Stop Safely Now Warning

[wjs]

Had three SSN's in the past week. 1st time this has happened. I have a 2014 FFE leased in Jan. Mileage is only 5000 miles. Luckily all of the stops were on private property just backing up or forward at 2mph. All restarted with no further problem until the next one. Dropped it this morning to leave at the dealer. They just called and said the high voltage wiring harness needs to be replaced. It has been on back order from Ford for last month or so but is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Anyone else being told this is the solution?

 

[WattsUp]

Had three SSN's in the past week. 1st time this has happened. I have a 2014 FFE leased in Jan. Mileage is only 5000 miles. Luckily all of the stops were on private property just backing up or forward at 2mph. All restarted with no further problem until the next one. Dropped it this morning to leave at the dealer. They just called and said the high voltage wiring harness needs to be replaced. It has been on back order from Ford for last month or so but is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Anyone else being told this is the solution?

I would also check the state of your 12V battery. It could be low and cause the car to think things aren't working right.

 

[Washingtonian]

I picked up my new 2014 last Friday and joined the SSN Club in just 4 short days of ownership. It arrived on the truck from another dealer with a dead 12v battery so they replaced it. On the drive home from the dealer I got a "Check Battery Charge" message, which has intermittently appeared while driving. Today on my commute home I was driving in traffic (about 35 mph) and the Stop Safely Now warning popped up. Within 10 seconds the Focus lost all power and I was able to coast into a parking lot and call Ford Roadside Assistance for a tow back to the dealer. My dealer has only sold one other FFE so I hope they can figure out the root cause. After the car died it was obvious the 12v battery was drained... Lots of relay clicking noises, headlights blinking on and off.

I think this will get resolved but if it doesn't, I'm covering my bases by researching the state Lemon Law and filing a complaint with the NHTSA so it's "official".

 

[wjs]

Well.... Thought I would pick up my FFE with a new high voltage wiring harness yesterday but now the dealership says Ford will release their allocation of 56 harnesses on 12/5. Apparently they are called out for C-max hybrids as well so the dealership has ordered them for all hybrids and FFE's they have sold plus those coming in for service with an SSN experience. Next status update will be on 12/6. Meanwhile, they checked out 12V system and found no problem.

 

[Washingtonian]

Anyone who is experiencing this problem on a 2014 Focus Electric should file a safety complaint with the NHTSA at https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/index.xhtml.

In the Vehicle Field type FORD FOCUS ELECTRIC 2014.

 

[tcsmithh]

Anyone who is experiencing this problem on a 2014 Focus Electric should file a safety complaint with the NHTSA at https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/index.xhtml.

In the Vehicle Field type FORD FOCUS ELECTRIC 2014.

i already filed the complaint. i am sure it will be fixed, but am still very concerned that this could cost a life.

 

[wjs]

Apparently the high voltage wiring harness part came in today. Dealer says my FFE will be ready this afternoon. Service writer says that their master mechanic, who is the only one there (Sacramento dealer) who works on FFE's, believes that this is the proper fix for random SSN events. I hope he is right! They confirmed that 12V system is acting properly.

 

[mr23]

@wjs, we look forward to your future feedback. Thanks for taking the time to report here.

 

[wjs]

Turns out it won't be ready today. Service person says it is a major install that takes hours to complete (not surprising). Since I'm leaving town tomorrow, I won't pick it up till Tuesday. Will report then what they tell me. By the way, I did file a complaint yesterday with NHTSA. Maybe that's why the part came in so fast

 

[wjs]

Ok, got the car back today with the HD wiring harness replaced. I will try to post soon what the work order says so all will have the detail on the fix. Meanwhile when I put a full charge on the gauge on the left reads only 62 miles (while the recharge settings screen says 100%!). This car's gauge has always read somewhere between 73 and 78 when a full charge is reached which is also about what I have been realizing. Outside temps are about the same as before I brought it in (55-60F). Called the dealer and he said to run the battery down to a normal depletion, recharge, and see if it still occurs. Not happy about this at all although reserving judgement till we see what's going on. I know everything got reset at the dealer and they drove it to test if all was right after the fix. On what basis is the left gauge calculating the range? I recall even when I picked up the car as new, it showed a 73-78 mile range.

 

[jmueller065]

Do not be concerned about the guess o meter. Drive the car like you did and it will return to your normal readings.

The value is based on past consumption and thus is showing a low value because the tech did not know how to drive an EV.

Read up here:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2013/10/12/the-guess-o-meter/

 

[wjs]

You are right. I read your blog a few months ago but forgot about "Guess-o-meter"! Reads 65 this morning so it's moving in the right direction. For what it's worth, here is the quote from the Ford work order:

CHECK FOR DTC FOUND PAOA:01,U100:02,U3003:16 CHECK OASIS FOUND SSM44460 R/I RT FRONT SEAT TO CHECK HARNESS PER SSM OK. GO THROUGH PPT H IN 303-14 PIN POINT TEST PASSED EMAIL HOT LINE. HOT STATED TO REPLACE HV HARNESS. R/I REAR SEAT BACK AND BOTTOM, REAR COVER, FRONT CROSS MEMBER, AND DRAIN COOLANT TO R/I LOWER HV BATTERY TO REPLACE HARNESS. TEST DRIVE OK CLEAR ALL CODES.

Hope this helps others with this problem. So far it's working ok but time will tell.

 

[WattsUp]

You are right. I read your blog a few months ago but forgot about "Guess-o-meter"! Reads 65 this morning so it's moving in the right direction.

Give it a few trips driving with a consistent style and the GOM should stabilize and return back your original estimate.

This happens to us all the time. Take a long high-speed freeway trip, or climb a tall mountain, the GOM may differ drastically from its normal estimate (for a given driver) for the next couple/few charges. The car simply thinks that you are now a fast driver, or a mountain climber, and has adjusted its estimates accordingly... doesn't mean that anything is wrong.

 

[Washingtonian]

My car is still in the shop. So I've technically owned it for almost a month and had possession for ~36 hours between shipping time from the originating dealer in CA and having it in to be fixed.

The first week was wasted because the salesmen didn't pass along the details of the problem to the service department. After I finally got that information to them they ran the test and came to the same conclusion I did - it's not charging the battery consistently while driving. They ordered a new DC-to-DC converter which took just shy of a week to show up. We'll see if this fixes it. They have given me a loaner ICE Focus but I'm pretty sour about the whole situation. Next week their body shop will have it to fix the two defects I pointed out when I went to pick it up - one paint and one sheet metal.

 

[sleightofhand]

Yep.. this is still going on and Im seeing it in my FFE - but I was hoping it would go away.

I experienced this 5 times out of the 8 months of ownership. For no reason the car will shut down. I hear 3 to 4 beeps as if I opened a door. Then, a verbal warning to Stop Safely Now is the 2nd cue. After these two - the car shuts off. I'm not able to reproduce the problem - so it's very intermittent. To restart, I turn off everything - a/c or heater, sound system, head lights. I then even open and close the my driver side door and push the start button - the car starts up just fine. This occurrs in cold or hot weather, morning and night, full and not so full charge. This happens after starting the car and about 2 minutes into driving. Never beyond the 2 minute mark. The car is currently being diagnosed at a local Ford Dealership. I'm not getting a good and confident feeling after speaking with their service department on this problem.

 

[sefs]

Yep.. this is still going on and Im seeing it in my FFE - but I was hoping it would go away.

I experienced this 5 times out of the 8 months of ownership. For no reason the car will shut down. I hear 3 to 4 beeps as if I opened a door. Then, a verbal warning to Stop Safely Now is the 2nd cue. After these two - the car shuts off. I'm not able to reproduce the problem - so it's very intermittent. To restart, I turn off everything - a/c or heater, sound system, head lights. I then even open and close the my driver side door and push the start button - the car starts up just fine. This occurrs in cold or hot weather, morning and night, full and not so full charge. This happens after starting the car and about 2 minutes into driving. Never beyond the 2 minute mark. The car is currently being diagnosed at a local Ford Dealership. I'm not getting a good and confident feeling after speaking with their service department on this problem.

I would ask for a CFR (Customer Flight Recorder) from the service department. It is a device that plugs into the diagnostic port that can record data while you are driving. You can manually trigger it when you get a SSN condition. This should help them diagnose the issue. There are a finite number of issues that can cause SSN, but they are discrete. So reading one person's resolved issue with the error on here will not necessarily resolve your issue.

 

[tcsmithh]

i just got another ssn on the freeway could not get to the side of the road, real concerning! back to the dealer.....

 

[JTCalif]

Good luck, getting a useful fix from dealer soon.

Please return and post what you learned (include car model year + software info. as applicable).

 

[wjs]

No SSN since I got the high voltage wiring harness installed but I have noticed reduced range. Now in the last couple of days, I have gotten four RTT lights (Powertrain malfunction/reduced power). It comes on when driving and stays on until I power down. Power back up and it's gone until the next time. Car still runs but I'm taking it in anyway tomorrow. Anyone had this warning light (Orange wrench) come on? Does it have anything to do with the dreaded SSN's?

On the reduced range, here is the only data I have using kWh. Today, the gauge shows 14.8kwh used. When I look at the power screen, the battery indicates 24% left. If the battery is rated at 23kwh and I have used 76%, wouldn't I have used 17.5kwh? What am I missing?

 

[WattsUp]

Anyone had this warning light (Orange wrench) come on?

Yes, search the forum for "yellow wrench".

("Orange wrench" finds only your post.)