Allen Whipps

“Pull Over Safely Now” 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid. Build date: Aug 7, 2013 I got that last night when I came out of work at 5:30 P.M. and tried to start it. It beeped and showed that message. I pressed START again to turn it off. It would not turn off but repeated the message. I could not turn off the car. I tried holding the START button, nothing would turn off the car. All other power was on, the fan was blowing. I called Ford's roadside assistance. They hooked up with a tow company who was over an hour away* which I mention because of the time passage. I sat in the shade and checked after 15 minutes or so. Still the same but it warned that it was shutting some things down and a timer line showed up on the SYNC display. After that, the fan was still on but the screen was dark. It still displayed the message and beeped and re-displayed the message if I pressed START. Later, when the tow truck showed up, I saw that all the displays were dark. I tried starting the car and it showed "Ready to Drive." He had chains on it at that point so I didn't try to drive it. It turned off normally. I had it towed to the dealer. My car had been parked for the work day. It was sunny, it got up to about 80 F at the time this happened. No word yet this morning. They are checking things. I asked about recalls and they said there was one they needed to apply about the safety system (not a mechanical thing) but no others. I'll supply updates as I get them. * Although I was in a populus area and that was 10 minutes from an even larger populuous area and that was near an even larger populous area that was no more than 20 minute away from where the car sat. UPDATE (same day): Dealer service dept. called and said it was fixed. They said it was a 'software problem' and they had a service noticice on that and applied a patch or reloaded the software (I'll get more details.) They also applied a patch for a current recall having to do with the restraint system for crashes. I had not gotten the recall letter yet so it's nice that's done. The work ticket says: Pulled Codes. Reprogrammed BECM per TSB 13-12-14, Road Test. That's all I know. Seems fine on drive home.