"Stop Safely Now" -- my 2016 FFE stalled twice

[redmontster]

Bought a new 2016 FFE two weeks ago.
Twice, it suddenly stopped running while I was driving.
A message appeared, "STOP SAFELY NOW".
There was a picture of a wrench, which, per the owner's manual, meant that there's a problem with the power train.
The first time it stalled, it worked again after 1/2 hr.
The second time it happened, it didn't work again for 2 hours, after a tow truck took it to the Ford service dept.
Ford service couldn't find anything wrong.
But it was just luck that the stalls occurred when I wasn't on a freeway or bridge, and when I wasn't in a hurry.
Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[jmueller065]

Apparently you haven't seen this thread:
http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=900

Interesting that its happened to you so early. Usually to clear it you turn everything off, open the door, close the door, and restart.

Check your 12V battery voltage (a quick check that may show something, or not).

 

[damania]

omg they still haven't fixed it in the 2016?

 

[redmontster]

jmueller065:
I did see that thread, but the last entry was over 2 years ago.
If I follow the procedure you recommended, will the problem stop for good?
Anyway, it's been at the dealer for the last 5 days. They're trying to recreate the problem.

 

[jmueller065]

No: The turn off everything, open the door, close door, restart. Sequence is used to clear the fault after the SSN message (you had said it took a while to clear it--2 hours I think at one point).

After all the software fixes/recalls (mentioned in that thread) most of the SSN errors have been a physical fault in the car (e.g. not some generic software bug). Hopefully your dealer can reproduce it and get it corrected for you.

 

[NightHawk]

The intermittent type FFE SSN reports I've read about in the last couple years appear to have been caused mostly by a connection issue with contacts at the high voltage wiring harness.
They usually just clean the contacts at the dealer or on older models pre-2014 they replace the whole wiring harness.

Refer to Ford TSB 15-0031
http://oemdtc.com/12505/stop-safely-now-message-diagnostic-trouble-code-dtc-p0a0a01-2012-2014-ford-focus

 

[jloucks]

If it makes you feel any better, I got the little wrench thing two years ago. Stopped, "rebooted", and have been fine since.

If it happens again, capture the incident with your phone, and have the dealer give it the once over.

 

[Taliesin77]

I just experienced this last night on my way home from work. Still had 29 miles of range showing (about 30% charge left). Turning onto a busy road, I got the SSN warning, and when I stopped at the light a few seconds later the car died. Everything stayed on, but the accelerator was dead. I tried to turn the car off but it wouldn't respond. I put my hazard lights on, but of course other drivers were pretty annoyed because I was blocking a lane. There is no shoulder in that spot, only a turn lane, so I had nowhere to go anyway.

After a couple of minutes of desperately trying to turn it off and on again (hey, if it works for computers...) it finally responded. It turned off, and when I turned it on again it operated normally. I only had a couple of miles to get home.

I have 18,000 miles on my 2016 FFE. I have a relatively long commute (32 miles each way) and I charge at home (110v) and at work (220v). Most of the drive is on the NJ Turnpike, so 70-75mph. Thankfully the stall did not occur on the highway!

Conditions were cold but above freezing. Roads were dry. I can't think of any immediate environmental issues that could have contributed, although we have had a lot of rain lately.

Being the first time, I am nervous about it happening again, but I'm not upset about it. However, if it happens again I will lose confidence in the car. It's been great for me until now, but this is a major problem and a genuine safety concern. Reading others' experiences on this board, it seems like Ford has no clue why this is happening and thus has no valid fix.

 

[triangles]

Hate the be the bearer of bad news but it will happen again and the problem will only get worse until you cannot drive it at all. Usually this is related to corrosion with one of the high voltage plugs or damage to a safety wire that goes along side the HV wires to detect if a HV wire has been cut. What happened is the car detected a fault with the HV system so it disengaged the battery contactors to prevent any HV from leaving the HV battery. That is why you couldn't go anywhere but the car still appeared to be on. It is also possible that your problem is with the battery or Traction Control Module (TCM). The TCM is the assembly that contains the motor, inverter, HV junction box, and gearbox. Unfortunately the FFE's error logging and self diagnostics leave a lot to be desired, so I wouldn't be surprised if the dealer can find nothing wrong. It's like the thought of having to chase down intermittent faults never crossed Ford's minds when they designed the FFE. It may be counter intuitive but hopefully your FFEs fault goes from intermittent to consistent so they can actually figure out what is wrong. Keep us updated as to what they find.

 

[shniestEV]

2016 FFE - Car is officially 3 years old this month. This happened to me on boxing day December 26, 2018. I pulled up to a red light as I slow down and came to a stop the car bells went off and stop safely now came on. I lost all ability to drive but car still had powered. Having been a part of the forums for 3 years I did the standard procedure of turn off, open door, wait a min and try again and it was fine and I went on my way (luckily the light had not changed yet!)
Feeling it was the first time that scenario happened in 3 years I shouldn't be to alarmed and was able to continue on my way. Like the other poster mentioned if it continues to happen then you start to loose all confidence in the vehicle.
Well here we are 3 weeks later and this morning driving to work a similar issue happened. Got a few blocks from work... slowed down for a stop sign... as soon as i almost came to a complete stop the bells went off and I lost all driving ability. Repeated the procedure again and was on my way unfortunately this time I had a train of vehicles behind me and was more annoyed at the situation.

I've booked an appointment to drop it off next friday the 25th. If anyone has any more details I should maybe provide the dealership other than whats already been mentioned would be great.

The only other thing to mention is that on Nov 21 2018 the car was in a minor accident on the front end. Mostly cosmetic (you cant see much unless you look closely for it) I haven't lost all trust yet as I wonder if this could be related in some way to that minor fender bender although it was over a month later before the first incident occurred.

I wonder if its best I have them handle the insurance claim as well at the same time?

 

[Taliesin77]

Hate the be the bearer of bad news but it will happen again and the problem will only get worse until you cannot drive it at all. Usually this is related to corrosion with one of the high voltage plugs or damage to a safety wire that goes along side the HV wires to detect if a HV wire has been cut. What happened is the car detected a fault with the HV system so it disengaged the battery contactors to prevent any HV from leaving the HV battery. That is why you couldn't go anywhere but the car still appeared to be on. It is also possible that your problem is with the battery or Traction Control Module (TCM). The TCM is the assembly that contains the motor, inverter, HV junction box, and gearbox. Unfortunately the FFE's error logging and self diagnostics leave a lot to be desired, so I wouldn't be surprised if the dealer can find nothing wrong. It's like the thought of having to chase down intermittent faults never crossed Ford's minds when they designed the FFE. It may be counter intuitive but hopefully your FFEs fault goes from intermittent to consistent so they can actually figure out what is wrong. Keep us updated as to what they find.

Well, Triangles, you were right. Over the past month, I've gotten increasingly frequent SSN notifications. It has been "stalling" at least once a day, thankfully in stop-and-go traffic where it annoyed other drivers who had to go around me, but didn't present an immediate threat to anyone. The problem is, I don't trust the car now. I can't find any pattern, either. It stalls when fully charged, and it stalls when 30% discharged. It stalls in the rain, it stalls when it's dry. Warm, cold, doesn't matter. Every time I come to a stop I wonder if the car is going to move again.

I finally got it to the dealership. They've had it for over a week now. The service adviser called the other day and said they couldn't replicate the problem, and that I should pick up the car and return it to them if the SSN failure happened again. I told him that was unacceptable, that it was failing daily for me and thus unsafe to drive. It's absolutely frustrating that it has been stalling for me every day, sometimes multiple times each day, but it's apparently working fine for the dealership tech. I believe him, too, because I get the "EV has a warning light" push notification on my phone whenever the SSN failure occurs. They've driven it about 76 miles in that time, with a couple of 30-40 mile trips and a few short jaunts. What could they possibly be doing differently from what I do every day?

To be fair, the dealership has been supportive. I'm certain they believe me about the failures (I've sent images and screenshots). They're providing a loaner. When I pushed back about driving the car until it failed again they accepted it without argument. We'll see how it goes from here. Hopefully they can induce a failure and diagnose the problem. I'm more concerned about the dealership *not* being able to diagnose and repair the problem. What happens then?

 

[shniestEV]

In a similar situation

http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=900&start=670#p31931

PM me for more info.

 

[Taliesin77]

The dealership had my FFE for about 2 weeks. In that time they drove the car just over 200 miles. They were unable to replicate the failure. They also ran diagnostics and were unable to find any issues. I can't fault them for that -- they really did try to find the problem. Incredibly frustrating, though, that it would happen for me *every day* and wouldn't happen for them *once* in 2 weeks and 200 miles! How is that even possible?

Wracking my brain, trying to figure out what's different between the two situations, and I can't identify anything. My first thought was maybe driving on the Turnpike (high speed) for any significant time/distance causes problems. Most of the failures occur at the end of my trip, either near home or near work. However, some failures happen within the first few minutes of driving or when I'm driving around town, so I can rule out the "highway speeds" possibility. What else could there be? It seems completely random.

Anyhow, the dealership had exhausted their efforts, so I picked the car up this morning and drove to work. About 1/4 mile from work, on the Turnpike exit ramp, I got the SSN failure again!!! As usual, the car recovered in a few minutes and I was able to complete the trip to work.

So now what? With the dealership unable to find the problem or replicate the failure, what do I do? I can't keep driving the car in this condition.

 

[scottt]

I know this sounds a bit weird.....

How about setting up a dash cam to capture your drive and hopefully the dashboard. Not sure if that would help the dealer or not to watch your video.

 

[Taliesin77]

I know this sounds a bit weird..... How about setting up a dash cam to capture your drive and hopefully the dashboard. Not sure if that would help the dealer or not to watch your video.

Not weird at all. I've considered doing it, although I don't think it wouldn't help them at all. I don't think they doubt me, so I don't feel the need (at this point) to prove anything beyond what I have already done. The dealership I purchased the car from (and who attempted the diagnosis) has taken the car back to do more testing, so hopefully they'll uncover something.

The car did give them a failure code: PA0A0A (or something like that). From what I can tell, it's somewhat of a generic code that sets off the SSN warning. It only tells them that there was a trouble code related to the high voltage system, but it doesn't specify the actual problem.

 

[triangles]

Did you ever get any resolution on this?

 

[Dobrinia]

triangles, you have p0a0a ?

 

[triangles]

Dobrina, Knock on wood I've only ever head dead 12V battery issues with my FFE. I don't have any problems right now. I googled that error code and found this interesting tidbit.
https://ford.oemdtc.com/3487/stop-s...ator-dtc-p0a0a-2012-2014-ford-focus#more-3487