Odd Brakes in Hybrid Maverick

[GPSMan]

Today: cold, damp, very foggy. Very heavy dew on everything. My first 2 miles are residential. Lots of stop signs.
Lots of cars in front of the two schools I have to pass.

I'm going 15 mph to zero. 15 mph to zero. About 7 or 8 times. I'm using a light foot at these slow speeds. Every single time I'm getting a strong grabby feel right at 3 mph. 7 or 8 times in a row. I'm starting to get on board the "Ford has a programming issue" train.

Then I get on a boulevard. Get up to 35-40 mph. But being fuel conscious, I stay light on the pedal. 100% regen down to 3 mph. Yup. Grabs at 3 mph.

THEN I get up to 45 mph on a downgrade. With a red light at the bottom. Geez, I better get this thing stopped! I have to transition to friction brakes around 25 mph and stay on the blended brakes all the way down to zero. Hey! That was smooth all the way down to zero, no grab.

Here's where it gets interesting. I made 4 or 5 more gentle stops. Each perfectly smooth. I TRIED to get grab by doing 100% regen down to 3 mph. 4 or 5 more times. It never had the grabby feel again.

5 hours later I drive to lunch. It's warmer, drier, the sun is out. I can not replicate the grabby brake feel.

Today; in my Mav, in my weather, I'm going with the wet or rusty rotor theory. Once I cleaned them up, things were fine.
Watch closely. See if yours behaves like this.

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[TheSEARCH]

Today: cold, damp, very foggy. Very heavy dew on everything. My first 2 miles are residential. Lots of stop signs.
Lots of cars in front of the two schools I have to pass.

I'm going 15 mph to zero. 15 mph to zero. About 7 or 8 times. I'm using a light foot at these slow speeds. Every single time I'm getting a strong grabby feel right at 3 mph. 7 or 8 times in a row. I'm starting to get on board the "Ford has a programming issue" train.

Then I get on a boulevard. Get up to 35-40 mph. But being fuel conscious, I stay light on the pedal. 100% regen down to 3 mph. Yup. Grabs at 3 mph.

THEN I get up to 45 mph on a downgrade. With a red light at the bottom. Geez, I better get this thing stopped! I have to transition to friction brakes around 25 mph and stay on the blended brakes all the way down to zero. Hey! That was smooth all the way down to zero, no grab.

Here's where it gets interesting. I made 4 or 5 more gentle stops. Each perfectly smooth. I TRIED to get grab by doing 100% regen down to 3 mph. 4 or 5 more times. It never had the grabby feel again.

5 hours later I drive to lunch. It's warmer, drier, the sun is out. I can not replicate the grabby brake feel.

Today; in my Mav, in my weather, I'm going with the wet or rusty rotor theory. Once I cleaned them up, things were fine.
Watch closely. See if yours behaves like this.

So your think while rotors are either dirty or rusty it's grabby . Get rotors clean then no grab. I ave been told put Mav in neutral while coming to a stop it is all friction brakes so do that on one stop to clean rotors off then no more grabby brakes. Well when I get my 2023 I will keep that in mind.

 

[KeinoDoggy]

So your think while rotors are either dirty or rusty it's grabby . Get rotors clean then no grab. I ave been told put Mav in neutral while coming to a stop it is all friction brakes so do that on one stop to clean rotors off then no more grabby brakes. Well when I get my 2023 I will keep that in mind.

Nope....not the problem.

 

[TheSEARCH]

Nope....not the problem.

I don't even have a Mav so I cant say. Have you tried this with yours and it had no effect? I am just going by what gpsman said. it sounded like that could be the problem. I have no clue till I get my Mav next year when ever that happens.

 

[KeinoDoggy]

I don't even have a Mav so I cant say. Have you tried this with yours and it had no effect? I am just going by what gpsman said. it sounded like that could be the problem. I have no clue till I get my Mav next year when ever that happens.

There is no rust on any of my rotors.

 

[TheSEARCH]

There is no rust om any of my rotors.

You wont see large amounts of rust. Did you try putting car in neutral while moving at say 30 mph apply brakes to clean them off then see if its grabby? If not WHY not give it a try. If you did Then I guess that is not it,. Again I don't even have a Mav yet. So I am just going by what gpsman said. But I think its worth a shot.

 

[KeinoDoggy]

You wont see large amounts of rust. Did you try putting car in neutral while moving at say 30 mph apply brakes to clean them off then see if its grabby? If not WHY not give it a try. If you did Then I guess that is not it,. Again I don't even have a Mav yet. So I am just going by what gpsman said. But I think its worth a shot.

"going by what gpsman said" That's your prerogative.

 

[GPSMan]

It's the wet, the rust, or maybe the "cold" (and that's 55 compared to 85) had something to do with it. Again, starting out, grabby first thing. After a few stops, no more.

 

[GPSMan]

You're not going to like this.
There's not a lot we can do about this.
I don't think Ford can "program" their way out of this. This is laws of physics, and they can't reprogram law of physics.

On the way home from work I stopped at an automated touch-less car wash. I ponied up for the spray on wax and spray on sealant in addition to the soap and water.

To make a long story short, in addition to wet, I probably got soap and wax and sealant on my brakes.

I left the place in EV mode. Got up to 26-30 MPH. Then came to a stoplight with a line of cars already stopped. I am always a gentle driver. Had hybrids since 2005. Regen slowed me down as usual.

When the Mav hit 3 mph IT JUST KEPT GOING. I had to press HARD on the brake. Then hard grab. Stopped inches from the other car. Was going slow. No one would have been hurt. I'm more pissed than scared / worried.

But pretty darn sure wet brakes are a problem.

Next section I put it in N at 25 mph and stopped; smoothly, on friction pads. Everything was normal after this.

People need to be aware of this.
But again, not sure how programming will help. Maybe that's why slippery mode reduces regen, so it forces friction pads to come on sooner. To dry out your pads.


USE SLIPPERY mode in rain and mist.
Don't save it for snow and ice.

I've had hybrids before. Had the Ford Escape hybrid. I've felt this phenomenon before so I was kinda predisposed to look for it. Yet the severity of it surprised me. Wet brakes, soapy brakes are going to not work well in any car. But cars without regen doing the lions share of stopping work probably dry out on the first application and these don't - if you are in a habit to rely on regen brake. When the brake coach tells you 100% it's telling you regen did 100% of the slowing... down to 3 mph. I'm well conditioned to use regen for almost all my stopping so this phenomena will show up more for me than some.

USE SLIPPERY mode in rain and mist.
Don't save it for snow and ice.

 

[GPSMan]

You're not going to like this either.
I started playing with the tail lamps today. There was car wash water inside the passenger light assembly. Had the perfume smell from the car wash 24 hours ago so I know it was car wash water.

There water in this plug when I separated it.

 

[TheSEARCH]

You're not going to like this either.
I started playing with the tail lamps today. There was car wash water inside the passenger light assembly. Had the perfume smell from the car wash 24 hours ago so I know it was car wash water.

There water in this plug when I separated it.

Is that not the side were some people have put a sheet metal plate down above muffler to block road debris from getting right up to that very tail light?

 

[Taigus]

+1 more hybrid experiencing this
At first I thought it was a matter of learning a new vehicle's behavior, but after a couple thousand miles I'm realizing it's just dangerously inconsistent.

It's all the usual low speed scenarios... stop-and-go traffic, inching into a garage, and easing into parking. Sometimes lightly applying the brakes leads to a gradual stop as expected. Sometimes it does nothing until you stomp. Sometimes a light touch acts as if you stomped. Sometimes it doesn't let you move until you totally release the brake (without auto hold turned on), then it lurches forward.

The times where it grabs abruptly are annoying and make it hard to do minor movements when parking, but there are also times where the pedal is spongey and you don't stop until a panic-induced kick.

I still love the vehicle overall, but the brakes are 2/10 and get mentioned as a warning every time someone asks about it.

 

[TheSEARCH]

+1 more hybrid experiencing this
At first I thought it was a matter of learning a new vehicle's behavior, but after a couple thousand miles I'm realizing it's just dangerously inconsistent.

It's all the usual low speed scenarios... stop-and-go traffic, inching into a garage, and easing into parking. Sometimes lightly applying the brakes leads to a gradual stop as expected. Sometimes it does nothing until you stomp. Sometimes a light touch acts as if you stomped. Sometimes it doesn't let you move until you totally release the brake (without auto hold turned on), then it lurches forward.

The times where it grabs abruptly are annoying and make it hard to do minor movements when parking, but there are also times where the pedal is spongey and you don't stop until a panic-induced kick.

I still love the vehicle overall, but the brakes are 2/10 and get mentioned as a warning every time someone asks about it.

I hope you file a safety complaint to NHTSA. Might force ford fix this issue.

 

[mcc63303]

I would not say the issue I am having is or should be related to the Mavericks cost. This is a safety issue and should be addressed as such. I have been in two near misses now where the brakes "hesitated" to engage. Typically this occurs in stop and go traffic where you come to a complete stop, slowly accelerate (or don't accelerate, just allowing the truck to creep forward) and then try to stop again as the vehicle slows in front of me. There is a couple seconds where the brakes (even through depressed) fail to engage, forcing me to push down much harder causing a somewhat jarring stop.

This should not be considered normal for any vehicle and needs to be fixed.

I'm having the same problem, many times when pulling into garage. After stopping and wanting to creep forward a few inches suddenly there will be no braking even though light pressure on brake pedal, I have to push much farther down then suddenly it stops. It is a concern, Hybrid with just under 5k miles, has been happening since new.

 

[mcc63303]

You're not going to like this.
There's not a lot we can do about this.
I don't think Ford can "program" their way out of this. This is laws of physics, and they can't reprogram law of physics.

On the way home from work I stopped at an automated touch-less car wash. I ponied up for the spray on wax and spray on sealant in addition to the soap and water.

To make a long story short, in addition to wet, I probably got soap and wax and sealant on my brakes.

I left the place in EV mode. Got up to 26-30 MPH. Then came to a stoplight with a line of cars already stopped. I am always a gentle driver. Had hybrids since 2005. Regen slowed me down as usual.

When the Mav hit 3 mph IT JUST KEPT GOING. I had to press HARD on the brake. Then hard grab. Stopped inches from the other car. Was going slow. No one would have been hurt. I'm more pissed than scared / worried.

But pretty darn sure wet brakes are a problem.

Next section I put it in N at 25 mph and stopped; smoothly, on friction pads. Everything was normal after this.

People need to be aware of this.
But again, not sure how programming will help. Maybe that's why slippery mode reduces regen, so it forces friction pads to come on sooner. To dry out your pads.


USE SLIPPERY mode in rain and mist.
Don't save it for snow and ice.

I've had hybrids before. Had the Ford Escape hybrid. I've felt this phenomenon before so I was kinda predisposed to look for it. Yet the severity of it surprised me. Wet brakes, soapy brakes are going to not work well in any car. But cars without regen doing the lions share of stopping work probably dry out on the first application and these don't - if you are in a habit to rely on regen brake. When the brake coach tells you 100% it's telling you regen did 100% of the slowing... down to 3 mph. I'm well conditioned to use regen for almost all my stopping so this phenomena will show up more for me than some.

USE SLIPPERY mode in rain and mist.
Don't save it for snow and ice.

The same type braking problem I'm having has nothing to do with water. Area went two weeks with no rain and still having the problem.

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