Hi everyone. New member here. I've had my 2017 f150 since December 2018. I bought it with 47k kms on it. It now has 55k kms. Last week something very dangerous happened when my start stop feature failed to restart the engine when I was at a traffic light on the highway in a 90km zone. Everyone else was long gone as I was left sitting in the middle of a 4 lane highway with two lanes of traffic coming up on me from behind at full speed. I quickly turned on the 4 way flashers and tried frantically to manually restart the engine as a bunch of warning lights flashed on my dash.

I eventually got the engine restarted by removing the key completely and waiting 10 seconds to reset the computer. After 3 separate trips to the ford dealership for diagnostic services, I think we have it figured out. What happened was that the start stop feature has worn out the starter creating a dead spot in the starting cycle. When the engine tries to refire on its own and hits the dead spot, the start stop feature fails. The truck is at the dealership now getting a new starter installed. They also installed a new battery. I will be looking at a way to permanently disable the start stop feature on both my f150 as well as my wife's 2018 expedition.

I was livid when I brought it in asking if it's like a windows computer now where you call IT and they say "Did you try turning it off and back on again?" You can't do that in a vehicle. You shouldn't have to pull over and shut the engine down and restart it because of a computer problem. Very unsafe.

Oh, just an fyi for those who don't know. There's a service advisory for the start stop feature. Not a full on recall but an advisory where you bring in the truck to reprogram the start stop feature. I didn't know about it until I brought it in as you don't get a notice for just an advisory.

 

https://www.autostopeliminator.com/

Get this.. Works great.

 

100% correct. That "feature" is dangerous.
This device will fix the problem.
Welcome to the forum.

 

Although I never had a failure with the system, I did find it annoying having to wait for the engine to restart in the middle of an intersection making a left turn.
I found it more annoying that I have to manually turn it off on every engine restart. So here is my 10 cent fix. Literally, press and hold the button to turn it off and wedge a dime between the button and the frame. It’s been working great for 6 months.

 

This device is a little pricey, more than a dime, but it will make your computer think that you turned start/stop off. And if you want it to work as designed, all it takes is a push of the switch. Installation takes as little as 10 minutes (depending on skill level) and is invisible. I think with your experience, it would be a great investment! I have it and never get annoyed by the engine shutting off.

https://www.autostopeliminator.com/

 

The autostop eliminator is the best mod I will ever get for my Truck! I installed it and in a week, I forget I ever had my truck shut off at stops, honestly, I am thinking about getting a spare, just in case they quit selling them LOL. I REALLY hate the auto stop ("feature"?????) what an idiotic thing to design into a truck!

 

When I ordered my 17, the order banks were open for the 2018 MY.
One of the reasons I ordered the 17 was the stop/start on all the 18's..
.

 

Used the jumper wire method and turned it off the first week I owned my 2017. Cost was ZERO and took 10 mins to install the jumper wire to eliminate the SS feature.

 

Auto Start/Stop is not a feature intended for consumers, its for MPG ratings. I do think that it was a design flaw to not make it a simple dash menu item you can turn on and off like the BLIS and other features. I have start/stop on my 19 XL 5.0 and its easily the smoothest operating system Domestically. Drive a GM product with their A-S/S software and you will appreciate the F-150 a lot more hahah.

 

Anyone have a number for that advisory? Id like to know what they do.