07 Hybrid broke down

Gweeks,

The Tech that is working on your FEH has no idea what he's working on. It sounds to me he needs to contact the Ford Hotline for help. There must be a reason, (like he is not a certified Hybrid Tech) for not contacting the Ford hotline.

It sounds like you have a corrupted PCM, and it needs to be reflashed or replaced.

Copy my post and print it to a letter and give them one day to resolve it in a certified letter hand delivered ASAP. They had better be giving you a great replacement for your FEH with MPG equals, or pay you for the added expense for this delay. I had a similar problem and they fixed it the same day for reprogramming the PCM. A new PCM may take a few days at most.

Good Luck, GaryG

I have a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid that I bought brand new in January 2006. Never a complaint until today......but today I'm pulling my hair out over the car! I get to the grocery store, shop, load the car with my groceries, then the car starts up fine and I put it in reverse and it dies giving me a message "Stop Safely Now". My radio, windows, console lights are working....just not the car! I repeatedly try to no avail to start the car. Eventually I call for a tow and hubby to get my groceries out. Hubby shows up and the car starts right up for him. It's like a sick little joke the car is playing on me making me look like the crazy woman who dreamed it all up! I cancel the tow and go home to unload my groceries that have been in the car spoiling for nearly an hour and a half. A couple of hours later, Hubby is out getting a haircut and discovers he has forgotten his wallet. I dash out to rescue him and the car again dies and the message says "Stop Safely Now". After all the other fiascos of the day have been settled.......Hubby and all the neighbors get to see my car dead in the middle of the street. It's too late to call for a tow since my Ford Dealership is closed so the neighbors helped get the vehicle into the garage for the evening. The only good news is that I no longer look like the dumb blonde crazy woman who cried wolf! However, I still have no car!

My manual says this about the warning message "STOP SAFELY NOW --- Displayed when the Master electrical hazard warning lamp is illuminated indicating a Hybrid component failure. If this warning occurs, the vehicle will soon shutdown without further warning, stop the vehicle as soon as safely possible and contact your authorized dealer as soon as possible."

Have you learned anything about what the problem with your Ford Escape Hybrid is?

I own a '06 FEH with 38K miles on it. About 5 months ago the "Service Soon" (a.k.a. the wrench light) light came on while driving the car. FYI, the "Service Soon" light is a different indicator than the "Check Engine" light. While the "Service Soon" light was on, the car did not exhibit any problems and ran normally. The light went away once the engine was turned off and the light did not turn on again after starting the car. Since then, the "Service Soon" light has intermittently turned on while driving. The light clears once the engine is turned off. The annoying problem has probably occurred about 15+ times since. :mad: I've taken it to a Ford dealer to have them diagnose the problem, but they have no clue to what's causing the "Service Soon" light to come on. They've tried connecting scanners to get read outs from the on board computer, but the the computer reports no problems. They've had to call the Ford Hotline several times and are now trying to reproduce the problem by driving the car around while it is connected to a scanner. My gripe with all this, aside from the annoyance of the light coming on intermittently, is that no one at Ford seems to know what the "Service Soon" is supposed to be reporting. Does anyone know what the "Service Soon" light is supposed to be reporting? Does the dealer need to replace the on board computer? On a prior visit to the dealer regarding this problem, they cleared the computer and supposedly loaded new software in it, but that did not fix the problem. Thanks in advance for any suggestions/help.

Thanks GaryG for the suggestions. The hybrid is getting pretty good gas mileage, averaging around 30 mpg; mainly driven 80% on the highway during a typical work week. I would think rich fuel mixture reported from the oxygen sensor is a code that would definitely show up on a scanner though. BTW, I almost always get gas at Costco (not sure what fuel mixture they use).
I will suggest your suggestions to the Ford service adviser about checking filters and such. You are also right about the time it takes troubleshooting the problem as the hybrid has been at the shop for about a week now.
This problem I'm having with the hybrid is troubling me because my back seat passenger is my 3 year old son. When a light comes on and no diagnostics is reported, you really don't know how serious the problem might be. What's the use of the sensor when it can't even report what the problem is? It would be like going to the doctor and telling him/her "There's something wrong with me." He/she asks, "What seems to be the problem?" and you reply, "I don't know, you figure it out." :(

I purchased a 2008 FEH in March. When the car had 500 miles on it I took a trip on a day that was hotter than normal - low 90's. After 20 miles I got the "stop safely" message along with the exclamation mark in the triangle warning light and the car cut off. I coasted over to the shoulder, turned the car off, and then back on and it started with no warning lights. I thought this must be a fluke so I went on down the road. The same problem happened again a couple of miles later. I then decided it was best to head home. After about 10 more episodes, I did get home. I took the car in and the dealer diagnosed it as the electric water pump for the electric motor cooling system was inoperative. They replaced it. I thought it was weird to have such a failure with a new car, but it sounded plausible. No further problem for the next 1500 miles.

A couple of weeks ago I head out on another trip and again it happens to be in the low 90s. I get 60 miles from home and the same problem as above happens. This time it takes me hours to get back home. Figuring the problem was definitely heat related, we pulled over at a rest stop for an hour and sure enough I was able to go about 20 miles before the thing failed again. Needless to say I am not happy.

I took the car in to the dealer. They checked it out and tried to get it to fail for a week. They said they were consulting with Ford engineers. Finally last week they got it to fail. The diagnosis is that there is something wrong with the electric motor that is causing overheating. The fix is to replace the electric motor. To add insult to injury they say that it will take 2 weeks to get the new motor from Ford.

So here I have a brand new $30K car, getting its main hybrid drive replaced by a dealer who says they have never seen this before -- which obviously means they have no experience replacing the motor. So how confident should I be in this course of action? Suggestions?

Follow-up on the problem with my 2008 FEH that I reported above. The dealer was able to reproduce the failure. They consulted with Ford engineers and determined the transmission was overheating and needed to be replaced. It took 2 weeks to get the new transmission. After replacing the transmission the tech noticed that one of the coolant pumps was not working. Checking the power he noted it had power but a bad ground. He traced the circuit and found a wire splice that had not been crimped at all at the factory. The wire was making intermittent connection. This wiring fault was very likely the problem the whole time and not the transmission itself. I have the car back now intact and have not had further problems. I'll post again if the overheating problem returns -- but I'm hopeful that the root cause has been identified and fixed.

Interesting information here. I just dropped my 2008 FEH at the dealership this morning for the same issue after 39,000 miles. They just called me and said they found a bad ground which they fixed and they reprogrammed the PCM. I have been getting 32-33 MPH with my 4WD version which I think is pretty good for this size vehicle. I have had no other issues and love this vehicle. It does make you wonder why they are having ground faults on these - almost sounds like a process error in the factory. I hope this fixes my issue, as you can tell by my mileage I just about live in this vehicle. I hope Ford doesn't let this get out of control. For those of us who believe in Ford quality and support them with our purchases we need to know these things will be fixed for good.

I have a 2007 FEH too and my "Service Soon" light came on last night. I called my Ford dealer and their certified technician won't be in until Thursday. Hopefully, the technician can make some sense to of this vague warning than the service person who field my phone call.

The coolant pump on my 2005 FEH (36,500 miles) was just diagnosed as failed, and replaced. The problem presented differently. I first got an "engine overheating" warning and kept driving to the next highway exit. Then the "stop safely" warning came on but the car did not cut out. I pulled over and let the engine cool and was able to drive home slowly off-highway without any warning signals. I will update if I get further problems like yours.

Just spoke with the service department and there seems to be a recall on the FEH. This recall has to do with an electrical issue and the battery. This issue apparently will cause the vehicle to lose power with no real pattern.

I have a '07 FEH and also got the "stop safely now" message and the car shut down except for electric. I stoped, shut it off and restarted, everthing fine. I was away for the weekend at the time and drove ~120 miles home without any more trouble. I did take it to my dealer on that Monday, and their assessment was that the Throttle Body had gone bad and needed replacement. Fortunately that was covered under warranty. I've been driving problem free for several months now since that incident. At least my dealer was able to diagnose properly it seems.

Take the FEH back to the dealer while the light is On. Tell them they did not fix the problem and you want the FEH scanned again at their expense to determine what the real problem is. Most dealerships warranty their work for 12 months or 12,000 miles. Notify Ford directly if they give you any trouble.

The fact that you got a overheat warning light and then "Stop Safely Now" before and after the repair tells me the computer (PCM) is shutting down the engine for what is called a fail safe mode. The fail safe mode is designed to protect the engine and electric motors from damage.

Most of us have a Scangauge II (SGII) and we can program it to locate the problem when it occurs. When the FEH cools and the Key is recycled Off and On for ten seconds the codes (DTCs) can reset clear again. That's no excuse for changing the electronics coolant pump if it was working when the dealer tested it. Nicely hold the dealers feet to the fire for not fixing the problem and charging you for it. If the dealer wants more money to repair something else ask for another problem, get any codes they find and post them here before giving them the okay to repair. I can review the codes and advise on the next step.

Good Luck

Mine is an 05 Hybrid, and twice now, after about a 15 minute drive at highway speed, the engine temp light has come on and stayed on.

The first time, I was able to pull off onto a small road and let the car drop into electric mode, and the light went off after a mile.

I have driven around town a great deal since then, over about a week and a half.

Today the same thing happened, but the car would not drop into electric at low speed and the light stayed on for the five miles it took me to get home.

In both cases, the Stop Engine Soon light never came on.

Anyone else have this, and any ideas what's going on? The coolant level is fine, oil recently changed, 56,000 miles on the car.

Dealer says he can't help me if the light isn't on when I bring it in.

MY CAR DID THE SAME THING ON THE INTERSTATE JUST CUT OUT WHILE I WAS DRIVING RPM DROPPED AND PICKED BACK UP FOR MINUTE THEN MY CAR DIED.I RESTARTED IT AND GOT BOUT HALF A MILE AND IT CUT OFF AGAIN.I HAD TO GET IT PUSED TO MY HOUSE AND I TRIED TO START IT AND IT DIDNT START. THE NEXT DAY IT STARTED AND I DROVE IT FOR ABOUT 15MINUTES WITH NO PROBLEM.I TRIED TO START IT LATER THAT DAY AND IT RAN FOR A MINUTE AND CUT OFF.NOW IT WANT STAY RUNNING AT ALL.I TOOK IT TO TWO CARSHOPS AND THE FRIST SHOP CHANGED MY FUEL REGULATOR 'FUEL FILTER AND COIL PACK AND ALSO CHECKED MY FUELPUMP.AND MY FUEL PRESSURE WAS LIKE 36-38.AND MY CAR STILL NOT RUNNING.DO ANYBODY NO WHAT THE PROBLEM COULD BE?

While driving my 08 FEH (82K miles) in local traffic the other day going about 15-20 mpg as I had just crossed thru an intersection and I got the infamous triangle and exclamation point, along with the "Stop safely now" message.
The gas engine seemed to have stopped but I still had power from the electric battery/motor, so I was able to drive it about 1/2 mile until I could safely pull over and turn it off. I was able to restart it and everything seemed to work fine. I drove it to the Ford dealer for them to investigate what the issue may be.
So far they haven't found anything obvious, but they did call me to let me know they believe its a problem with the electronic throttle body control ($494). - Unfortunately this is not covered under my extended powertrain warranty. : (
Hopefully this new throttle body part will fix this problem. Although from what I've read here so far, it appears this could be due to a number of differing causes? -Keeping my fingers crossed.

The stop safely now message and shut off is to prevent hybrid battery damage and electric motor damage. You may not realize this, but you have two engines in the vehicle. Usually this indicates that the electrical system for the electric motor is not getting enough power. First thing they should check is the gas engine battery. And then the diagnostic computer can give more information like bad water pump on electric motor, short somewhere etc. You should never keep driving a hybrid when it does this, because you can damage the electric motor. There is no need for a recall, this is how it was designed.

RE: 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid "stop safely now"

Hi Gary

I've been reading over these posts and was hoping for your advise as you seem to be the authority on lots of these issues.

My 08 FEH was purchased preowned about 2 months ago. About a week after buying the car, the wrench warning light came on intermittenly. Each time I took it to the dealership, the light would switch off. Eventually I was able to get it to the dealership without the light turning off.

The diagnosis was that the Fan for the battery located in the door was not working properly. The Ford dealership replaced the broken fan at the expense of the Dealership who sold me the car (dealership I purchased from was not Ford owned)

The wrench light has not come back on since.

However today I was driving in the hot weather with the AC going, and the hazard light came on with the message "stop safely now". I immediately pulled over and turned off the car. I waited a few minutes, restarted and everything looked ok. I drove about 3 miles on the highway and the same issue occured. I called the dealership and they advised to tow the car there.

Currently the car is waiting to be looked at tomorrow morning. They said the likely culprit this time is the coolant pump for the electronics. This time, I dont have the warranty of the dealership to cover the expenses

Do you think this Ford dealer misdiagnosed the problem the first time?

Would the fan they replaced have any connection to the coolant pump failure?

Thanks for any advise.

Matt

If they replaced the fan that blows air, how is that going to affect pump for coolant unless that fan was blowing cool air to that pump? Eat the cost to fix it because you bought hybrid to better the environment. Why else would one buy a hybrid? Save $$? Check out how much $$ you could saved buying none hybrid version of that vehicle. I bet none hybrids are cheaper by few thousand and you don’t have to worry about battery, electric motor and transaxle... You have two choices.. Fix it and drive or fix it and sell so you can get none hybrid car.. People who view this site are people who want to brag about their hybrids. I don’t have hybrid right now because I don’t understand why I should buy one.

I got a 2006 ford hybrid escape it do the same thing yours do it was the electric water pump
not cooling the hybrid parts

i have a 2005 ford escape hybrid and i have just got it . It runn good for one day. Will I was going down the road and it said stop pull over safe. will i took it in and it said it was motor electronics cooling system. will we did that and it did great for one day. My huband took it to work todayand it is doing it again I need to know what is going on. Can someone help.