NHTSA Complaint #11545124 — 2016 FORD F-150

On three occasions my vehicle went into a “FAIL-SAFE MODE” . The first occurrence happened while I’m driving on dry pavement at approx 45mph. Unexpectedly the engine shakes and slowed the vehicle to 5mph while I’m in medium to heavy traffic. I was on a two lane road and had to quickly pull off to the shoulder. The second occurrence was while I was merging in heavy traffic and accelerating into the flow of that traffic. As the FAIL-SAFE MODE made my vehicle rapidly slow the cars behind me had to swerve and make fast lane changes. I engaged my emergency flashers to caution other drivers until I could escape the roadway on to a private driveway. The third occasion was similar to the first. Each time the FAIL-SAFE MODE happened a warning message appeared on my dash with a description of the problem and a large wrench appeared. Two different messages appeared. Twice the message was regarding a failure in the TRACTION. CONTROL. Once the message was about a problem with the HILL DESCENT CONTROL. After each event I turned off the engine, waited a few minutes, restarted the engine and was able to drive away like nothing happened. The owners manual instructed me to stop driving and have the vehicle towed to the dealer. The dealer has now had my vehicle for a month. They computer on this vehicle erases the code when the engine is restarted. So they cannot fix this problem. I asked the service manager at the dealership to reach out to the manufacturer which he did. The manufacture’s response was “without a code we can’t diagnose the problem, give the vehicle back to the guest”. This is a serious safety issue, a vehicle that would come to a crawl while in traffic. This would put myself and other drivers at risk. The dealer wants me to drive the vehicle to have the issue duplicate itself and then what?