HELP: "Stop Safely Now" message?

[Snakebitten]

It's a great truck.
But it definitely has a LOT going on when it's just sitting there parked and seemingly quiet. You think it's off. But it's more like a laptop that you just closed the lid, rather than shutdown.

I don't think these truck gets much rem sleep.

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[Samson16]

If I encounter 12v glitchy issues I've decided step one will be to replace my AGM with a new non-motorcraft battery. See how that does.

 

[DRP84]

I have been observing here since late March when I bought my ‘23 XLT Sport PB. Did not go looking for a PB but intrigued by it and saw the potential of the PPOB.

Loving it so far with 7800 miles on it and to date, no problems. Today when I went to start it I had the “Stop Safely Now” message with the shifter locked in Park.

Left it sitting while I reviewed this thread. Went back and tried the two step method of starting it in ACC Mode only, clearing messages with OK button, then attempted regular start with No Joy. Then tried locking the doors with the key fob and unlocking again with the fob with success.

I commonly drive 50-100 miles per day at 45-60 mph. Some days I have multiple short trips of 5-10 miles, which I am careful to do with the fan set on >5 based on the advice from this forum. I am averaging 25.3 mpg overall and have on some trips recorded 30-32 mpg. I have done some light utility trailer towing at 16-19 mpg.

My hope is that this is a one off event and not to occur again. If it does I will try the door lock/unlock method first.

 

[Walter Townsend]

Ordered a 2023 F150 XLT FX4 Powerboost in September in prep for my lease coming due on my 2020 F150 Ecoboost with 36,610KM.

Received the truck in Late February and at first really loved the truck.

In May with 2475 km on the truck, had driven to town, stopped at grocery store, went to a bible study, came out from bible study just before 8:30 PM to have the truck do the "Stop Safely Now" error code.

Ford Roadside Assistance was a joke!

Sorry, we can't get anybody to help you, please call back at 8:00 AM tomorrow, they will jump start the vehicle and if that does not work, tow you to the dealership. I tried to jump start the vehicle with no effect, hitched a ride home, then back again the next morning, truck started so drove home and made arrangements with the dealer to have it looked at. They did a software update and sent me on my way the next day.

Truck ran fine for about 3 weeks, ball park 2000 KM, we had driven out of town on a Saturday to go to a wedding, shuffled around the town a few times, then at the reception overheard a Chrysler service manager telling another guest not to get a hybrid or EV vehicle as they were have problems with them and he said that Ford and the others were too. Went to come home and it did the same thing, "Stop Safely Now". This time I tried the Ford Pass Remote App and managed to get it started, Drove straight home, "do not pass go, do not collect $200".

Next day, Sunday, it did it again, so back to the dealer it went. Dealer supplied me with a Pinto for a service loaner, OK was a Bronco but might was well have been a Pinto, Not a truck and I had a hard time fitting my work tools in it to do service calls. The EV tech poked and prodded the truck and was told by Ford Technical services that they had a fix coming, expected some time Mid to end of August and to not do any more attempts at repair until it came out. Mid August got a call from service manager that the repair was now not expected until 4th quarter, between October and December, subject to not getting postponed again, or even worse the fix not working. At this point they had now had my truck for two months of the six had owned it.

They had another truck having the same issues as mine that they were dealing with as well.

My trust in the truck is totally gone, I pay the extra cost of having a newer truck and changing the lease every three years. It is my only vehicle and is used primarily as a work truck to get to service calls for my business.

My lawyer advised me to not take the truck off the lot.

I had called into Ford customer service that said unless the truck was totally dead and there was no known fix that I would have to just wait it out until they could find a fix for it. They did mention that the service manager could call in for a level 2 escalation, which he did and was told the same thing, fix was coming and to wait for it.

Not trusting the truck I insisted that the Ford and the dealer buy it back. Ram, Chev and Toyota did not want the truck as it was broken, so had to stay at Ford, but as Ford Canada would not stand behind the dealer for the buy back they worked out the best deal they could. The $80K truck I had gotten in February was now valued at $51K and Ford wanted me to pay that to get out of the truck.

Consumer Reports rates the Ford PowerBoost as the least reliable vehicle available!

The dealer ate a good chunk of that but with the extra penalty to buy out the truck and get into a new truck with the specs I needed, my payments were going up another few hundred over what I was paying for the powerboost.

I ended up getting a used 2021 5.0L that they had on the lot with only a few more Kms on it than the one I traded in back in February. That truck had sold in less than a week! My payments are still higher than I was paying for the new 2023.

New truck was a higher trim level with options that I would have never normally gotten and missed a few options that I normally get, but it seems to be overall at least reliable.

Will I get another hybrid truck, not in the foreseeable future! They are being rushed onto the market too quickly without the necessary testing and debugging!

Will I get an EV, Not likely! With the Lightning having a range of just over 500 Km, that is not bad, but when towing a trailer and I tow a fair amount, dump trailer, box cargo trailer, the range drops to just over 100 Km, and I'd never get to my destination, let alone get back again..

Will I get another Ford, very debatable, with the way I have been treated by Ford, I really do not trust them either!

I have been getting a new vehicle from the same dealer now every three years since 2009, so it's not like I'm a one time client, and until this time have not even discussed getting a truck from any other dealer or brand!

It is hard to trade in a vehicle that is broken and has a reputation for being unreliable! Otherwise, I would be in something, anything other than a Ford right now!

Walter Townsend, TTDr

 

[capiche87]

I have a 2023 PB and had stop safely now message in April. I noticed some fuses not full seated so I pushed those in. Dealer replaced 12v battery, and I turned off the approach detection. I haven’t had the error since.
I don’t know which of the 3 things that were done fixed it but I have 11,000 mi on truck now.

 

[Samson16]

Dealer replaced 12v battery

That one...

 

[Samson16]

TTDr

Pardon me, but what does that stand for?

I read your post, and I think a fresh 12V under hood AGM battery may have ended the nightmare but I can't be sure of that. Hopefully, since you lease new vehicles for your business I presume some of the aggravation can be written off somehow. Those of us who purchase outright for personal use just eat it unfortunately.

Hope you found a strictly ICE powered truck to lease as a plan moving forward.

 

[Samson16]

Are there manufacture dates on these Motorcraft AGM batteries? I wonder if the Stop safely thing which only occurs when stopped ironically, can be tied to certain batches of batteries or other components perhaps? I'm very skeptical of "random".

 

[Samson16]

I'm going to stop grinding over previously ground territory.

SSM 51822 FHEV Intermittent No Start and Stop Safely Now Message

I'm guessing the PB engineers all got promotions and didn't share with the new guys. 34 years of experience so it's more of a SWAG.

 

[Walter Townsend]

TTDr
The Tool Doctor

My plan was to buy out this last lease as I am hopefully going to slow down. Not planning to retire, as I am on the Freedom Six Foot plan, but there is no way that I am going to buy out a lease truck that is a LEMON!

Yes as a company truck, most of the expenses are written off, but it is still a major expense for a business to carry, vehicle expense has almost doubled between what I was paying for the 2020 3.5 L Eco boost that I traded in to get the 2023 Power Boost that was a Lemon, to the replacement 2021 5.0L V8 ICE.

I wanted to get away from Turbos, and any other possible problems, as will be keeping this vehicle for a longer period than the past vehicles.

 

[labjr1]

Interesting that you are around the 2500mi mark. Thats about where I'm at and I've had this issue once. I saw at least 1 other person around that mileage as well. Please keep us posted if you discover a definite cause.

My 2023 Powerboost just had this happen at 2500 miles as well. Went to the garage, tried to start it, stop safely now message with the red battery symbol. Tried multiple times, same result. I had driven the truck 1 hour earlier. Having read this forum I tried the remote start. Nothing happened as far as I could tell. However I was able to get in the truck and start it normally after attempting a remote start from the key fob. Now I no longer trust my truck.

 

[DM2059]

This is why I lemon lawed my 2023 PB. It happened to me on 7/4/23 for the second time. The dealership told me they ordered a PCM but after 30 days of nothing I called Ford for a repurchase. They followed Florida state guidelines exactly. (even paid $2850 in rental car charges). I just replaced it with a 2023 F150 Tremor two weeks ago.

 

[Snakebitten]

Well now you know the PCM wouldn't have made a difference. Or at least current evidence is that it wouldn't.

It's amazing Ford is buying these trucks back basically brand new and not in a bigger hurry to address it expedited.

It's lose lose for everyone in such a transaction.

Trucks lemon'd for a nothing more than a software glitch that showed up all the sudden on trucks that are basically unchanged from 2 years of production beforehand. Boggles the mind.

 

[HammaMan]

Well now you know the PCM wouldn't have made a difference. Or at least current evidence is that it wouldn't.

It's amazing Ford is buying these trucks back basically brand new and not in a bigger hurry to address it expedited.

It's lose lose for everyone in such a transaction.

Trucks lemon'd for a nothing more than a software glitch that showed up all the sudden on trucks that are basically unchanged from 2 years of production beforehand. Boggles the mind.

Yeah, they're dropping the ball here with customers big time and tainting VINs with buyback flags, and to what end?

 

[Snakebitten]

On the other SSN thread there's some encouraging posts, at least

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/2023-powerboost-“stop-safely-now”-no-start.15466/post-381390

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