Aviator quit at 70mph w/Stop Safely Now & Full Accessory Power

[Pioneer4x4]

I had this occur in my 2022 Aviator Grand Touring Black Label. They returned it and I have not had it occur again, this was in March.

At my regular service they found a “leak”. Told me I’d have the car returned to me in just a few days. They had it for 8 days and continued to have to repair new issues. My car was returned to me this last Friday evening. I drove my car around town with the kids running errands in preparation for the holiday. It’s smelled funny but I figure that it was simply because it had been worked on the last 8 days. I get home and the kids are in the car, gathering their toys, etc from being out all day and my hood starts smoking lightly then excessively to the point I had to call the fire department. I thought this POS was about to blow up.

Fire came, teared to ensure the battery wasnt about to blow up and advised me to get it towed right away. So, again. It has been towed to the dealer.

Also note, when they dropped my vehicle off on Friday, the navigation kept turning off and on. I never even punched in a destination. I’d hit cancel, it would start a new route. The windows continued to go up and down as I tried to roll them up. And while this is clearly yet another computer glitch and may not be considered a danger, it’s annoying and ridiculous. For such a luxury car, this is a death trap.

Any suggestions on what to do next? My husband and I intend on hiring an attorney if they don’t take this back. I was terrified that while my babies (5 and 6) were gathering their belongings that the car was going to blow up. I ripped my 6 year old out of the car and nearly ripped his arm off. I could hardly dial 911 I was shaking like you wouldn’t believe.

How can Lincoln get away with this?

Any pictures of it. Before during or after the smoke?

 

[Akspano]

Any pictures of it. Before during or after the smoke?

No, I don’t have photos. I was too panicked and fire arrived within minutes. They couldn’t detect any battery chemicals. I had about 14 firefighters at the house. It all happened so fast. By the time they left the smoke had gone away and they said it smelled like oil. I had the car towed to the dealer within 30 minutes and the GM personally brought me a loaner within an hour. I know it only happened so fast because of the non-stop issues. It’s now at the dealer awaiting their diagnostic…which I don’t trust.

 

[Akspano]

No, I don’t have photos. I was too panicked and fire arrived within minutes. They couldn’t detect any battery chemicals. I had about 14 firefighters at the house. It all happened so fast. By the time they left the smoke had gone away and they said it smelled like oil. I had the car towed to the dealer within 30 minutes and the GM personally brought me a loaner within an hour. I know it only happened so fast because of the non-stop issues. It’s now at the dealer awaiting their diagnostic…which I don’t trust.

These are the errors I got in March when you couldn’t drive nor could you turn the vehicle off. It was towed at this incident too

 

[swoop1156]

Got ours back a few days ago, apologies for the late reply here in the thread. In all, nothing could be done to either replicate nor fix the/any problem. They tossed in the "recall" on the rear camera on the paperwork and said there was no fix. I'm not really getting the warm and fuzzy with this thing, though we're gonna keep driving it and seeing what's what.

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[peterk9]

The dealer is correct. There is currently no fix for the 360 camera recall. I don't know if you've seen this thread. 360 camera recall halts sales

Peter

 

[swoop1156]

The dealer is correct. There is currently no fix for the 360 camera recall. I don't know if you've seen this thread. 360 camera recall halts sales

Peter

Yes I've seen that thread and why I mentioned the issue directly in my post saying they tossed that issue in there, without me mentioning it up on delivery of the vehicle to them. Thanks for the link for others that may not be aware.

 

[swoop1156]

ANOTHER UPDATE: Went to get in it this morning, and said no key was detected. Okay, whatever, we'll use a backup code. The screen never prompted for a backup code. We had the key inside the vehicle, so we use the Lincoln Way App to start the car and figured we can get it going from there. Nope, the car was running and everything was going, yet it won't allow us to select Drive, Reverse, or Neutral. Sat there for a bit, fumbling around and nothing worked to get the vehicle in motion. We finally hit enough buttons for the vehicle to shut off, we got out, locked the doors, plugged it in, and just allowed it a few minutes to reset. Notta. Got all this on video.

I finally had to pop the hood and use the freaking 2021-2023 Explorer / Aviator Hybrid Vehicle Emergency Response Guide to kill 12v power to the damn thing. After all that, it allowed us to get in and drive normally. The menu screens were quite snappy, too, kinda like rebooting a PC that's been turned on for too long. However just a few hours later...

2,600 miles on the odometer and we were driving approx 55mph and the Aviator engaged the parking brake for about half a second. Nasty noise, huge bucking from the chassis, and just a split second of extreme confusion and wondering WTF. The red "park brake" was illuminated on the dashboard, and everything seemed normal afterward. However, immediately after that incident it then disabled adaptive cruise control via a message on the dashboard (no cruise worked).

We drove home without further incident, called the dealer, and they stated to call Lincoln Roadside Assistance, get it towed back to the dealer that it was just a few days ago, and they'll deliver a loaner to us. A few hours later, it's on the tow truck and we have a Continental for a loaner.

I'm over it. I am done with the car at this point, and I've made it well-known to the dealer. I'm waiting to see what they say, and my next step is to call Lincoln directly and escalate from there. My wife wants to keep the vehicle and just deal with it and get it fixed, but nah man, I am already ready already to move on. This is absolutely nuts, and dangerous.

I'll definitely keep this up to date and as well kinda function as a log and chain of events for my own purposes.

 

[swoop1156]

For anyone that's following along, she's back at the dealer. This time with just over 3,100 miles and a 'Good Faith Review' from Lincoln that came back negative - we're on our third visit to the dealer, loaner, and associated disaster. At that, we have a loaner Aviator that screwed up regarding the rear camera going black and the reverse braking system malfunctioning.

More to the point, I set off this morning to take it over to the dealer 50 miles away and the navigation won't load. The map won't come up on the home screen, the NAV button doesn't bring up anything, and I cannot pair my phone to Bluetooth, notta. Okay cool, so I can use Android Auto - except that doesn't work either. Good thing I know where I'm going, I suppose.

Next up is yet another damn instance of this vehicle giving me an alert that the 'vehicle is slowing down', the alert you get when you don't move your hands on the steering wheel after a while, except, oh yeah, the cruise alerted me and said it's disabled. All the while doing 70mph with a Freightliner on my ass.

This is beyond insane, and we're over the ownership of this thing. Sadly, we really really do like this vehicle when it works, but it's just beyond comprehension on how to move forward on this. Again, even our loaner is having issues! Maybe it's us, maybe it's meant to be, who knows.

We're looking at trading in or perhaps getting a buy-back. Either way, I gotta say that we're out, unfortunately. We're looking at eTron, SQ8, Polestar, and Volvo at this point. Maybe a '90s Civic, dang.

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[inmanlanier]

Sorry to hear your issues over and over and over - I'd be doing exactly what you're doing! We're still blessed with zero issues at our lower trim Reserve. Crossing my fingers going forward

 

[Lexxicat]

I recognize only part of problem, but I’m experiencing some of same nav issues. I believe it’s because car updated to Sync 3 build 22251.

 

[CARR142]

Good thing I know where I'm going, I suppose.

 

[Wolfepack88]

I just got my car back as well. Needed AWD repair as it would not engage the AWD and it was an 8 hour repair for that, thankfully I'm still under warranty. In addition, every time I got in the car the radio would turn on even though I turned it off before leaving the vehicle. Also the automatic software update option would turn off every time the car was turned off. Then the nav map would not load for hours or at all or I would get a black screen and then hopefully the carplay would work. I'd bet my life the coding on this software was done overseas because the bug's I've had are just flat out ridiculous for the cost of this vehicle. I have an extended warranty to 125k or I would have bailed on this for an SQ7 by now but the last two years car inventory was crap and costing at a premium so I will ride this POS out. Thankfully I'm retired because if I was still working the amount of trips to the dealer, which have filled up about a solid inch of paperwork in the last 3+ years, would have caused me to dump this bad boy for sheer loss of time alone.

Quote Reply

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[EricSJ]

I have a 2020 Aviator GT. This just happened to me and I did exactly what this notice listed. My car was charging and a remote started it to start cooling off my car then I started driving the car and about 3 miles and I got the Stop Safely Now message. I exited the highway and while I was stopped at a stoplight. I figured to turn off the car and turn it back on. I hope in the message of the way. Little did I know once I turned off the car I couldn’t turn it back on again. This ended up being a 3 hour ordeal to wait for the tow truck. Luckily I was close to home and my brother was able to pick up my kids and wife first.

I found this online. It’s shocking that this isn’t a mandatory recall notice considering it affects a car WHILE driving while the backup camera issue is.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10222524-0001.pdf

 

[peterk9]

I have a 2020 Aviator GT. This just happened to me and I did exactly what this notice listed. My car was charging and a remote started it to start cooling off my car then I started driving the car and about 3 miles and I got the Stop Safely Now message. I exited the highway and while I was stopped at a stoplight. I figured to turn off the car and turn it back on. I hope in the message of the way. Little did I know once I turned off the car I couldn’t turn it back on again. This ended up being a 3 hour ordeal to wait for the tow truck. Luckily I was close to home and my brother was able to pick up my kids and wife first.

I found this online. It’s shocking that this isn’t a mandatory recall notice considering it affects a car WHILE driving while the backup camera issue is.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10222524-0001.pdf

Welcome to the Forum Eric.
Sorry to read about your ordeal. I believe this issue is isolated to the GT trim.

Peter

 

[swoop1156]

We traded ours in for a Mach-E as a temp vehicle until our Porsche Cayenne e-Hybrid is built. Was going to go Audi SQ8, however even as the same "platform" for the Cayenne, was a bit too cramped on the inside and lacked some of the driving dynamic that the Porsche had. We still lament the loss of the GT Aviator as it's exactly what we wanted; we just couldn't continue to have issues.

Now the GM of the dealer's wife is driving it and apparently zero issues. Maybe it's me.

 

[darcrichmond]

Sorry for delayed response. I did not receive any email notifications of messages. Anyway, there's a whole lot to unpack here. My local dealership, in their infinite wisdom, told me to pick the car up while they waited on parts for the hybrid battery.

We picked the car up on 2/17. On 2/20, the car quit again on the interstate. My wife was driving in a construction zone with my 2yr old and 4yr old in the car. She called and said the car was acting funny. It would accelerate at 100% and then quit. It would accelerate at 100% and then quit. Then it died. She had to coast almost 3 miles before finding a safe place to pull over. I put a dash camera in the car. I have a 5min video of her coasting on the interstate. She was doing 37mph with semi's blowing past her blowing their horns. My 2yr and 4yr are in the background screaming, "mommy what's wrong with your car? Mommy why won't your car go! Mommy go faster! Are we out of gas?" The car got towed to dealership and has been there since 2/20/22. No parts have been changed, nothing has been done to it

I sent Lincoln an email that night and told them this was no longer my problem. The car is their problem and I want my money back. Lincoln refused. They have told me multiple times that nothing is wrong with the car. They see nothing wrong. They aren't saying I'm lying, They just cant get their tech to replicate it. I asked them to review their decision, no dice. I begged them to buy the car back, no dice.

I called a Lawyer to discuss. He told me since I bought the car in Alabama I would have to sue there. He said he would sue Lincoln, the dealership, and Lincoln financial services. The dealer really didn't know what was going on and I felt they should know before they got sued. So I called them. Within 2hrs of my phone call they offered to buy it back. That sounded great. They were gonna do the right thing, so I thought. Turns out they will only give me my purchase price back. I have to eat the tax, title, license and trade-in tax savings, $7,000. I told them no. The dealer did share the Oasis report with me though, for reasons I'll never know.

I called Lincoln one last time to buy the car back. I told them I had the Oasis report and video evidence of the car quitting. They said no. I told them this wasn't the last time they would hear from me and I would go full scorched earth on them. I would literally burn the whole god damn system down to protect my wife and kids, if they wouldn't buy it back. They told me good luck.

Back to the Oasis report. Oasis is Ford's diagnostic report to help service techs diagnose vehicle issues. It registers fault codes on a 60-day rolling basis. My wife's aviator has disabled the hybrid motor on 14 separate occasions! It registered 358 individual diagnosis faults in a 60-day span. That's 6 faults a day. On 2/2/22, the first time it quit, the car registered individual 35 codes when it shut down. The time stamp on the Oasis matches up minute to minute with the videos and pictures I have showing "stop safely now" & "full accessory power".

A Ford engineer called me, also, and asked to put some type of sophisticated engine monitor on the car. I told him I didn't care, we wont ever drive it again though. It's sitting at the dealership and they could go get it for all I cared. He informed me that almost every single Aviator plug-in is doing this. Not all of them but, "a whole lot of them"

I have been on the warpath with Ford since I obtained the Oasis report and that engineer called. This is the hill I'm going to die on. Ford is going to recall these cars. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed. Along with my NHTSA complaint, I have filed complaints with the Attorney General's of Alabama and Kentucky, and have spoken with staff in both offices. I called my local news and did an on camera interview, they are running the story in the coming weeks. They have to contact all the parties I contacted and get statements first. A national CBSNews correspondent called me yesterday to discuss as well. Both of my US Senators sent letters of congressional inquiry to the NHTSA about my complaint, Sen McConnell and Sen Paul. Rep Yarmuth called Ford himself and asked them what they're doing. I sent 3 certified letters to Ford's General Counsel. I filed a complaint with the Alabama BBB, under their lemon law act.

The NHTSA called me and asked for a full report. I spoke to them twice today and they said I'll hear from them tomorrow as well. They have run this up the chain of command and have asked for all of the info I have. They have asked me to provide the videos, documentation and any voicemails/emails/texts from anyone that has touched the car.

After Rep Yarmuth called, the Lincoln customer service rep called me and said they wanted to buy the car back from me. Previously, I told her she would be calling me back asking for the car and she was dismissive of that statement. I warned her, and meant it, when I said I would scorch earth them. There's an old quote from a play, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". I'd like to replace that quote with "don't piss off a stay-at-home dad protecting his babies". I will move Heaven and Earth in order to protect my family, especially my children who can't protect themselves.

We shall see

(Attached is the Oasis report and my service repair orders. My wife took those pictures of my babies before she pulled out of the driveway on 2/20/22. 7 minutes later the car turned itself off at 65mph. That easily could have been the last photos my kids were ever in.)

I had the same thing happen to me after months of alerts concerning the charging system. I was on a highway with my daughter when the vehicle shut off and would not restart for several minutes. The dealership has had the car for over a month and they say without being able to recreate the problem, there isn’t much they can do. I do not want the car back but I have a feeling they are just going to insist on returning the vehicle.

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[Wolfepack88]

I had the same thing happen to me after months of alerts concerning the charging system. I was on a highway with my daughter when the vehicle shut off and would not restart for several minutes. The dealership has had the car for over a month and they say without being able to recreate the problem, there isn’t much they can do. I do not want the car back but I have a feeling they are just going to insist on returning the vehicle.

I just sold mine to carmax and bought an Audi S5 Sportback. Was always worried about this and also charging it in my garage at night. The number of fires from charging vehicles is a bit more than most people think to the point insurance companies are starting to include that as a risk in their underwriting process. When buying my Audi the GM told me they just had a porsche customer who had a fire in their garage while charging their vehicle and it burned down the house. Always had an uneasy feeling about that at night. Anyhow glad I'm out of the Aviator, some nice tech and features but reliability was a big issue the thick folder of service printouts from 4 years of ownership was the most of any car I ever owned by far. Got a great price from Carmax, thousands more than the dealer was going to give me and I cancelled my extended warranties and the pro-rata refund was applied to my new one. Three things I miss is the better HUD on the Lincoln (worked with my polarized sunglasses without cocking my head), soft close doors and autohold assist. My kid drives now so rarely we are all in one car and before they kill performance cars with gas engines I got mine.

 

[peterk9]

I just sold mine to carmax and bought an Audi S5 Sportback. Was always worried about this and also charging it in my garage at night. The number of fires from charging vehicles is a bit more than most people think to the point insurance companies are starting to include that as a risk in their underwriting process. When buying my Audi the GM told me they just had a porsche customer who had a fire in their garage while charging their vehicle and it burned down the house. Always had an uneasy feeling about that at night. Anyhow glad I'm out of the Aviator, some nice tech and features but reliability was a big issue the thick folder of service printouts from 4 years of ownership was the most of any car I ever owned by far. Got a great price from Carmax, thousands more than the dealer was going to give me and I cancelled my extended warranties and the pro-rata refund was applied to my new one. Three things I miss is the better HUD on the Lincoln (worked with my polarized sunglasses without cocking my head), soft close doors and autohold assist. My kid drives now so rarely we are all in one car and before they kill performance cars with gas engines I got mine.

Time to update your profile.

Peter

 

[greerl]

Welcome to the Forum Alex.

I don't believe anyone else has reported this issue. Personally, I can't see replacing the hybrid battery as resolving this issue since I believe the vehicle is designed to run with 0 charge. Something is cutting power to the engine. Faulty ignition switch?

Peter

I don't know how different Ford's newer hybrid's are but my 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid definitely would not run with zero charge / low HV battery voltage. I strongly suspected this was my Mariner's problem, needing a battery/controller replacement but I was out of warranty so gave it away for $1k rather than try to fix.

 

[peterk9]

I don't know how different Ford's newer hybrid's are but my 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid definitely would not run with zero charge / low HV battery voltage. I strongly suspected this was my Mariner's problem, needing a battery/controller replacement but I was out of warranty so gave it away for $1k rather than try to fix.

I just did a search on the issue and it seems that some vehicles will not run while others can. It's a bit confusing.

What happens when a hybrid car runs out of battery power?

When a hybrid’s batteries are flat, the petrol engine starts up and continues to drive the vehicle while also offering up some charge to the flat battery. Fair enough, and that’s precisely how most hybrids work.

www.carsguide.com.au

Peter