Stop Safely Now Warning

[jpc1818]

So i got the car back today from the dealer. Looks like they took the battery out and cleaned a bunch of connections that were becoming "green". I am a little less pissed because the dealer was very understanding. Maybe because he new the lemon law would now be a possibility.

I am an engineer and i hate not being able to get their complete confidence in that the car will work as it should. I did ask how to proceed should this happen again. They told me to just pull over, not shut it off and call roadside assistance so that the issue stays present/active.

So lets hope this doesn't happen to me again or Ford gets to the bottom of the issue.

 

[JJFocus]

Thank you to everyone who have been posting about this issue.
I just leased a FFE on 5/30/13 for my wife to drive, with our two kids in the back...
I am wondering about returning the car as this is absolutely a major safety issue. Has anyone tried giving the car back before this issue actually happens to them?

I wish I had known about this before.

Thanks again!

 

[firewired]

Thank you to everyone who have been posting about this issue.
I just leased a FFE on 5/30/13 for my wife to drive, with our two kids in the back...
I am wondering about returning the car as this is absolutely a major safety issue. Has anyone tried giving the car back before this issue actually happens to them?

I wish I had known about this before.

Thanks again!

I would doubt they would take it back. Ford didn't seem concerned, or acknowledge that there might be an issue that needed further investigating.

In my case, I considered it definitely a safety issue. WIth both of my kids in the car my car died right in front of a busy intersection during rush hour. I really felt like I was at risk for being rear ended. Others have reported it happening actually while driving which is obviously much worse. In my case the dealer and Ford seemed much less interested in it once they found that there were no codes thrown. I didn't just stop at my dealer, but also called Ford's customer service and their EV division customer support. Their only advice was to bring it back if/when it happens again.

I know some have said Ford definitely must be working on a solution the problem, but you definitely couldn't tell it from the lack of interest I experienced for further information once they couldn't find a code. I would suggest that with so many of us reporting almost identical experiences, it is much more likely that there is a single defect to explain it. In Medicine we call that "Occam's Razor": usually the single simplest explanation for an occurrence is more likely than many different or more complex ones.

I can only speculate from my experience with the lack of concern which was shown for what I considered a real safety issue that this is not a hot ticket item for Ford. The Ford Focus Electric is obviously a low volume car, and sporadic occurrences can easily be drowned out by all the other issues happening to all their other high volume lines.

I can only imagine that it may be difficult to track down what the defect is because it appears to occur so randomly. But when you really look at it there are many similarities. Most have reported the issue occurring at near similar mileage. Most have had it occurred when stopped, just after pushing on the brakes, or when slowing down again with a connection to the brakes. I do feel like the only way to get it isolated is with a concerted effort, and the pressure doesn't seem there, probably from our low numbers equaling low number f occurrences. I really feel that the only way that this will be solved is if Ford really takes a hard look at it, and looks at all our occurrences in total not as single isolated events. I would hope that we could pressure Ford somehow to do this before someone's FFE dies at the worst time and someone really gets hurt.

I would continue to propose that external pressure may be needed for Ford to really feel like they need to put this on the front burner. On the NHTSA site only three of us have reported our occurrences. (Take a look at the NHTSA site for our complaints: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchResultsByUrlCode.action?referenceSearch.requestId=3952&referenceSearch.urlCode=I4PG7F9MUOS2N6Z) I would ask that everyone do their part to help us all get this issued fixed for all of us, and take the five minutes to report on the NHTSA site what occurred when you got the "stop safely now" warning before some unfortunate Ford Focus Electric owner gets killed when their car dies while driving on the highway.

Just my opinion, sorry for the long post.

 

[jeffand]

Some of the vehicles have seen issues, but most have not. I have not had any real issue with my car and it has over 6000 miles on it now. You will see here that most people that have had a problem with the car that it showed up in the first 90 days of ownership. I would estimate that as much as 25% of the FFE owner will or have visited this site. Most EV owners are enthusiast, and like to share their experiences. That is why this website is here. The real problem is lack of experience the mechanics have. It’s true they have had some training on how to service the car. But there is good chance that when you do bring your car in for service it will be the first time the mechanics will have worked on one. Ford maintains a data base of problems. This information is used to issue a service bulletin it Ford deems it note worthy.

 

[vetboy45]

JJFocus

You need to do what you feel you need to do. If it makes you so nervous you can't enjoy the car, see if they'll take it back. I am personally not concerned. The internet has a way of magnifying problems way beyond their actual size. Earlier this year there were a group of Tesla Model S's that were "going to sleep" and couldn't be woken up. From the reaction on the website you would have thought the issue was going to be the end of the company. It turned out that a handful of cars had bad 12 volt batteries etc. I can't even recall the last time I heard of a similar problem happening again. EV's are still an early adopter product though, and as such are going to have a higher number of issues.

 

[firewired]

I have been discussing the Stop Safely Now warning that many of us have experienced with one of the Editors from Inside EVs (http://insideevs.com). He contacted Ford executives and they were willing to pass the information to their engineering team, but need our VINs to do that. They inferred that they were looking at our episodes as single events:

"...the Stop Safely Now warning appears in the Focus Electric in lieu of the Check Engine light that is found in naturally-aspirated vehicles. As with all vehicles, there are a number of different reasons why this warning may illuminate."

Our information could be helpful to figure out if there is a single defect causing all of our episodes. If you feel comfortable please PM me you VIN number, contact email, and mileage that episode/s happened and I will pass along to them. I will keep your information strictly confidential and will only disclose to the Inside EV Editor to provide to the Ford team.

 

[scottholden]

Drove it off the lot 8 days ago (lease), got the SSN message this morning on way into work. Mine happened about a block into the commute. Car has around 500 miles on it. First thing I did when I got to work was google the problem and found this Forum. Figured I'd join the group to help document the problem(s).

 

[jeffand]

Wow! You were able to put on 500 miles in 8 days. That's averaging over 62 miles a day. How many miles range was left when you got the stop safely now message? Are you using a level 1 or 2 charging? Did you contact the dealership?

 

[v_traveller]

... and did you totally lose power to the wheels? If not, did you pull over or just keep driving? Inquiring minds want to know.

Oh yeah... welcome to the forum!

 

[firewired]

Article on Autobloggreen about Stop Safely Now warning:

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/06/04/ford-focus-electrics-flashing-stop-safely-now-warning-for-some/

 

[scottholden]

Wow! You were able to put on 500 miles in 8 days. That's averaging over 62 miles a day. How many miles range was left when you got the stop safely now message? Are you using a level 1 or 2 charging? Did you contact the dealership?

- It was leased for the sole purpose of just being my commuter car and yup, its 60 miles round trip .

-The first SSN message happened 1/2mile into trip on a full charge. That morning it was cool, about 60F. Then it happened later that day in a parking lot. I wasn't even moving, I just had my foot on the brake. It was 90+F and had full charge.

-Level 1; I charge at home at night, then charge at work to top it off. I'll never be using this car for any other trips, I suspect I'll never need to buy the Level 2.

-Dropped it off, and the Service figurehead said they'd likely have to put a "call in" to the specialists. Said they "might not have heard of this thing before". I told him, "they will know about it,..but probably won't have a solution".

... and did you totally lose power to the wheels? If not, did you pull over or just keep driving? Inquiring minds want to know. Oh yeah... welcome to the forum!

Sorry, actually pretty uneventful.. First time was coasting to a stop sign, the second already at a stop in a parking lot. And Thanks!

 

[Chris_A]

Add my name to the list of owners with this issue I have had it twice - once around 1500 miles and then again at 3300 miles, neither have resulted in a fix from the dealer. I hope this gains attention and Ford and they resolve this issue with an otherwise great Electric vehicle!

 

[Lake EV]

Add my name also to the list. I had it once on the first day I had the car but thought it was due to operator error as I turned the car off before putting it into Park. Complete power down and up cleared the problem. Today, with approx 1140 miles my wife had it with complete power loss to the wheels. Coasted to a stop on the side of a busy highway and was immediately approached by highway patrol who lectured that this was a bad place to stop. No kidding. Complete power down and up return power to the car. Later on the same trip she had the no power when selecting reverse issue. Needless to say she isn't impressed. I will take it in for diagnosis but have no confidence that they will find the problem based on other users postings.

 

[ashuri]

Add me to the list as well...5077 "Stop Safely Now"....on the freeway!!!

Contacting Ford...how do we report this on the Federal Website that tracks these things?

 

[PenelopeFFE]

My FFE is in the shop right now for a harness replacement. no mention of cause but this is the second EV with the same power issues. I had a 2012 model last December through March all worked well, then I got the Wrench alert (Amber) on two separate occasions but it went away and didn't stay on. then about 3-5 days later I got the "pull over safely" message as I was entering the on ramp to the freeway. I almost immediately lost power but was stuck on the freeway onramp with no way to exit the car safely. I ended up getting rear-ended by a car and the car was totaled out. I am lucky I was not seriously injured in the crash.

So no follow-up investigation on the car was done as to the cause. Now I have a 2013 model. Got the same Wrench light twice, first time went in to dealership and they had the car for a week with no result. Could not find anything after extensive tests and long drives. Last week, I got the Wrench alert twice again so I took the car in to get fixed. They've had it 6 days waiting on the harness to arrive and for them to have enough time to fix it. I am wondering if this is turning into a trend for the car? No rat involved as far as I know.

Others please share if you also experience this problem.

 

[firewired]

Add me to the list as well...5077 "Stop Safely Now"....on the freeway!!!

Contacting Ford...how do we report this on the Federal Website that tracks these things?

http://www.nhtsa.gov/

 

[ashuri]

Stopped again yesterday while making a left turn almost got T-boned in traffic

5736 is the mileage....sorry guys but I'm done with this car!! I'm going to request a repurchase from Ford...can't risk the safety of my family.

 

[Bill]

{Post deleted by User}

 

[WattsUp]

Do any FFE owners post about problem-free miles? Does anyone have an idea what the frequency of this problem is or isn't (e.g., 95% of FFEs will not have sudden stopping issues). Thanks.

I have 6000+ miles with no SSN.

 

[jmueller065]

Do any FFE owners post about problem-free miles? Does anyone have an idea what the frequency of this problem is or isn't (e.g., 95% of FFEs will not have sudden stopping issues). Thanks.

Well there is the "Who hasn't got Stop Safely Now" thread in the forums here:
http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1062

I've been attempting to keep up a spreadsheet of all the people mentioned on here that have had an issue. My guesstimate of the error rate of the FFE is around 2% of the vehicles out on the road have had or will have issues. That is a really terrible quality number as far as manufacturing goes (if 2% of the 1 million ICE Focuses failed they built last year Ford would be very unhappy!). 2% is still pretty good odds that the rest of us won't really experience a problem.