ford focus

[snowdonjones]

I have just had my third new battery fitted in 6 months, and the 4th in a year, following a complete electrical failure whilst driving in the last incident. The Ford garage in Birmingham did a full electrical diagnostic with each replacement and found nothing wrong except for a "failed battery", which they replaced, under warranty, each time. The last time it happened all the lights on the dashboard flickered for about three seconds and then the engine cut out. The RAC recovery engineer suspected a computer management system problem, for the alternater was "steaming out current", but the battery was "as flat as a pancake". This RAC engineer's suspicion was, following the diagnostics over 3 days, discounted by the Ford Technician. He said that there was no electrics drain on the system at all. Has anyone any idea of what might be wrong? I am disabled and only use the car (01 reg 23K miles) for every other day shopping (4 miles there and back) and occasional long journeys. Ford technician suspected that it was "low mileage problem", but I believe that it may be more fundamental than that, for others, who are disabled and the use their cars in similar modes, do not have this problem. One friend has an 01 Astra, but has only done 5K and he has never had a battery problem.