Car will not start

[Guest]

Yeah, that light at the end of the tunnel, I can just make it out. Its an orange wrench. Lol.

 

[carrieyhuang]

Fixes for Stop Safely Now.

I had Ford Focus Electric 2014. Started experience Stop Safely Now error in 2017. I got it fixed by
1) Disconnecting high voltage cable.
2) Clean it good (remove old grease).
3) Apply new Motorcraft Electrical grease to the large high voltage positive and negative terminal.
4) Reconnect back.

Never had the same error for 18 months! The key is to find a shop is willing to do the above simple procedures for you. Most shop will do so called "diagnostic" cost $100 and tell you all those errors that requires $10K to repair.

Good luck.

By the way, Stop Safely Now actually does not do anything, at least to my car. You can keep driving. But as soon as you slowed to near stop, it will stop and won't start until a few hrs later.

 

[tinilk]

I finally had time to go get my car back this morning and bid a fond-ish farewell to the Corolla rental (and its "buzzy box of bees" drivetrain, as Carbuff so eloquently put it).
Such a nice feeling to be driving my FFE again after over 4,500 miles in the Corolla.

I requested a list of the TDC's the car had initially showed, but the dealer couldn't give it to me. They said the Ford engineer mistakenly took it with him...?
Apparently one of the things that made it take so long was that Ford sent a field engineer, and when he tested the HV battery connector it tested as "good" so a lot of time was spent looking for the bad connection elsewhere. Eventually they had to send out another field engineer, who this time caught the problem with the connector.

I'll look over the printout of what they did and post more info.

Carbuff any progress? That Escape's engine must be in by now since that's something they should actually know how to do.

 

[Guest]

Its great that you got the car back. I had a similar thing with misdiagnosis. The tcm was diagnosed as the problem over a month ago but ford balked at replacing the motor and tried to return the car to me as is because they had not been able to replicate the issue for a couple of weeks. Before returning it they test drove it for a few days and the problem came up. This led to possibly replacing the battery but ford balked once again. Finally they sent the whole ford NCIS team out to diagnose the issue and came up with the tcm as the culprit, just as the tech had diagnosed months earlier. So, misdiagnosis can be a problem. LOL. My car is presently asleep as per the MFM app. Been this way for 2 weeks now. So until my car is "woken up" it cant be getting fixed. I have to call to see what the deal is. But, Congrats on getting your car back!!!

 

[tinilk]

I was going to say: before taking out your old motor the first thing they should do is disconnect the 12v battery in which case it won't "wake up" and notify you. But to open the hood and disconnect the battery I guess they'll have to open the door which will wake the car up.

Maybe the 12v battery went dead after sitting so long? And they're working on your car right now? (I'm trying hard to be optimistic on your behalf!)

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the optimistic outlook but I just called and the other car is still on the lift waiting for parts. He said that hopefully I will get my car back by the end of next week. They only have one lift? I dunno. I know mine has to be all taken apart, front end and all so it will need to be on the lift the whole time.

 

[tinilk]

They put the Escape on their (only) lift before they know if they have all the parts? So much for my optimism. "Hopefully end of next week" sounds like late June ish.

Oh I almost forgot, the super duper extended bumper-to-bumper warranty is for 5 years / 75,000 miles...from when the car was *purchased*. So it expires in 14 months. Oh well, at least the EV-specific-parts warranty is good until 2022.

 

[kinshi]

Well looks I just joined this illustrious group of "Stop Safely Now" people. I bought a used FFE 2013 w/ 35k miles on it from a local deal about 2 months ago, and it has already spent a month back at the dealer. So far they have not actually "fixed" a thing other than replace its original battery, and keep claiming they cannot reproduce the problem once it has been in the shop for a while (they confirm the fault once it is there, but then it goes away and they seem helpless to troubleshoot past that point).

My symptoms did not start with the SSN, it was simply I would get in the car, press the brake down, push the button, but no green "ready to drive light". They have re-flashed the cars software 3 times now, but the issue keeps coming back but for the first time now I am seeing the "Stop Safely Now" error on some attempts to start the car (never seen ti while driving)

I looked around under the hood, and under the car, and do not see any evidence of the fixes I have seen under the recall (this car was not from the areas listed). The dealer was under the impression this car has no recalls, but I see plenty here to say that is (and like others I have found the Ford dealer to be virtually clueless as to this car, their troubleshooting techniques thus far have no even been slightly out of the box, I even told them about this forums, but I get a sense they did not look).

Oddly enough, so far this issue only comes up for me after it has been plugged in at home using the L1 charger that came with it (plugged into a 110v outlet in my garage). At the dealer, they are always using a L2 charger, and whenever I made long trips with it, I was also stopping at L2 charge stations and charging up for 20 mins or so.

So this last time I got the car back from the dealer, I drove it home the ran some errands, then the next day drove it to work and back, then I was on the ferry dock in Seattle, and "eek no green light" but after letting people go around me and doing the open/closer door dance, I got it started, and then did not turn it off once on the ferry, but when I got home, turned it off, it would turn on again. Frustrated, I plugged it back into the charger at home, then went away for the weekend, and came back yesterday afternoon (car had now been on the charger for over 48 hours straight), I unplug, hop in, and it started right up, so I turn off again (not trusting that), and it started again, so I ran to the convenience store, came home, and all seemed well.

Note, when I came back from my trip, this was the first time I had ever seen the "Charge Complete" display show on the dash, and it showed 75 Mile range.

This morning, I hop in to try again, and nope, no start, and no "Charge Complete" display and the range sitting at 74 Miles this time (and the lights on the charger indicating no charging was taking place).

I then went ahead and disconnected the 12v battery, see if I could "reboot" the car, but that did not change anything, still no start after hooking it back up however I did measure the voltage on the 12v battery and it was showing just a hair above 12v with the car off, I have not tested with the car on, with accessories going, but I am suspecting based on others experiences that the 12v battery does not quite have enough juice to engage. (when I do try to start, I hear a loud whirr/humm but no start.)

Right now I have a charger on the 12v battery, it indicated that the 12v was at 90% charge when I started and am waiting on it to get to 100% then will try again.

I was wondering if my L1 charger is somehow simply not providing enough juice to replenish the main batteries, and the 12v battery (I got the impression from when I left it sit for the 48 hours on the charger, that it seemed like my 12v battery was not getting charged until the main battery was full.) I am going to get a L2 charger, as so far it has seemed when the car was on L2 chargers this simple was not happening.

Good news is the car is under warranty. I will update again once the 12v battery is topped off again. I am not quite ready to take it to the dealer again, as I also want to test my theory about the L1 home charger that the car came with vs a L2 charger/public charge station.

 

[triangles]

Here's something to try if you're feeling adventurous. Inspect the high voltage cable where it plugs into the battery in the drivers side rear wheel well. I suspect that is your problem. Make sure the plastic is not cracked. Not an expert so take my free suggestion for what you paid for it. I'd unhook the 12V battery, then the safety plug behind the rear seat, and if you really want to be safe the battery safety plug by the passenger rear wheel. I'd probably forgo the last one since in theory the interior safety plug breaks the battery circuit. Then I'd unplug the HV wire in the drivers side rear wheel well. If the plastic is cracked or pins corroded, I'd stop there and have a dealer replace the HV harness under warranty. If not I'd make sure the pins are nice an clean and then apply some dielectric grease and plug it back in. See if your problem goes away. In theory the dealer should have already done this check if you took it to them.

I have one stoopid question just to rule out operator error. Before you press the start button do you put your foot on the brake pedal and hold it there while hitting the start button and keep your foot on the brake pedal until the green "ready to drive" light illuminates? Just asking because I've had issues not getting the green ready light because I was taking my foot off the brake too quickly. By trial and error I found out that I had to keep my foot on the brake until the green light was illuminated.

 

[Guest]

Well looks I just joined this illustrious group of "Stop Safely Now" people. I bought a used FFE 2013 w/ 35k miles on it from a local deal about 2 months ago, and it has already spent a month back at the dealer. So far they have not actually "fixed" a thing other than replace its original battery, and keep claiming they cannot reproduce the problem once it has been in the shop for a while (they confirm the fault once it is there, but then it goes away and they seem helpless to troubleshoot past that point).

My symptoms did not start with the SSN, it was simply I would get in the car, press the brake down, push the button, but no green "ready to drive light". They have re-flashed the cars software 3 times now, but the issue keeps coming back but for the first time now I am seeing the "Stop Safely Now" error on some attempts to start the car (never seen ti while driving)

I looked around under the hood, and under the car, and do not see any evidence of the fixes I have seen under the recall (this car was not from the areas listed). The dealer was under the impression this car has no recalls, but I see plenty here to say that is (and like others I have found the Ford dealer to be virtually clueless as to this car, their troubleshooting techniques thus far have no even been slightly out of the box, I even told them about this forums, but I get a sense they did not look).

Oddly enough, so far this issue only comes up for me after it has been plugged in at home using the L1 charger that came with it (plugged into a 110v outlet in my garage). At the dealer, they are always using a L2 charger, and whenever I made long trips with it, I was also stopping at L2 charge stations and charging up for 20 mins or so.

So this last time I got the car back from the dealer, I drove it home the ran some errands, then the next day drove it to work and back, then I was on the ferry dock in Seattle, and "eek no green light" but after letting people go around me and doing the open/closer door dance, I got it started, and then did not turn it off once on the ferry, but when I got home, turned it off, it would turn on again. Frustrated, I plugged it back into the charger at home, then went away for the weekend, and came back yesterday afternoon (car had now been on the charger for over 48 hours straight), I unplug, hop in, and it started right up, so I turn off again (not trusting that), and it started again, so I ran to the convenience store, came home, and all seemed well.

Note, when I came back from my trip, this was the first time I had ever seen the "Charge Complete" display show on the dash, and it showed 75 Mile range.

This morning, I hop in to try again, and nope, no start, and no "Charge Complete" display and the range sitting at 74 Miles this time (and the lights on the charger indicating no charging was taking place).

I then went ahead and disconnected the 12v battery, see if I could "reboot" the car, but that did not change anything, still no start after hooking it back up however I did measure the voltage on the 12v battery and it was showing just a hair above 12v with the car off, I have not tested with the car on, with accessories going, but I am suspecting based on others experiences that the 12v battery does not quite have enough juice to engage. (when I do try to start, I hear a loud whirr/humm but no start.)

Right now I have a charger on the 12v battery, it indicated that the 12v was at 90% charge when I started and am waiting on it to get to 100% then will try again.

I was wondering if my L1 charger is somehow simply not providing enough juice to replenish the main batteries, and the 12v battery (I got the impression from when I left it sit for the 48 hours on the charger, that it seemed like my 12v battery was not getting charged until the main battery was full.) I am going to get a L2 charger, as so far it has seemed when the car was on L2 chargers this simple was not happening.

Good news is the car is under warranty. I will update again once the 12v battery is topped off again. I am not quite ready to take it to the dealer again, as I also want to test my theory about the L1 home charger that the car came with vs a L2 charger/public charge station.

Honestly, If you have the option to return the car, do it. You will save yourself a lot of hassle. If only I had known. As triangles said, checking for cracks at the battery junction and cleaning the plugs was a recall/tsb for these cars and the dealer should perform this before replacing the harness. I dont know that I would mess with the high voltage stuff myself though. Were there any codes stored in the computer after the incidents?

 

[tinilk]

Any updates Carbuff? Or Kinshi?

So when I got my car back two weeks ago, the 12v battery was dead when I tried to leave work later the same day that I got it back. This pissed me off as I had asked the dealer to check it like 2 months earlier, and asked again when I picked up the car. They'd said the 12v battery tested good. I stomped off to the nearest hardware store, luckily only 1/2 mile away and bought an overpriced jump starter that luckily was fully charged. I put in a new battery rather than waste more time bothering the dealer .

Monday this week it was raining, I drove through some puddles, and just as I got home the yellow wrench showed up. Here we go again I thought. I shut off the car in the garage and slept fitfully with visions of that dreadful red SSN box. Luckily in the morning the wrench was gone, no more rain and all is well since then.

After reading triangles' suggestion about the HV connection in the left rear wheel well, I'm thinking I could fabricate a watertight box and glue it in place over that connector with liberal amounts of caulk window sealant. Preferably before the next time it rains. Would that work?

 

[Guest]

Sorry to hear you still have an issue. I would check the codes on the computer and see what it says. Should be something there if you had a wrench light. As for my car. Its been weeks since the dealer received my motor to install. Supposedly my car will be done tomorrow. but it was supposed to be done on tuesday too. Im not holding my breath. Im on my 3rd ford customer service girl. LOL. Maybe the other 2 gave up and quit. Or they got sick of my sarcasm. LOL.

 

[tinilk]

Today's the day you get it back! I can feel it! (Sorry for more half sarcastic optimism.)

I'm determined to try to fix it myself if I can. Without doing anything to endanger the super duper warranty of course. It's time to buy one of those MX bluetooth readers. Yeah I've gotten copy-and-paste emails from 3 or 4 other Ford CSMs who I never talked to on the phone.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the support. LOL. The car is still not responding to pings from the MFM app so I know its not put back together yet. So I wont be getting anything today.

 

[Guest]

So, the car is alive again according to the MFM app. Its been driven half a mile. But its also alerted me of 2 charge faults. Im told the car will be ready monday or tuesday. Yawn.

 

[tinilk]

Seems like every Friday they tell you it should be ready Tuesday? Yawn.

 

[triangles]

Carbuff, WOW! Have we passed the 6 month mark yet? There's still time for them to decide the battery is bad and needs replaced too...

 

[Guest]

Carbuff, WOW! Have we passed the 6 month mark yet? There's still time for them to decide the battery is bad and needs replaced too...

Just passed 5 actually. LOL. Who knows, it might throw a wrench light on the way home for all I know. Then its battery time. Ugh.

 

[triangles]

Let's see, a battery will probably add 3 more months of shop time... :shock:

 

[Guest]

So, I got my car back today. Its working fine. I actually managed a +3 on the 30 mile drive home. I never have a plus. LOL. I think I was afraid I would break it so I drove it super carefully. Now I just have to see what ford wants to give me in compensation. More fun with ford. Yay. LOL.