Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Hey guys, I feel lost and slightly frustrated and wanted to ask for your advice.

I have an 05 escape hybrid. Love it but it's now developed an annoying habbit of shutting off whenever it feels like it.

At first there were warnings stating the temp was too hot and that I should go get it serviced.

I paid to get the water pump for the engine replaced but it kept happening.

I paid for the water pump in the electrical motor to be replace but it kept happening.

Now the high temp warning no longer appears but the car simply shuts down, I loose my power, my brakes feel different, and it is all around generally bumming me out.

I've become jaded with the two large ford dealerships in my area and feel their intentions are not to fix my car but to replace parts at my expense until I am blue in the face.

I want to do something about this. Either see if I can diagnose the issue myself or perhaps, if they exist, take it to an expert that can help me.

In the end, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Get a print out of the Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) and post them here and/or on other forums to see if they are similar to other "stop safely now" experiences.

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

You need to find out if the September 2007 hybrid battery recall work was performed. You should be able to input your vehicle's VIN at the Ford owners site-or maybe Carfax-to see if this was done. See this link for more details: http://www.escape-city.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1225

Also see this link for other possible TSB work your vehicle needs: http://www.escape-city.com/viewforum...&sd=d&start=25

Your 2005 vehicle had its electronic pump replace for the electronic cooling system. This is a known issue that frequently occurs on 05 vehicles approaching and exceeding 50,000 miles. A failing pump can cause the overheating issue and shutdown. Failure to have the hybrid battery recall work performed can also induce operating issues.

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate this feedback.

I will stop by the local dealer and have them give me the Diagnostic Trouble Codes. I assume this is the only place that I can do this? If not please let me know.

Also, I check with the following website:
http://www.flmowner.com

The result from a seach of my VIN is "Currently, there are no listed recalls for your vehicle."

However, I have not had my battery replaced and wonder if this search on this website may not be all that conclusive.

Also, I had a look at the "2005-2007 EH/MH - CSP: Battery harness/module corrosion" post on the Escape City forums and I'm almost positive this work was never done on my car.

Regardless I will check with both the local dealer and the orginal dealer I purchased the car from.

Could you suggest another way of checking if this work has been done?

Again, thank you all for the hospitality and the information.

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Hey guys,

It seems to me that my issue is resolved.

I took the car to a local dealer to try and get the DTC codes. They took the car in and told me I had an issue with my Battery Pack Cooling System Actuator.

The replaced it at a cost of approx $300.

The car has had no problems since.

I am transcribing the paper work that I received when I paid the bill in the hopes that it will be of service to someone.

--
FROM THE BILL:

A CHECK ENGINE LIGHT HAS BEEN COMING ON

MT TIME
201 C - 266.73
1 8L8Z*19E616*E MOTOR ASY - 33.73

66827 CHK ODBII PASS CHK ALL MODULES B1239 PINPOINT TEST MONITOR TEST REPLACED BLEN DOOR ACTUATOR FOR BATTERY PACK AND REPROGRAMED BATTERY PACK MODULE RETEST PASS AND ROAD TEST

AUTHORIZED BATTERY PACK BLEND DOOR ACTUATOR IN PERSON

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Mine was replaced ion my 2008 FEH AWD under warranty at about 12K miles...

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

We have a 2007 FEH with about 62K miles, bought new in 2006. I had noticed that the car didn't seem to be operating in EV mode as much over the last few months, it seemed to be running the ICE for the AC even when not needed for the passenger compartment. I figured something was not right, but never got around to doing anything about it. Didn't get any SES warnings.

Last weekend, my wife was on interstate 10 and got the STOP SAFELY message and then the car died. She was able to coast to the shoulder, then re-start the car after a few minutes and drive to a safe location off of the highway before it died again.

The car is at Baytown Ford, they told me today the Coolant Pump is bad (which is what I figured after reading about other people's problems here), and the battery compartment fan also gave a code, so they want to replace it too. The Coolant Pump is a little over $700, with the battery compartment fan at $1000. I'm not sure I'm getting the straight story over the phone with the service advisor. I asked if this was the radiator fan, she said no, it's the fan under the high voltage battery, and the battery has to be removed to replace it. I asked if they have confirmed that the fan is not turning, she said yes, but didn't know how. Hmmm.

I told her that the battery is only saving me about $200 per year, so why would I pay $1000 to fix a problem with the battery? She hadn't expected that question, and had to go back and talk to the tech.

Any advice?

My advice to everyone that has a 2007 FEH, REPLACE THE WATER PUMP before the warranty runs out, and avoid the grief that I'm dealing with now. There's another thread out there that describes replacing it as a DYI project for less than $200.

Overall, we have not had a good ownership experience. We have had a tire pressure monitor fail ($200), and had the blend door failure which was mis-diagnosed by the local dealer a couple of times before they fixed it ($450). I wrote to Ford after the blend door repairs cost twice what they should, and never got a reply.

Except for the tire pressure monitor, none of these failures would have happened on a conventional vehicle. If you add in the higher purchase price, and the additional cost of these hybrid-specific repairs, I don't think you come out ahead buying a hybrid. And don't tell me about the tax credit, because there is a means test on the tax credit and I failed it.

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Sorry to hear of your experience. However, I believe that the coolant pump is also present on the gas Escape.

Personally, a couple of weeks ago I went ahead and purchased the 7 year 100K warranty. Not because of any stories, but just because there is so much technology in these hybrids...

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

The motor/electronics cooling pump is unique to the hybrid escape design (hence, it is electrically driven not belt driven so it can pump when the ICE is off) - and $600 to $700 is the going rate to have a Ford Service Dept do the job. [although it is possible to diy]

I am not aware of the "battery compartment fan" although it could be part of the same system as the blend door. As far as I can tell there are no fans "underneath" the HVBattery, but there are some located internal to the battery - like cooling fans inside your desktop computer. Any fan that is internal to the HVBattery....is actually part of the battery component and is covered by the 8yr/100k mile (minimum) hybrid specific warranty. It is highly probable that the repair of this type of intenal fan is covered by Ford. But the dealer should know that.

Re: Advice on "Stop Safely Now" issue
 

Thought I would update after having the car back for a couple of weeks. The car had died on the highway with the red triangle and stop now message. The dealer found DTC POA3E, POA7C and POA81. We got copies of the TSB's from the dealer.

POA81 and/or POA96 are covered by TSB 09-17-7. This is the TSB for the Battery Pack Cooling Fan, circuit 1 and circuit 2 in the TBCM (traction battery control module). Here's a quote from the TSB: "These codes by themselves normally do not result in any symptoms that are noticeable to the customer." This repair was about $900-1000, and we elected not to have this repair done.

TSB 08-24-5 covers DTC codes P1A0E, P1A0F, P0A3C, P0A3E, P0A7A, P0A7C, and P1A0D. This is a result of the Motor Electronics Cooling Pump failure, resulting in transaxle overtemp. There is a series of diagnostic steps specified to insure that the problem is the pump itself, and not the power or signal to the pump that is at fault. The solution, after confirming that the pump is the problem, is to replace the pump. We paid $799 for this repair, and they kept the car for 2 weeks. The TSB allows 1.3 hours for the repair plus actual diagnostic time. We paid $423 for labor, which at $95/hour, equals about 4.5 hours. Apparently, it took a whole lot of time for the diagnosis. We were also charged a $50 shop charge, and $15 for coolant. Bottom line, we were raped. The total bill should have been about $500.

The car is running fine, the ICE is shutting off as it should, and we don't see any difference in performance or mileage without the cooling fans, if they are indeed not working. However, the weather has been cool since we got the car back. Maybe we'll see some difference in warmer weather.