Hello everyone,

Early this year I purchased a 2006 FEH. For the first several months I owned it I didn't have any serious problems, but I was disappointed by how infrequently the car seemed to go into EV mode. At two points In about a 4 month period I got a red triangle of death with stop safely now and an almost immediate complete loss of power to the vehicle (and stall to 0 rpms). Each time the condition would clear immediately upon a key cycle. Then in August I got rear-ended and after that the red triangle of death appeared 3 or so times on as many trips (again cleared by stoping and cycling the key). At that point I downloaded Forscan and pulled error codes that suggested that one HV battery fan was dead and that the other worked only intermittently. Using advice from this forum I replaced both fans.

After replacing both fans, I noticed an immediate improvement in vehicle power. Also it regularly goes into EV mode. Basically it's great. Except, it now has a different but much more frequent stall condition. I believe that this condition may have been caused by me disconnecting the 12 volt battery while I worked on the HV battery (and thus resetting the computer memory).

After I replaced the battery fans and reconnected everything, the vehicle began stalling regularly within the first few minutes while driving. Basically it start, runs fine for a few minutes or seconds, then - whether you are parked or driving it will start having trouble maintaining a reasonable rpm and will suddenly stall with a red triangle of death and "stop safely now". On the positive side, when it does this I can still continue driving in EV mode - which allows me to pull over somewhat safely. Again, a key cycle will clear this.

Initially the problem only occurred during the first few minutes after I started the vehicle. Using Forscan I pulled these codes: P1000-FF and P1A0C-F. From reading on this forum I guessed that what had happened was that my vehicle has sludge in the throttle body that it had previously compensated for, but that when I reset the computer it forgot how to compensate. To help it re-learn I then ran it for about 15 minutes with the defroster on. Since giving it a chance to re-learn though, while it has not stalled as often upon startup - it has stalled at random times throughout the drive (including after it is warmed.up, which it didn't previously do). Then a few days ago, I had a series of misfires and pulled codes P0302, then P0304, and P0300 (indicating cylinder misfires). I also pulled P2195 - indicating that the 1st O2 sensor in bank 1 was biased/stuck lean. At that point I decided I needed to clean the throttle body.

Today I pulled the throttle body out and cleaned it with recommended throttle body cleaner. Not only was the throttle body dirty (I cleaned it well though), but the intake downstream from the throttle body was also full of blackness (like greasy soot) - I wiped what I could of that out also, but did not spray cleaner on it. I also disconnected the 12v battery for a few hours. Then, after reconnecting everything, I started it up - it ran great for 80 seconds, then stalled - the only code it pulled this time was P2195 (O2 sensor). Ran it about 5 more times - 5 more stalls and another P0302 (cylinder 2 misfire). Then one more time - ran great - put on defrost, did a 20 minute relearn, drove for a mile - ran perfectly, switched in and out of ev mode, etc.

Then tonight after it cooled down I went out and started it up - stall. Drove a bit - stall. Pulled P2195 again.

Do I coincidentally have a bad O2 sensor that just happened to give up the ghost? Or do I need to actually replace my throttle body? (I noticed while cleaning that it's neutral position is just a little bit open - I assume that that's right though since the engine needs a bit of airflow?) Or maybe I have a bad mass airflow sensor? Did I damage something in the air flow system/the engine/etc. by driving it occasionally while I was having these stalling problems (I thought it needed the mileage to re-learn its throttle body sludge compensation strategy). Could my misfires have coated an O2 sensor with soot or something?

I'm not sure whether to believe I have a bad O2 sensor and should replace it, to believe I have a bad throttle body, or whether something else is the problem entirely.

I'd be grateful for any advice you all have to offer - I'm new to the Escapes, and pretty new to car repair - so your knowledge would be very helpful!

Additional info: I've also had a couple instances of the regenerative brakes suddenly disappearing - requiring me to push the pedal almost to the floor in order to stop - but this always cleared up on its own sometimes within minutes, and other times after a key cycle or two. At one point pulled an error code suggesting that a brake sensor needed to be calibrated. I assume that this is unrelated.

Thanks!

 

Sorry for the duplicate thread - I didn't think this one was going to post. If there's a way to delete it, just let me know and I'll do so!

 

My hybrid battery essentially died a month or so back (I was getting no power from the hybrid system and I had the big red Triangle of Death) and it was replaced with a reconditioned battery pack from an incredibly reputable source. However, I never again have seen the fuel economy I had before. I was usually in the mid-40s before my hybrid battery died and it dropped permanently to upper 30's. Now, it has dropped to 32mpg over the last 500 miles or so. A few weeks ago, I did the 12v battery check I read about here and that seemed fine. I am not getting any system warnings on the dash. What's Nox Vidmate VLC next to check?