2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid: stuck in gear or won't shift

Filed Dec 20, 2025 · Transmission · WA

When driving at higher speeds (60-70mph) and needing to pass another vehicle the clutch slips which triggers the accelerator to shut down. Leaving you helpless in the passing lane. All you can do is hope there is space to safely pull off the road and shut the engine off. This puts it in limp mode.

Filed Nov 5, 2025 · Driver assistance, Electrical · TN

I had been driving for 2 hours on the interstate when the truck starts losing power and warning lights start flashing. I got the truck to the shoulder before it slammed to a stop. I turned the engine off and waited until all the power turned off before restarting. The truck would only run in limp mode at 35 mph. I drove on the shoulder of the interstate to the next exit. I disconnected the battery and reconnected which allowed me to drive it normally to the dealership. After two days the dealer called to say they didn’t see any codes and there wasn’t anything wrong with it even after I sent pictures of the warning messages. This is the 5th time this has happened under similar circumstances.

Filed Jul 21, 2024 · Electrical, Fuel system · NC

Driving at approximately 65 miles per hour. Vehicle suddenly went into neutral I was forced to pull over on a busy highway. The dashboard was illuminated with several warning lights and messages. After one key cycle, I was only able to drive in a limited limp mode. After a second key cycle and waiting a few minutes, I was able to drive like normal but an engine light stayed illuminated.

Filed Jul 2, 2024 · Brakes · LA

I believe this incident occurred on June 25th (though it might have been the 24th or 26th). I left work shortly after 5:00 pm and was driving around a roundabout. I was going slowly, lightly tapping the gas pedal to maintain a speed between 10-15 mph. During one of these light taps, my truck gave an audible alert and the brakes engaged suddenly for a split second. I immediately took my foot off the gas pedal. The alert and chime stopped, and I continued driving normally. I'm fairly sure some kind of alert appeared on the instrument panel cluster, but it happened and disappeared so quickly that I couldn't see anything clearly. It all happened in the blink of an eye. The brakes engaged and released so rapidly that I tried to recreate the event using the brake pedal to ensure my foot wasn't on it by mistake. However, the brakes did not engage as quickly or abruptly during my attempts. I am certain my foot was on the gas pedal, not the brake. The gas pedal has a lighter, bouncy feel, while the brake pedal requires more pressure. And I remember a light touch causing this issue. When this incident occurred, I am confident that the light taps on the gas pedal to maintain a low speed triggered the issue. I drove home without any further problems, and this has not happened since. I also want to mention that my truck had previously gone into limp mode suddenly, but I had that recall issue fixed shortly afterward.

Filed Jul 1, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · MN

[XXX]: Driving to work on the highway during rush hour. My vehicle started slowing down and wouldn't go out of neutral. The instrument panel lit up and the display panel brought up collision ahead. A lot of other codes and things popped up as well. I avoided being hit by a semi truck and was able to pull over to the shoulder. I turned my vehicle off and on. The vehicle went into drive and i to got it off the highway. It was in limp mode after that. I tried turning the vehicle off and on several times, and to no prevail. I called a tow truck to have them take it to the dealership. Keep in mind that this happened so fast and I was more worried about getting out of the way to avoid a collision. To hear that this is a recall is ridiculous. I drive with kids in the backseat, and I will never feel comfortable driving this vehicle again! I waited 9 months to get the maverick and I've had nothing but issues. Under 5k miles, I had a code pop up saying they detected air in the engine compartment. I was on the road trip to Canada at the time. I spent my vacation worrying if I was going to make it home. Luckily I did and it needed an "update". 2 other times, my left blinker failed. When it failed, my hazard lights would go off. Zumbrota ford "fixed" it the first time. Only for it to happen a month later. Zumbrota ford said they didn't know what the issue was, but they "fixed it". Now I had this even occur where the vehicle would go into neutral and limp mode. I'm not taking anymore chances, risking my life, driving this ford maverick. I've wasted so much time dealing with issue after issue and have missed several days of work. I just want a SAFE functioning vehicle. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed May 20, 2024 · Acceleration, Engine · LA

On Friday, May 17th around 2:00pm I was driving approximately 25mph when I got an abrupt warning and the truck started to drive differently. I don’t think the vehicle was responding to the gas pedal normally. The first warning said something about selected gear engaging at lower speed. Then there was a message about the pre-collision assist not working, hill ascent not working, and something else - reduced powertrain/service engine soon/advancetrac or something like that. As I pulled over and was slowing down, the truck abruptly threw itself into park while going 5-10mph. I turned it off and then back on and put it in drive. The truck began accelerating without my foot on the gas pedal. My truck got all the way up past 20mph before I slowed down. I tried to record this with my phone as there was no traffic. I could not see well what I was filming because I was looking at the road. My safety was put at risk because had this happened on the highway or a road with no shoulder, things could have been a lot more dangerous. It was scary enough going at a lower speed on a street without traffic. I noticed after this happened that I had a third open recall for the powertrain control module. If I would have known I had this recall and how serious it was, I would have brought it in immediately. Ford should have done more to ensure vehicles impacted by this recall were contacted ASAP. I brought my truck in to the Ford dealership first thing this morning and I am waiting to hear back. The service agent was aware of this ‘limp mode’ situation occurring. I believe I was the first Maverick owner to bring a truck in for this issue at my dealership. There were no warnings that this might occur. I went from driving leisurely to having to figure out what all the beeping and flashing alerts were and manage to get to the side of the road in a truck that was not driving/responding normally. Then the truck started accelerating without my foot on the pedal! I have a video of this

Filed May 6, 2024 · Acceleration, Engine · TX

Vehicle's engine suddenly cut out during driving ~15 mph. Multiple warning lights flashed. Vehicle ran on battery and was able to go at slow velocity but then transitioned to accelerating when pedal was not engaged. Hazard lights would shut off suddenly after driver turned them on. "Limp mode" is commonly used term for what happened.

Filed May 3, 2024 · Engine · 15,000 miles · KY

The contact owns a 2023 Ford Maverick. The contact stated while driving 55 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently went into LIMP Mode and the vehicle lost motive power. The contact was able to pull to the shoulder of the roadway, where the vehicle failed to restart. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 15,000.

Filed May 2, 2024 · Driver assistance, Electrical · PA

I was on a freeway cruising around 85 mph when all of a sudden my truck lost power and went into limp mode. I had 3 dash warnings about powertrain malfunction, front end collision being unavailable, and something about engaging gear at low speeds. This has happened once before. Same three messages. The vehicle loses power and speed FAST. Luckily both times I was able to pull over and turn the vehicle off and back on and it just has a check engine light and drives normal again. I have had one software recall completed on my truck and I have 17,000 miles.

Filed Apr 22, 2024 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · NY

While driving, the vehicle will suddenly flash a message about gear selection being unavailable until speed is reduced, followed by error messages about collision-assist disabled, ESC disabled, hill-start assist disabled, and service messages. Check engine light and service lights also come on. No response to throttle inputs, once vehicle decelerates to around 1-2 mph electronic parking brake is automatically applied leading to an abrupt stop. Parking brake can then be removed and vehicle put back into drive, however all drive mode selection is disabled and again there is no response to throttle inputs - truck will accelerate on its own up to above 30 mph (do not know top speed as all areas this occurred were 30mph or less, had to ride brakes to maintain speed limit as vehicle was attempting an uncontrolled/uncommanded acceleration). This has happened 3 times, and first occurrence happened after recalls 23E07, 23E09, and 23C41 were completed. Any attempts to clear faults or exit this limp mode condition fail unless the vehicle is turned off and allowed to sit for 5-10 minutes, at which point faults still remain in system however vehicle is no longer in limp mode with functionality now restored to previously disabled systems. Recorded faults from last occurrence on April 05 2024: SOBDMC DTC U1011:86-AF SOBDMC DTC U1028:00-26 PCM DTC U1010:00-AF OBDII DTC U1011-P ABS DTC U0401:00-2F ABS DTC U0131:00-2E ACM DTC U0255:00-28 IPMA DTC U0418:86-AF In my situation all 3 failure events occurred in a low-traffic, low-threat environment. 1st happened when turning onto a 30 mph road and accelerating in low traffic, able to safely pull over. 2nd happened when turning out of my driveway and began to accelerate, again able to safely pull over. 3rd happened when leaving spot in parking lot, able to safely pull over into another spot.

Filed Apr 17, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · FL

I had 2 recalls fixed about 3 weeks ago. Today I was driving & my Maverick malfunctioned. (Maybe it's what they call Limp mode.) Many alerts & icons started flashing, I was prompted to pull over & call a dealer. I pulled over, was able to take some pics but some icons were no longer showing. I tried restarting the vehicle after a couple mins = same thing. I shut if off waited a few minutes & it worked. Well, check engine is still lit & some of the safety features won't turn on. I have copilot 360, lane keeping, etc, but most of those features are still affected. I called the dealer & am waiting for a call back. Many other Maverick hybrid owners have told me this happened after their recall fix. I wish I didn't get the recalls fixed.

Filed Apr 16, 2024 · Driver assistance, Electrical · OH

I was driving down the road at roughly 45 mph when all of the sudden my car went into neutral I was no longer able to accelerate. I was in the middle of a four-lane road with a traffic light coming up in cars coming from the opposite direction. I happen to be very lucky and right next to the Ford dealership when this happened, but this could be a major safety issue as others would not be so fortunate when vehicle was thrown into neutral. All the dash lights came on the check engine light came on. Wrench icon popped up on the instrument cluster as my car began to slow down as I pulled over once I got to roughly 5 mph the parking break engaged and came to a screeching halt. I was not able to disengage the parking break and could not move the vehicle into the drive position anymore. As stated before I was right next to the Ford dealership when this happened so I walked over and talked to the service center, they didn’t see any errors on my vehicle so I walked back to it started it up and the only remaining light was the check engine light and I was able to drive it over to the Ford dealership at which point the gentleman said he was able to see the errors. I have done a lot of reading online and this is called limp mode but is doing nothing to acknowledge this or proactively fix this on vehicles. From my understanding, this issue does not happen until after there are recalls done on the vehicle. I took my car into the shop at 9200 miles. Had it serviced for an oil change at which point Ford did two service recalls and now I’m experiencing this issue