dash lights and interior lights flicker while the car is at an idle. So far I've had the car at the dealer 4 times for the same problems. Unfortunately there is no lemon law in Alabama (to my knowledge). They have checked the grounds and alternator several times (at my request) and replaced the battery twice. No luck there. Now they're wanting to replace the gauge cluster. I've been a diesel mech. for the past 10 years and the only explination I can come up with for any of this, including replacing the gauge cluster is this... The flickering is possibly coming from a bad regulator in the alternator and/or wiring from the alternator to the gauge cluster since this is where the tach. is probably reading from. Somehow, this could be bleeding into the lighting cirquits. As far as the diing goes, my thought is this bleeding over (mentioned above) could be causing a false, interupted, or low voltage signal to the vss (if it's located in the gauge cluster). But just because the vss is getting a wierd signal shouldn't cause the car to die like this. The only thing the vss should control is the cruise control, speedo, and top end speed gov. Any thoughts or info. will be greatly appreciated. I'm now checking into this lemon law thing. Mike B.

I'd find another dealer. I guess they couldn't check for any tsb's. Here's your problem.`     See ya, Nick                Printable View (32 KB) Article No.
03-19-11 DRIVEABILITY - VARIOUS DRIVEABILITY CONDITIONS - HARD START/NO START - BATTERY LAMP FLICKER ELECTRICAL - VARIOUS DRIVEABILITY CONDITIONS - HARD START/NO START - BATTERY LAMP FLICKER Publication