Ok Rich, what's with your new Title? You are not a FEH technologist, PMSMAN1 has that covered. I hope you can explain the new certification for us.

GaryG

 

Heh, it's a play from Fords own website, where Kermit is the "Associate Professor of Hybridology" and "explains" how a hybrid works and how it's so green. I'd also hardly call a title I've had for 4 months new.

 

Well we got the car back from the dealer last night and everything checked out normal. I was not aware that under 20mph the Battery system would die and you would have to turn the ignition to restart. My salesman was not aware of this either and he was the one who recommended it being towed in. I asked him later how many hybrids has he sold and he said none, in fact the whole dealership has only sold a few. The only technician in the dealership has never worked on one, he only has a few hours of class room training. I gave them the link to this site to help them along. Thanks for all the input on this as we are learning! It is one thing to shop and compare hybrids, it is another thing to own one!

 

I am glad to hear that your car checked out normally according to the dealer. Now, please settle the mystery and let the kind folks here who are trying to help you by answering one simple questions that you have yet to answer. Your credibility and your ability to get assistance here demand it.

Q. When you say the car dies, are you able to drive it at all in electric mode? I am talking about without touching the key at all. Foot off brake, press gas pedal and go.

If yes, your car is behaving normally. If no, you have a problem that is anything but normal and the mechanic is without a clue.

Looking forward to your answer.

J

 

A. No. It is fully dead. nothing nada zip. It requires the key to restart. Once it starts and I go it runs until I come to a full stop where it shuts off again. When we get out on the main road and the ICE kicks in it is fine for the rest of the day. Out of the 3 mornings we have had it, it has happened twice. It even happened to the GM of the dealership when he drove it. They are saying this is normal.

 

Then you definitley have a defective vehicle. What you are describing is 100% not normal.

Once you turn the key and the engine comes on, a normally operating Escape hybrid is capable of propelling itself under its own power until one of two things happens: you turn the key to the off position or until it runs out of gas - and even after it runs out of gas it will continue to move until the batteries are killed. You should never, under any circumstances have to rekey the ignition until you have turned it off yourself.

Go back to the dealer and demand they get it right.

Good luck.

Edit: Sharp looking vehicle. I didn't think Floridians bought dark colored cars. :-)

 

I agree that there is a problem and he needs to get that fixed. If your not getting warning lights, the PCM is either bad or there is a grounding problem.

Jerry, tell the service tech to call the Ford hotline, and let them tell him what to do to fix it.

GaryG

 

That's cool! Never did care for cartoons (except when I was a kid), so that would explain why I didn't put the name together. Sorry it took me 4 months to notice it Rich. Did John get the idea from you or did you get the idea from him?

GaryG

 

Sorry, but I'm still not completely understanding this. Could you please give us some more detail as to what happens when you try to drive it after it "dies." I still don't get why it requires a keyed restart because you haven't told us what actually happens when you try to drive it in electric mode. Your description could still apply to the ICE - rather than to the entire hybrid drive system - one would be perfectly normail, the other would mean there is a problem.

Honestly, this still sounds like normal ICE shutoff (even the dealer said it was normal behaviour).

Then again, regarding that dealer, do NOT take it back there for service if they don't have a hybrid certified technician. In fact, I'm surprised they were allowed to sell the hybrid without having one.

 

Randy. It is in full battery mode and dies requiring rekey to restart. I drive it and when I come to a complete stop (under 20mph in parking lot to wait to merge onto main road) it stops requiring rekey to restart. Once I am on the main road and the ICE kicks on and off during normal rush hour driving it is fine until the following morning wherein I repeat aforementioned process. The weather here has been perfect Florida weather the last few days, 58 at night and 80 in the day so I rule out cold weather as the culprit.

Jason. Yes, I like black & red. All my vehicles have been one or the other with the exception of my white '97 5.0 Mustang which looked exactly like the cop cars we had here back then. I loved driving through traffic and watching all the brake lights go off in front of me!