"Stop Safely Now"
 

Anyone seen this message? I got it this morning in my own driveway and the car wouldn't respond to the next 2 or 3 start attempts, but on the next it was fine and it didn't recur. The triangular red warning light came on but the manual's pretty vague about what causes it.

It may have been that I did something a bit unusual: I started and backed the car out of the garage, but the kids weren't ready for school so I shut off the engine again after it had only run about 20 seconds. The message came when I tried to restart about 2 minutes later.

I had the car in the dealer today for another issue (see other thread) and the service guy had nothing to offer except that it's 'one of those hybrid things'.


Colin

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

Yes, I had it a few months ago, and my FEH had to have Roadside Assistance take it to the Dealership. The shop manual says it's a HEV Hazard and says it can come from the PCM, TBCM or TCM (Powertrain Control Module, Traction Battery Control Module or Transaxle Control Module). The way the car acted, I thought it was the transaxle (eCVT), but it turned out to be my PCM and they reflashed the program.

GaryG

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

Ack... if you ever hear a service advisor say, "It's just one of those hybrid things" again, seriously, give the woman/man a weird look and ask, "So, I guess you tell non-hybrid owners who come in with any issues, 'Eh, it's just one of those CAR THINGS...?"

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

I had a similar occurrence on Thanksgiving when I was leaving a friend's house. I started to leave the driveway when my wife remembered that we'd left something, so I quickly stopped the vehicle and put it in reverse (AKA jam and slam). The ICE stopped, the warning came on and the car wouldn't run for more than a few seconds when I tried to restart it. After a couple of tries, I was able to start it long enough to back it into the driveway, and it kept running. I crossed my fingers (we were a good hour away from any Ford dealer who might have known anything about Hybrids) and we started off on a three-hour return trip. Other than the factory Nav unit rebooting a couple of times, the truck has been behaving normally ever since. I didn't take it to the dealer until a month later, so any codes that might have been stored were lost.

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

First post to the forum. Unfortunately it is because I came across this thread...

New '07 FEH 171 miles on the odometer. Just spent 1.5 hours waiting for a tow truck to have the FEH towed to a dealership for this exact problem described.

Wife called me from her office and says she was getting the "stop safely now" message and the car wouldn't run. I called the dealership we purchased from and got a less than helpful tech on the phone who asked me "what do you expect me to do about it, call roadside assistance, that's what it's for." While tecnically correct, his delivery, tone and timing was as though he could care less.

Long story short the FEH is dead, will not move and is sitting at a closed dealership for the evening.

Can anyone with this trouble specify what the repair was?

Thanks for listening.

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

If thats where you bought the vehicle..... drop by the sales department and ask if you can see the owner. Let him know about the "fine" tech you communicated with and what you think of him.

I did a similar thing at a dealership in Vermont. Next time I came by I was talking to a different tech... I asked him where the first guy was, he said... "he doesn't work here anymore." I have no idea if I was the last straw, one of many, the guy just quit, etc. But its not something you should have to put up with. Even if you should call roadside assisstance, they are an interface to the customer and should handle the job as such.

I went through two dealerships here in Ann Arbor (won't say which) until I found one that I feel treats a customer properly. And that one is a small little dealership about 15min away. Even with the drive they get my business every time (and I bought the FEH from them).

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

So the servicing dealership called this morning. The FEH started right up for them. They are going to keep it for the day and scan it and I will post what they find later.

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

"Stop Safetly Now" can come up for a huge number of reasons. As simple as running out of gas ( or having poor quality gas ) can be one of them. It is impossible to diagnose a problem from this message alone.

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

So are you saying that there should be more information available? Or that "its just a hybrid thing" and I shouldn't worry about it. I'm confused?

The fuel tank was full(dealer supplied fuel) and the car would not start over the period of about three hours, with two different keys. The tech I spoke with was less than helpful. And the dealership the car is at now is saying there is nothing wrong with it and no codes were stored.

I will accept that these cars are complicated and rely on sensors and feedback to run. I will not accept that nothing is wrong, or the implication that I had run the car out of fuel. I certainly will not be keeping the vehicle if I have to worry about my family being stranded in it because of an intermittant problem that cannot be diagnosed. Fortunatly I bought it right so I can get out of it easily enough if I have too.

Re: "Stop Safely Now"
 

Rusty, it sounds like the PCM had a temporary glitch in it's program. If I'm correct, the PCM didn't store a code because "IT" was having the problem. Rebooting it when your tech turned the key, left him with no errors or codes, so he doesn't have much to go by with his scantool. The dealership Tech that worked on my FEH experienced the problem for him 3 days later over the weekend. He called the Ford Hotline because he had no idea what was the problem. They advised my tech to retrieve the program from the inactive part of the PCM, and reflash the active side of the PCM with the "As Built Program" stored in the PCM. It just so happens I was at the dealership to pick up a loaner that morning and they let me watch my FEH being worked on by the Hybrid Tech. After he reflashed my PCM, he got a code for the ABS and a oxigen sensor. The oxigen sensor clear up on it's own, but he reprogrammed the ABS system for some reason. It was fixed in 10min, but he wanted to test drive it then and again after it cooled down in the afternoon. He called me at 4pm and told me to come pick it up.

If your tech is smart, he will call the Ford Hotline and report what happen to you to them. They will give him a recommendation, and a hotline repair number, which should be on the repair receipt when you pick the vehicle up. If you don't see the hotline number on the repair receipt, they didn't call. Something this serious needs to be reported.

See my earlier post in this thread as to the possible causes for the "Stop Safely Now" message listed in the workshop manual. The gas is not a listed problem. BTW, I have a Scangauge and used it to find a code when my FEH displayed "Stop Safely Now" and quit running. My FEH would start back up for a few seconds, and then shut down again. This happen about 5 times, before I gave up and called Roadside Service. My Scangauge did not show any codes during all the restarts. I know my Scangauge works, because I've used it on other vehicles that had warning messages, and have cleared them with it.

GaryG