The Engine Just Shut Off - 2015 Ford Mustang GT Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,316
edited December 2015 in Ford
imageThe Engine Just Shut Off - 2015 Ford Mustang GT Long-Term Road Test

The engine in our 2015 Ford Mustang GT just shut off by itself.

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  • notfastnotfast Member Posts: 93
    Hate it when a car thinks it's smarter than me, or think it knows what I want to do.
  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Yeah, I always forget when I leave my car running overnight... LOL.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    Interesting feature. Possibly useful, maybe. But this (as normal) leads to some questions:
    1) What happened to the Accessory Power on the vehicle when it shut off? Did it continue to provide power?
    2) What about the door lock feature? Did it lock the doors? This could be good or bad depending on whether or not you only have one key fob available.
    3) Any messages when you restarted the car?
    4) Does this only activate if the car is in "Park?" What if it's a manual transmission car? When does it activate in that case (I'm guessing if it's in 'Neutral' it would)?

    I could see someone leaving a car running while they went in somewhere and had a passenger waiting in the vehicle. It might be a pain for the passenger to restart, but shouldn't be too big of an issue.
  • longtimelurkerlongtimelurker Member Posts: 455
    edited December 2015
    Interesting feature, I guess...I would probably never know it was there - don't do a lot of idling.

    Even if it's one of those my-music-is-on-my-phone-so-I-have-to-have-it-paired-up-to-listen deals, it should stay paired up even if the ignition is on, engine off...so not sure why the engine would have to be running to do this.
  • nomercy346nomercy346 Member Posts: 69
    kirkhilles1 said:

    Yeah, I always forget when I leave my car running overnight... LOL.

    guess you're part of that class action lawsuit then LOL
    http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/26/autos/keyless-ignition-lawsuit/
  • nate001nate001 Member Posts: 102
    edited December 2015
    daryleason said:


    I could see someone leaving a car running while they went in somewhere and had a passenger waiting in the vehicle. It might be a pain for the passenger to restart, but shouldn't be too big of an issue.

    What if someone don't know this feature exists leaves a pet or (and you still shouldn't even with the car running) a sleeping child in a running car with the A/C on. Run in to a store thinking that all is well and the A/C keeping the car cool and car shuts is self off to save a few dollars in gas. next thing you walk out of the store to a smashed window and the police a questioning why you left you Pet/Child in hot car or worse...
  • jpp75jpp75 Member Posts: 1,535
    I saw a story on the news a few weeks ago, an elderly couple got out of their Lincoln MKS and didn't realize it was still running since they didn't have to turn off a physical key and remove it. It was parked in their garage which was attached to the house and they died of carbon monoxide poisoning a few hours later. Sad story and they mentioned this auto shut off feature now being added to the cars to help prevent this in the future.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    There's some good points mentioned above. In truth, vehicles run quieter nowadays. I've had times that I didn't realize the 5.0 in my 2013 F-150 was still running. However, when I turn over my 1989 Suburban, the closest neighbor (half a mile away) knows he overslept. 
  • nate001nate001 Member Posts: 102
    jpp5862 said:

    I saw a story on the news a few weeks ago, an elderly couple got out of their Lincoln MKS and didn't realize it was still running since they didn't have to turn off a physical key and remove it. It was parked in their garage which was attached to the house and they died of carbon monoxide poisoning a few hours later. Sad story and they mentioned this auto shut off feature now being added to the cars to help prevent this in the future.

    I would think that there is a way to read the carbon monoxide level with sensors already on the car it would seem like the car would not be running well with all the carbon monoxide in the room and would need to make adjustments to the air/fuel ratio to compensate.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    nate001 said:
    I would think that there is a way to read the carbon monoxide level with sensors already on the car it would seem like the car would not be running well with all the carbon monoxide in the room and would need to make adjustments to the air/fuel ratio to compensate.
    Well, the MAF combined with the O2 sensors would start leaning out the mix as available oxygen dropped. If the vehicle has variable valves, they'd kick in too. But to the car, as oxygen density decreases, it'd just act like you were going to a higher elevation. Not sitting in a garage with a lack of replacement oxygen. If the house was sealed well enough, theoretically, the car would eventually choke itself out & stall. 
  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Look at the message. It doesn't say "Engine has Shut Off for Safety Reasons". It says "Engine has shut off for FUEL ECONOMY". Therefore, no need to talk about the safety aspects of it, if that's not its intent. If it were designed for safety reasons, I'd think it'd ONLY activate if you weren't sitting in the car. THAT I would understand. THIS I do not.
  • nate001nate001 Member Posts: 102
    kirkhilles1 said:

    Look at the message. It doesn't say "Engine has Shut Off for Safety Reasons". It says "Engine has shut off for FUEL ECONOMY". Therefore, no need to talk about the safety aspects of it, if that's not its intent. If it were designed for safety reasons, I'd think it'd ONLY activate if you weren't sitting in the car. THAT I would understand. THIS I do not.

    Even if it is shutting down in the name of Fuel Economy give the owner a option to disable this "feature",
    There are still safety issues associated not knowing that the will be car shutting down. I can think of many reasons people would to leave car running for more then 10 -15 minutes: helping someone on the side of the road fix a flat in the dark, left your pet/child/elderly mother in car and I am sure there are more.
    The only time I want my car shutting down on its own is if it detected high carbon monoxide levels (if car has not moved and it has been leaning out the air/fuel ratio). and in this case why not start honking the horn as a warning first and as a last resort shutdown.




  • akirbyakirby Member Posts: 8,062
    The auto-shutoff can be disabled. It will reset to on when the car is restarted. It's a safety issue plain and simple for exactly the reasons stated - CO poisoning from people leaving the car running unknowingly. It's not a problem - if you want to leave it running just turn it off. I did that when installing a MFT update.

    It's also explained in the owner's manual. RTFM.
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