Engine shuts off when in park for extended period

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Ilka Wagner

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Hi all,
I wasn't sure which thread might have already addressed this question. We have a 2018 Expy Max 4x4. We often take our dogs and at times, for 15-30 min, leave them in our vehicle with the engine running. Usually we are at a dog show and loading the rest of our equipment after the dogs are in the car. I noticed at my first show with this, that the engine had shut off. I had left it running, fob in the car, locked the door from the outside keypad. Not sure when exactly it shut off, but I was away about 30 min and came back to find it not running. I was NOT amused! Dogs are fine, so it must not have been off for long, but I was very upset. Dealership told me it was an emission control feature. Ugh. Is there anyway around this? This seems like a huge lawsuit waiting for Ford since they obviously don't notify owners that the engine will shut off after a period of inactivity. Very frustrating.
 

Zig10

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Mine does the same thing. Found that out last weekend when it was 96 degrees. I assume it's a failsafe in case someone leaves their car running in the garage.
 

99WhiteC5Coupe

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Hi all,
I wasn't sure which thread might have already addressed this question. We have a 2018 Expy Max 4x4. We often take our dogs and at times, for 15-30 min, leave them in our vehicle with the engine running. Usually we are at a dog show and loading the rest of our equipment after the dogs are in the car. I noticed at my first show with this, that the engine had shut off. I had left it running, fob in the car, locked the door from the outside keypad. Not sure when exactly it shut off, but I was away about 30 min and came back to find it not running. I was NOT amused! Dogs are fine, so it must not have been off for long, but I was very upset. Dealership told me it was an emission control feature. Ugh. Is there anyway around this? This seems like a huge lawsuit waiting for Ford since they obviously don't notify owners that the engine will shut off after a period of inactivity. Very frustrating.


I’ll bet you didn’t read pages 177 and 178 of the vehicle owner’s manual section, “Starting and Stopping the Engine”.

Ford did notify the owner’s - via the owner’s manual. You may not want to file your huge lawsuit.

Have you ever seen an unattended motor vehicle left with the engine running, that catches fire and burns up everything inside the interior? I have.
 

2018ExpyPlatinum

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I think this was addressed before some what. In reading the manual, I think if you use the instrument dash cluster settings, you can turn that feature off, BUT it resets the next time you start up.

Go to "settings", then "advanced settings", then "vehicle", then "auto engine off".

I'm not in my Expy to test this, but give it a try.

Agreed, this is a pain, especially on hot days and with pets. The manual oddly doesn't say how long it'll idle before auto shutdown.

Let us know if this works!
 

zoey2015

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I've been using FordPass to remote start it then increase the time. The default time is 10 mins and the most I have increased to is 20 mins. From FordPass, I'm not aware of any limit.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
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