Hello
My son has a 2013 Ford Ka with a parasitic battery drain and a flashing odometer.
It's a very basic model (manual windows, key locking, no bluetooth, etc,). Removing the 10a fuse stops the drain (and the stereo).

Ironically my daughter has a Fiat 500 with a flashing odometer and a battery drain, which I'm fairly certain is due to a failed Blue&Me module.
Googling around it seems I need to run a proxi alignment on the 500. To do that I've ordered an ELM and cable from iDiagnostics for use with software I can buy from multiecuscan.net.
I know the 500s and the Ka are based on the same car (the engine bays are identical). Does that mean I can run a proxi realignment using the same kit on the Ka?
Is that likely to fix the drain?

Thanks!
Matt

 

[Did you ever find a fix for this as my daughter has a KA with a parasitic drain and flashing odometer

 

I did - and it was the same fix as my daughter's 500.
I had to disconnect the Blue&Me unit that's behind the plastic panel in the rear passenger seat (near side) - it's not that difficult to get to, if you Google you should be able to find some YouTube vids showing how to gain access. But if I recall I had to use a socket set to take the top seat belt fixing, then pop off that panel and then the side panel. I didn't remove the unit so all I needed to do was to be able to reach behind and disconnect the cable - there was a trick to that which I can't recall.
Some vids remove the rear seat, but I did the bare minimum to gain access.

But once you've done that you need do a proxy alignment to tell the ECU to forget that unit (I'm assuming here that you don't want to replace it - there are sites that exchange those units). I followed this guy:


Note you do have to buy some software and some cables unfortunately - he covers all of that in the video - but the key point for me at least, was that I used the same software and cable (the yellow iDiagnostics from here: https://idiagnostics.co.uk/product/36 - but check that's correct for your Ka) as they are essentially the same car under the skin.


I should add - probably best to try this first: there's a red 10 amp fuse in the passenger glove box that protects the ratio and some other components. If you take that out with some long-nosed pliars and the battery doesn't drain, it's a fair bet it's the Blue&Me unit which have a tendency to cause the drain.


It took me quite a while to work that all out from various forums - so I hope that gives you a head start. Good luck!

Matt

 

That is really informative, thank you so much for taking the time to reply, it is really appreciated.

So just to confirm, the KA that you did this to did have Bluetooth in the end (the Blue and Me module)? Or do they all have this? Mine is a 59 plate I'm looking at

 

It did - it was a 13 plate so that might be a later mark.
I would try removing the fuse from the interior panel if you haven't already.
If you have a multimeter you can connect it between the negative lead and the battery and look for the presence of a draw (there a lots of Youtube vids on doing this) - and then remove/replace the fuses one by one to see if the drain stops. For me it was the 10a red fuse - which was the Blue&Me as well as the radio etc.

Matt