Gopher45
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2021
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 4
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- Location
- Atlanta, GA
- Vehicles
- Mach-E CA RTE 1
- Thread starter
- #1
I've had my Mach E for a few months now and haven't had many problems with it until today when all hell seemingly broke loose. While driving earlier today, it basically ground itself to a halt after I either turned the adaptive cruise control on on with the steering wheel controls. I often drive with the cruise control on, but have noticed a few quirks. I'll list most of them below, but one I have noticed it's not very good at slowing you down in a smooth and timely manner if you're approaching traffic stopped up ahead. That's probably more of a limitation in the technology than a problem, so I usually just drive with one pedal on and turn off cruise to begin braking for stopped traffic, then turn it back on to get going again.
I did that today as I was trying to take off from the light, and the car started to move forward a bit and almost immediately jolted itself to a stop. When it did that, there was a relatively loud sound under the car that in the moment seemed like something had fallen out from under it. After making sure nothing did, I realized it was probably the parking brake being engaged. It also started blaring the warning sound, telling me to "stop the car when safe" over and over again, and giving a whole bunch of error messages on screen that I'll also list below. I tried turning it off and on a bunch of times to get it to move, since I was blocking a fairly busy road and the tow truck dispatched by Ford Roadside was estimated to take 2 hours. Side note: after starting a roadside request with Ford, the towing company called me and tried to convince me to ditch the flatbed request to get a faster dispatch time
rolleyes.
Neither the parking brake nor the gear shift would budge and the car wouldn't move. On the dashboard, it was indicating that the car was in park and that the parking brake was off, but it was also telling me to "put the car in park to start the vehicle." The light on the gear shifter also said it was in park. I kept trying to mess with it and shift it to drive then park to reset it, but was unsuccessful. After waiting a bit of time for things to reset after turning the car off, I was finally able to get it moving again and drove it home. I felt relatively safe driving it home because the issues only seem to be related to cruise control, so I just avoided using it for the rest of the trip and everything was fine.
Some of the quirks that I wasn't too concerned about for one reason or another but definitely seem related are:
- When the cruise control brakes the car for itself, I hear a steady, light tapping coming from under the dashboard about every second. I assumed this was normal, but asked others in the Facebook group about it, and they didn't seem to know what I was talking about.
- I've had 3 or 4 instances where the cruise control didn't pick up on a car in front of me until a bit late, and the car would slam on the brakes to prevent a collision. I was obviously too trusting of the sensors, but after those close calls, it would tell me the adaptive cruise control was unavailable. It wouldn't work until I turned the car off and on. I guess this could be a safety measure, but with every other detail in mind, it seems a little sketchy.
- My Mach E is pretty bad at coming to stops on its own. And this is a different issue than how it can't really handle cars stopped in front of me. If I am following a car that is slowing to a stop, it's pretty good at decelerating smoothly and with enough distance. The problem comes in when we actually stop because the car brakes pretty harshly and jolts to a stop almost every time. I thought this was just a technical limitation, but again, in light of everything else....
- When I am wanting the cruise control to resume driving after a stop, if I'm in a more absent minded mood, sometimes I'll use the pedal instead of the button. Using the pedal is virtually useless in this instance though, because the car will inch forward for like half a second and then jolt itself to a hard stop again. This was one of the more concerning quirks, but again, I wasn't too bothered because I associated it with software issues and I could just work around it by using the steering wheel button.
And finally, here are the error messages I kept getting today:
- Stop Safely
- Hill Start Assist Not Available
- Pre-Collision Assist Not Available
- Shift System Fault Service Required
- Service Vehicle Soon
- Service AdvanceTrac
- Shift to Park to Start
I'm obviously going to have the dealer look at it because none of this should be happening on a 2,900 mile vehicle. I decided to cancel the tow truck just because it was going to take so long, I didn't trust them to safely transport it, and I felt comfortable driving home and to the dealer.
Has anyone else had these problems specifically related to adaptive cruise control? I know I've seen the shift system fault and pre-collision assist error messages come up on here/Facebook for problems with the shifter, cameras, and/or censors indvidiually, but it seems different since they were all at once.
I did that today as I was trying to take off from the light, and the car started to move forward a bit and almost immediately jolted itself to a stop. When it did that, there was a relatively loud sound under the car that in the moment seemed like something had fallen out from under it. After making sure nothing did, I realized it was probably the parking brake being engaged. It also started blaring the warning sound, telling me to "stop the car when safe" over and over again, and giving a whole bunch of error messages on screen that I'll also list below. I tried turning it off and on a bunch of times to get it to move, since I was blocking a fairly busy road and the tow truck dispatched by Ford Roadside was estimated to take 2 hours. Side note: after starting a roadside request with Ford, the towing company called me and tried to convince me to ditch the flatbed request to get a faster dispatch time
rolleyes.Neither the parking brake nor the gear shift would budge and the car wouldn't move. On the dashboard, it was indicating that the car was in park and that the parking brake was off, but it was also telling me to "put the car in park to start the vehicle." The light on the gear shifter also said it was in park. I kept trying to mess with it and shift it to drive then park to reset it, but was unsuccessful. After waiting a bit of time for things to reset after turning the car off, I was finally able to get it moving again and drove it home. I felt relatively safe driving it home because the issues only seem to be related to cruise control, so I just avoided using it for the rest of the trip and everything was fine.
Some of the quirks that I wasn't too concerned about for one reason or another but definitely seem related are:
- When the cruise control brakes the car for itself, I hear a steady, light tapping coming from under the dashboard about every second. I assumed this was normal, but asked others in the Facebook group about it, and they didn't seem to know what I was talking about.
- I've had 3 or 4 instances where the cruise control didn't pick up on a car in front of me until a bit late, and the car would slam on the brakes to prevent a collision. I was obviously too trusting of the sensors, but after those close calls, it would tell me the adaptive cruise control was unavailable. It wouldn't work until I turned the car off and on. I guess this could be a safety measure, but with every other detail in mind, it seems a little sketchy.
- My Mach E is pretty bad at coming to stops on its own. And this is a different issue than how it can't really handle cars stopped in front of me. If I am following a car that is slowing to a stop, it's pretty good at decelerating smoothly and with enough distance. The problem comes in when we actually stop because the car brakes pretty harshly and jolts to a stop almost every time. I thought this was just a technical limitation, but again, in light of everything else....
- When I am wanting the cruise control to resume driving after a stop, if I'm in a more absent minded mood, sometimes I'll use the pedal instead of the button. Using the pedal is virtually useless in this instance though, because the car will inch forward for like half a second and then jolt itself to a hard stop again. This was one of the more concerning quirks, but again, I wasn't too bothered because I associated it with software issues and I could just work around it by using the steering wheel button.
And finally, here are the error messages I kept getting today:
- Stop Safely
- Hill Start Assist Not Available
- Pre-Collision Assist Not Available
- Shift System Fault Service Required
- Service Vehicle Soon
- Service AdvanceTrac
- Shift to Park to Start
I'm obviously going to have the dealer look at it because none of this should be happening on a 2,900 mile vehicle. I decided to cancel the tow truck just because it was going to take so long, I didn't trust them to safely transport it, and I felt comfortable driving home and to the dealer.
Has anyone else had these problems specifically related to adaptive cruise control? I know I've seen the shift system fault and pre-collision assist error messages come up on here/Facebook for problems with the shifter, cameras, and/or censors indvidiually, but it seems different since they were all at once.
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