BLFarnsworth

A couple of days ago I started my 2015 Fusion Energi as usual and got the "See Manual" message, along with the orange wrench light. My FFE has 125K miles on it. I also noticed that the battery level indicator (the one that appears when the HVB is depleted and the car is in hybrid mode) was nearly "empty", and as close to zero as I've ever seen it. Usually in hybrid mode that battery indicator drops to maybe about halfway-empty on rare occasions. The manual said that it was a "Powertrain Fault". My local Ford dealer wanted to $180 just to "diagnose" the "See Manual" message so I went to Pep Boys. They used a simple handheld OBD reader and the code returned was: P0DBA Pep Boys gave me a printout that said the P0DBA code meant: "Hybrid/EV Battery Cell Balancing Circuit "D" Stuck Off: No Sub Type" I guess my only option now is to go back to the Ford dealer and pay the $180 to diagnose further. If I'm lucky that means the HVB went bad and Ford would replace it (the HVB)… But since everyone seems to say that Ford will do or say ANYTHING to chalk batteries to "Normal Wear and Tear" -- I'm not holding my breath. @apm have you found anything out about your codes, especially P0DBA? Does anyone have any other ideas for diagnosing further, without having to pay the dealer $180? Or has anyone else come across this P0DBA code before??? Thanks!

I loved my 2015 FFE and talked at least 3 to 4 friends into getting one. But... all the love ended when I about the 50K mark. Nothing major, just a compilation of little things that has soured me on this FFE and the Ford brand in general. Here are a few things off the top of my head: All brake discs were warped (I'm very cognizant of how I try NOT to brake hard, to take advantage of regen) at 50 or 55K. New rotors all the way around.There's a vibration/buzzing sound in the center dash area that comes on when the ICE hits about 2000 RPM; no one at the dealership can find/fix the source of that sound - and it sounds horrible. You might expect this in an old Yugo, but this is supposed to be a decent car.I had a few temperature sensor issues where the check engine light would come on. Whatever sensor it was - it needed to be replaced two times. Good thing it was under warranty, but I was really hoping that it would keep going bad so I could apply the lemon law and get a full refund for the entire car.The 12V battery died at just under 3 years old. I understand that this might be typical, but there was no warning, other than I noticed that the entertainment center would display a "System is shutting down to conserve battery life" or something along those lines a couple of times in one week. Then, at the end of that week, I got a text saying that the 12V battery is low. 2 hours later the battery my wife was driving the car - the battery was so dead that she couldn't even get the doors to unlock. Instead of the car telling me that it's shutting down to conserve energy, why didn't it just say "Check battery" or something like that? Yes, there's a key in the fob, but who the heck designed that fob??? The design is horrible, and when the battery died - my wife was driving it in a no-so-family-friendly town late at night. Try describing how to get the key out of the key fob to someone (my wife) in the middle of the night.The Ford SYNC system is terribly slow. You tap... and you wait.I also connect my phone via bluetooth; when I enter the car, sometimes it's still in Bluetooth Stereo mode. Sometimes it's in radio mode. Easy fix is to just leave it in the same mode as when you left the car. Nope. Seems to be random. Not a huge problem, but you have to tap... and wait (see above bullet point)The HV battery has probably degraded at least 20% after 60K miles. A familiar 7.6 mile trip that would leave 70% in the HV battery when new now leaves just over 50%. (It's a regular trip I take each morning, at the same time -- and I'm very aware of the outside temp, if the heater is on, how many people in the car, etc.). Maybe this is normal. Maybe this is caused by the number of cycles it's been through already... charging it (sometimes) 2 or 3 times per day. I'm sure there are more issues I've forgotten. I'm just giving the car 1 more year (It's a purchase, not a lease) then I'll for sure get a different car/brand. Again, it was good for the first 50K (for me). Not so much any more.

Yeah, after thinking about the fact that the rotors were going to be much thinner - and more likely to warp sooner... I decided to just replace all the rotors. Here's the summary... I took the car to 2 different Ford dealerships, and they both told me that the rotors were warped and that they could turn all rotors and "de-glaze" the brake pads. First, I understand it when you have to resurface the rotors to even out the surface, but machining warped rotors means that you have to strip away everything that's "warped" on both sides. Who knows how much material that'll really remove from the rotor... I'm sure a lot more material than if you were just smoothing out the surface (of a rotor that isn't warped). So, just like openair said, the rotors would be a lot thinner and probably will warp easier. Second, de-glazing pads? I guess there's still a lot of pad left so they said they'd basically sand down the surface. I've never done that before, but... OK. I decided to take the car to an independent shop; I can get 4 new rotors and all new brake pads for about $50.00 than what the dealers would charge to turn the rotors and "de-glaze" the pads -- that seems a better use of $ to me. Anyway, I'm still not that happy about having to replace all these brake components after 55k miles... On a hybrid, no less! I used to unequivocally recommend this Fusion Energi, but now will warn any prospective buyers that they might have to replace the damn rotors and pads earlier than they expect.

Thanks for the reply, and yep, I just scheduled an inspection at an independent repair shop tomorrow morning... I also wondered about something else in the braking system - we'll see, but I sure hope it isn't the ABS going bad on me!

I brake with my right foot (funny - my mom used to drive with two feet; she'd brake with her left foot [while probably slightly stepping on it all the time] and it drove me nuts). I completely get it that brake rotors warp due to overheating (i.e. applying brakes during a long downhill stops, then while the car is stopped... the brake pads are still applying pressure to one [hot] spot on the rotors) while the other part of the rotor is cooling... Or repeated hard braking. I'm pretty cognizant of lightly applying the brakes, getting as much regen and keeping my brake score high. I'm sure I've had a few hard stops in the time I've had the car, but not a whole lot of them. Of course, I don't have a way to record the number of hard stops (like some of the speed/braking monitors available nowadays); I wish I did. I'm just surprised that all the rotors are warped after just 55k on this car. Or is this typical for these Fusion Energis? Thanks in advance.

I have a 2015 Fusion Energi, live in So Cal, and drive (I'm guessing) 65% highway / 35% city. I drive pretty conservatively - try to keep my braking score up and maximize regen -- but just recently I found that the whole car shakes while moderately braking. Dealer says they're warped but can turn the rotors and replace brake pads. The brake pads look in great shape, about only 10-20% of them gone. 2 questions: 1: is it normal to have all the brake rotors warped on this vehicle at around 55k miles? I know that brake pad & rotor wear depends on how hard you drive, environment (i.e., the plains vs. mountains), how many passengers on average in the car, etc. 2: even though the dealer says they can turn the rotors, would you just replace them (the rotors)? Dealer here says that turning the rotors and installing new brake pads would run about $350-375 for all four wheels Any info would be appreciated!

I generally drive a 150-mile commute (75 miles each way) twice a week. Don't ask why I'm crazy enough to drive this much; it's a long story. Here's my experience: From my home, it's 7.6 miles to the freeway and I drive this in Auto mode.When I get on the freeway, I switch to EV Later mode. I notice that my remaining battery percentage is generally about 70-75%, depending on how many red lights I hit.I'm on the freeway for about 65 miles and use ECO Cruise Control; I generally drive between 67 and 69 mph - depending on the flow of traffic. There are lots of slight uphills/downhills on my freeway drive and as soon as I get on a stretch that's even slightly downhill I hit the cancel button on the cruise control and immediate hit the Set button; this usually puts the car into EV mode for those downhills (not to be confused with going into EV Later or Auto modes). I also watch this in Empower display mode.If I hit significant traffic on the freeway I go into Auto mode; when traffic clears up and I can drive at freeway speeds I go back into EV Later mode.When I exit, I drive on surface streets for the remaining 2.4 miles in Auto mode. This stretch has one long uphill climb so when my drive ends there's about 60% left on the HVB. I have no way to charge at my office. :(I usually get between 52 and 57 MPG, based on the info displayed on my Trip Summary screen (when I shut off the car). My trip ends at usually exactly 75 miles, and the same Trip Summary screen also usually shows that at least half of those miles are "EV miles," due to the many level/downhill stretches on the freeway.When I make the return trip in roughly the same traffic conditions, I get slightly lower MPG, about 49-53 MPG -- as I assume this is due to the (slightly) more uphill stretches on the freewayNaturally, if/when I drive faster on this trip I definitely don't get the same MPG. I've owned this car for 9 months now and despite a LOT of freeway driving, my average MPG on Fuelly is 61.1 MPG. I'm very happy with that. Anyway, I just wanted to share this. As always, YMMV... :)

I'd also like to know if anyone has any news on this issue... This happened to me for the first time two weeks ago; it actually happened twice in the same week but I haven't seen the issue come up again. Knowing how these things work -- I bet that this will happen to me again tomorrow. ;) The first time this happened (I couldn't switch over to EV Now or the EV Later modes), I had just merged onto the freeway in Auto mode... then tried to switch to EV Later mode... Then the two "X"s that locked me out of the other two modes. The second time this happened, I was in driving on the freeway in EV Later mode, then switched into Auto mode due to traffic on the freeway. When traffic cleared up and I tried to go back to EV Later mode... No luck. In both cases I pulled over at the next exit and shut down the car. When I started back up all was normal. Also, I KNOW that I had anywhere from 50-70% of the HV battery remaining (over 10 EV miles remaining in both cases) -- so that's why I was puzzled. Then I found this thread. I'll mention this to my Ford dealership the next time I bring in the car for an oil change, but any help/info/advice would be great.

I'm sure the JuiceBox will work out just fine for you... I was really drawn to the fact that the JuiceBox had all those other features, but on the other hand, I've found that I'm perfectly happy just plugging in the car and just walking away from it. The Leviton only has a few indicator lights on it and it just starts blinking once the car starts charging. After nearly 8 months with the Leviton I've had no issues whatsoever -- so I guess that's a good thing!

Pics, please! Thanks!

@Rhynri, Sorry to hear that you're having issues with your car. I've had my FFE SE for just under 1 month and I've just gone over 2400 miles already (a lot more miles than I really want to drive in a month -- but I've had a lot of trips to make since getting the car). I've driven mostly highway miles; a typical day this month was 150 miles round-trip and only the 1 full charge from overnight charging on 120V. Based on just dividing miles driven by gallons for the first 3 gas fill-ups, I'm generally getting 55 MPG overall, but if I subtract the "EV" miles from the previous night's charge, I'm getting 45 MPG. I'm perfectly happy with that and the MPG is much better than the 38 MPG I was expecting. My "Trip Summary" screen that's displayed on a typical 75-mile trip, where about 8 of that is non-freeway driving, I'll usually end up with between 45 and 56 MPG -- and that's been pretty consistent since getting the car. During my around-town errands I'm getting on average about 20 EV miles on a single charge. I also haven't noticed any strange burning smells so far. Have you been able to take the car to your dealer yet? Have they been able to find out what's wrong? I hope it gets sorted out quickly for you.

My 2-cents... Echoing what other have said here, some Ford dealerships have chargers that are free for Ford vehicles, some don't. When I'm working in one of our offices in San Diego, the closest dealership (Kearney Pearson Ford) has a charger that's "reserved for diagnostic use by the service department." The other charger is a Blink Network charger and the guy I spoke with in the service department said "if you want to charge, you have to pay." Fair enough... and oh well, now I know where I'm not buying my next car. The dealership where I purchased my FFE (Tuttle Click's Capistrano Ford in San Juan Capistrano, CA) has said to "stop by any time to charge!"

OK, it's settled... I ended up going the "safe" route and purchasing a Leviton 32-amp EVSE. Main reasons: I figure that if I have problems they'd be resolved quickly (and not over e-mail)The Leviton has a 3-year warranty vs. the 1-year warranty for the JuiceBoxI know Leviton will probably be around for a while so I can contact them if I *do* have a problem a few years down the roadOne thing I wasn't too thrilled about was that Leviton sells the mounting bracket & "pre-wire kit" separately for about $80.00 USD -- and it's basically a stamped sheet of metal and a NEMA 6-50 receptacle. I thought that was kind of a rip-off but I remedied that by buying it "used or for parts" on eBay for about $16.00 including shipping last night; all I really care about getting is the mounting bracket. I can always just get a NEMA 6-50 receptacle one at HomeDepot for probably $10.00 (if for whatever reason the one I get from eBay has some sort of problem)... Thanks all!

I was joking about installing a 480-volt supercharger in my home -- which would probably fry the main service panel (and would also probably cost an arm and a leg)... :)

Thanks - I just spoke with my county planning office and it's an over-the-counter process to get the permit - no EVSE-specific permit necessary; it's basically just installing a 240V outlet... The county planning office will, however, want to know the max current load of the equipment that will be plugged into the outlet. Technically it could be a space heater, clothes dryer, washing machine, whatever. A licensed electrician will assist with the paperwork and of course do the installation. Other neighboring cities like Irvine, CA have a specific permit process for EVSEs, but mine doesn't. EDIT: I just verified that my county of residence (Orange County, CA), doesn't need any EVSE model numbers for the permit - just the max load of the unit or whatever I'm plugging in. Since I have no plans to install a Tesla supercharger (LOL) I should have no problems getting a 50-amp breaker and 240V NEMA 14-50 (or 6-50) outlet approved. That said, my only concern again is the lack of UL-approval (for the JuiceBox). Anyone have an opinion on that? :)