freak out when charging the car in drive - DON'T DO THAT

epaminondas · Mar 23, 2015

Yeah - so I had an interesting thing happened a few weeks ago. I parked and didn't put it in park - just put the break on and forgot. I then charged all day on a 240 charger near work. When I returned and turned the car on all of the controls and lights started blinking and making weird sounds. I was afraid I had done some damage. I held the start button down and that seemed to reboot everything. I noticed when I got everything started up normally that it didn't seem to have reached the full charge. I was a little tight as far as range coming home. I charged normally that night and it acheived a full charge. I haven't had any abnormalitites since but I thought it was interesting and worth taking note: DON'T CHARGE IN D!" -ha ha

damania · Mar 24, 2015

epaminondas said:
Yeah - so I had an interesting thing happened a few weeks ago. I parked and didn't put it in park - just put the break on and forgot. I then charged all day on a 240 charger near work. When I returned and turned the car on all of the controls and lights started blinking and making weird sounds. I was afraid I had done some damage. I held the start button down and that seemed to reboot everything. I noticed when I got everything started up normally that it didn't seem to have reached the full charge. I was a little tight as far as range coming home. I charged normally that night and it acheived a full charge. I haven't had any abnormalitites since but I thought it was interesting and worth taking note: DON'T CHARGE IN D!" -ha ha

The problem with this car is it doesn't have loud enough or bright enough or distinct enough warnings, signals, or alarms to let you know the car is still not in P when you turn it off. The easiest fix would be to not be able to turn it off when not in P or N.

Also, I don't think you can charge the car when it is on. It might not have charged while in D even though it was off. That's my best guess.

WattsUp · Mar 24, 2015

damania said:
The problem with this car is it doesn't have loud enough or bright enough or distinct enough warnings, signals, or alarms to let you know the car is still not in P when you turn it off. The easiest fix would be to not be able to turn it off when not in P or N.

Really? My FFE chimes at me quite insistently if I open the door while not in Park. There is a repeating chime and the dashboard also says "Shift to park". Kinda hard to miss, IMO.

That said, there was also a recall about the car not chiming appropriately when the door was opened. Perhaps your car(s) have not had this recall applied?

You can check out any pending recalls for your particular FFE at fordowner.com. You'll need your VIN.

NightHawk · Mar 24, 2015

WattsUp said:
damania said:

The problem with this car is it doesn't have loud enough or bright enough or distinct enough warnings, signals, or alarms to let you know the car is still not in P when you turn it off. The easiest fix would be to not be able to turn it off when not in P or N.

Click to expand...

Really? My FFE chimes at me quite insistently if I open the door while not in Park. There is a repeating chime and the dashboard also says "Shift to park". Kinda hard to miss, IMO.

That said, there was also a recall about the car not chiming appropriately when the door was opened. Perhaps your car(s) have not had this recall applied?

You can check out any pending recalls for your particular FFE at fordowner.com. You'll need your VIN.

Yep my 2014 FFE also chimes a loud alarm if I turn the car off with the start button while not in Park even if the parking brake is engaged. I've done that a few times and immediately heard the sound and knew to put in Park right away from that.

I thought perhaps the guy had left the car in drive mode (not turning the car off with the start button) and only engaged the parking brake? You would have to turn the car off with the start button to get the not in Park alarm.

damania · Mar 27, 2015

NightHawk said:
WattsUp said:

damania said:

The problem with this car is it doesn't have loud enough or bright enough or distinct enough warnings, signals, or alarms to let you know the car is still not in P when you turn it off. The easiest fix would be to not be able to turn it off when not in P or N.

Click to expand...

Really? My FFE chimes at me quite insistently if I open the door while not in Park. There is a repeating chime and the dashboard also says "Shift to park". Kinda hard to miss, IMO.

That said, there was also a recall about the car not chiming appropriately when the door was opened. Perhaps your car(s) have not had this recall applied?

You can check out any pending recalls for your particular FFE at fordowner.com. You'll need your VIN.

Click to expand...

Yep my 2014 FFE also chimes a loud alarm if I turn the car off with the start button while not in Park even if the parking brake is engaged. I've done that a few times and immediately heard the sound and knew to put in Park right away from that.

I thought perhaps the guy had left the car in drive mode (not turning the car off with the start button) and only engaged the parking brake? You would have to turn the car off with the start button to get the not in Park alarm.