Stop Safety Now

[OxxO]

Hello,

 

Having a strange issue with my Ford Energi 2017 plug-in

 

It happened so far 2 times in 7 month period.

 

Then i come back to a car after a short drive and I try to start it i get the message Stop Safety Now. Everything starts fine, but i cannot put gear in (have the knob). I go out of the car, lock it down, remote start it with the car remote, go into the car again and it starts perfectly without error. Because it happened just 2 times in long period I am not sure is it just simple strange behavior or should I be concerned?  

[theterminator93]

There are a handful of other instances of this happening on here, each caused by something slightly different. The first thing you will need to do is get any powertrain fault codes read for a diagnosis.

 

It could be anything from a bad relay for powertrain control electronics (or damaged wiring), transmission faults, or something as benign as running out of gas. That's why you need to get codes read.

 

You might be able to read certain codes with the procedure listed here.

 

[tocreemer]

This won't help with the "strange issue" but I feel I need to share. 

 

So, my wife just had a similar experience with "Stop Safely Now" in her 2016 Fusion Energi.    5 miles into state land and 3 miles from cell phone coverage in Colorado.  Parked at a campsite for several days without operating the car.  Apparently all the door opening,  closing, and using the interior lights depleted the 12V battery to a point the car would not come on.  Used another vehicle at the camp to jump start the car, let the 12V battery charge for a bit and was able to power up the car, but had the dreaded "stop safely now" message and the vehicle would not run.  Drove into town, found a replacement 12V and returned to camp and installed it.  Still no joy.  Message still present and drive system would not engage.  $450 tow (thankfully roadside assistance covered it) to a shop in Silverthorne CO, not Ford due to a 3 week lead time for service.  Shop put it on a computer and pulled a long list of codes, admitted defeat, and said it would have to go to Ford to put on their computer.  Towed to Ford and found they had an EV charger on site.  Plugged it in for 30 minutes and the car ran perfectly, all codes gone as well as the "stop safely now" message.  

 

I had talked to 3 different Ford shops and searched multiple forums.  Never saw anything documented with regards to this error message and a charge on the EV system.  Just want to get this in a forum somewhere in case this happens to someone else.  

 

Funny part, my wife didn't have her EV charge cable in her car since she was going camping and wouldn't have a place to plug in.  With space at a premium in a Fusion Energi trunk she left it at home.  

[cr08]

On 8/15/2022 at 6:18 PM, tocreemer said:

This won't help with the "strange issue" but I feel I need to share. 

 

So, my wife just had a similar experience with "Stop Safely Now" in her 2016 Fusion Energi.    5 miles into state land and 3 miles from cell phone coverage in Colorado.  Parked at a campsite for several days without operating the car.  Apparently all the door opening,  closing, and using the interior lights depleted the 12V battery to a point the car would not come on.  Used another vehicle at the camp to jump start the car, let the 12V battery charge for a bit and was able to power up the car, but had the dreaded "stop safely now" message and the vehicle would not run.  Drove into town, found a replacement 12V and returned to camp and installed it.  Still no joy.  Message still present and drive system would not engage.  $450 tow (thankfully roadside assistance covered it) to a shop in Silverthorne CO, not Ford due to a 3 week lead time for service.  Shop put it on a computer and pulled a long list of codes, admitted defeat, and said it would have to go to Ford to put on their computer.  Towed to Ford and found they had an EV charger on site.  Plugged it in for 30 minutes and the car ran perfectly, all codes gone as well as the "stop safely now" message.  

 

I had talked to 3 different Ford shops and searched multiple forums.  Never saw anything documented with regards to this error message and a charge on the EV system.  Just want to get this in a forum somewhere in case this happens to someone else.  

 

Funny part, my wife didn't have her EV charge cable in her car since she was going camping and wouldn't have a place to plug in.  With space at a premium in a Fusion Energi trunk she left it at home.  

 

I wonder if possibly with everything that happened that the HV battery was seriously depleted? Do you happen to recall where the battery gauge was sitting at when this all happened? I've found (at least on the C-Max which should behave similarly to the Fusion here) that in some scenarios even without the vehicle fully running ('Ready to Drive') the DC-DC converter can still be active in a limited capacity and draw off the HVB. Usually this will be while in accessory mode or even as little as opening a door where the vehicle 'wakes up' (You'll hear the contactors under the hood click) to get things ready. And without the vehicle fully running, it is unable to start up the ICE to keep it charged without an EVSE handy.

 

If this theoretically was the cause, my guess why it wouldn't run until charged up via EVSE is internal safeties assume it's not safe to rely on the depleted HVB to start the vehicle and ultimately crank the ICE to get things charged again. Whereas an EVSE it can assume more safe conditions for the battery where it's only going to be putting in a relatively slow charge with no facilities to draw or discharge the HVB. Though this is just spitballing and educated guessing...

Edited August 16, 2022 at 12:27 AM by cr08