troylikesbikes

2014 69K miles...5.6 kwh or so, not sure of how deep into hybrid mode that is, but it might be able to take more if I made sure it was drained as far as it could go before plugging it in.

2014 with 69K. 5.6 kwh to fill up, still getting the usual EV miles from it. I use it as much like an EV as possible, but I do longer road trips which is where most of the miles come from. I do staged charging most of the time, if I don't need to fill the battery I don't, I rarely drain it all the way,

My new modem went in towards the end of December. Mobile app stopped working, as did the ability to change the charge now/value profiles within the car itself. Also, couldn't set any GO times either. Dropped car off for dealership to look at it Thursday, they conclusion was it needs a new modem again, won't get the car back to Monday maybe. I am curious as to whether or not the modem really doesn't work, or they put an old one in because they didn't pay attention to the letter I took in saying what was supposed to be happening back in December. On a unrelated note, had the tranny fluid changed as well, it is just a simple flush and fill (the tech thought it was a CV and would cost a LOT of money) and it was a relatively cheap maintenance item. At 58K, runs like a top, nothing wrong yet other than this modem thing, still getting full range on a charge, the car is a keeper.

Well, at least we can sort of fake it?

No 220V charging available in my garage. And given a choice between a non-stop charge from bottom to top, ending 5 minutes before the wife uses it, and using 3 stages, with the final stage finishing right before the wife uses it, I prefer the 3 stages to the 1. And sure, I try and get the battery to hit max SOC 5 minutes before the wife drives it out the door, but give or take 1/2 hour isn't too bad, plus in some cases I don't charge it all the way up anyway, further narrowing the min-max range the battery sees. The entire game here is to see how long I can maintain original battery capability. Because the car has more value to me as a superior hybrid highway car than EV, I don't really have to care about it this much, and it wouldn't bother me or the car for its primary use if I lost 50% of the batteries capability, but still, why not try and maximize longevity? Should be great experience for the day I make the leap to full EV for my around town car.

I know. By narrowing the SOC range even further than that permitted by the onboard electronics, I figure it sure won't hurt.

Knowing that long term battery health is related to how we treat them, and that staging is probably better than just one single bottom to top charge, and that the less time the car spends sitting around with the HVB at 100%, I have developed the following routine and thought I would share it. Wife uses the car as EV around town to commute (I do not, I use it on the highway, all ICE, 1000 miles in a day). Her normal commute, to and from, a run to a fast food joint for lunch, and when she brings the car home at the end of a normal day it has about 10% remaining. Good, don't drain the battery all the way either. So I use the myford mobile profile and a manual override to charge the car over 3 distinct periods. The way the myford works, you can really do only 2 charging periods, needing the other 3 to bracket the on/off periods during the night. The profile is high price 12:00AM to 1AM to stop charging, charges from 1AM to 3AM, high price profile from 3AM to 6AM, and charges from 6AM to 10AM, then high price profile from 10AM to Midnight. So 5 charge periods on myford mobile, 3 high price profiles bracketing the two I really want to charge. Wife leaves for work at 7:30. So total charging during the nightly schedule is about 3-1/2 hours. So when wife comes home, I kick over from value profile to charge now, and check the full charged time. Myford nicely tells me when my profile will fully charge the car, usually some time AFTER the wife is expected to leave for work, and the difference between that time and her leaving for work is how long I leave the override of the profile run. An hour or two before bedtime does it. Then the car sits till 1AM, charges for 2 hours, shuts off for 3 hours, then kicks on again to top off the car. Car usually finishes charging right before or right after the wife leaves, and I can adjust that by just choosing how long to charge the night before. Hopefully this all matters long term. If not, it was fun playing around with it. Car is at 47K, dropped in a new 12V a month ago just to be on the safe side.

Purchased mine 1 year ago next week. 11k miles purchased used, 46k sitting in the garage this evening. Slapped some tires on at about 30k, change the oil about every 5k miles whether the car likes it or not, going to get its 2nd air filter next week, 1st cabin filter at 40k, thinking about having the tranny fluid replaced here soon just to be on the same side for the next 50k, will probably ditch the original 12V as well, just to not be stuck in a lurch at exactly the wrong spot. The thing runs, nothing has broken, the wife now takes it to work and back for its EV workout, and then I run it 5500 miles on a cross country road trip, where the miles come from. It is the hybrid that hybrids should have been when they came out. None of this 42 mph, take the brake to turn off the engine crap, battery alone can heat and cool, you can charge it over the course of a day by using L to come down from interstate speeds, and then cycling the EV button, then run around town EV the next morning for breakfast or getting gas or whatever, and then off you go again. Last trip had 2 tanks at 50+ mpg on secondaries, and all the rest were solid 42-46 mpg. 32-38 at 80mph on interstate, loaded and with A/C on, directly correlated with headwinds as best I can tell. Give me still air and even at 80mph I am happy with the mileage. Give me 55-65 mph hilly secondaries and I am a kid in a candy store, kicking the car between EVLater and EV modes to get over smaller hills to coast and EV as far as I can on the other side, getting juice back in on the downhill sections, the thing is a blast. Let my aunt drive it last Saturday when I stayed at her house on my way from Mount Washington back to Denver last week, and Monday morning she went out and rounded up an off lease CMax Energi, which were selling at a fair discount over Fusions. Comfortable, efficient, big enough to sleep in the back, wish I didn't need to lug a spare with me, it kills trunk space, would like 3-4 more gallons in the tank, but other than that I can't complain. Now that I am coming to the end of my usual 30K+ extended test drive, I must admit, this one might be a keeper.

You can also get a full charge coming down Mount Washington in NH. Did it last week, well, mostly. I had the A/C on full blast, lights on, everything else that could be on, on, and was intermittently putting the car in neutral to make sure I didn't overcharge the thing. So I'd use the normal brakes only for a short distance, then drop it into L and let let it put in charge. Last year when I fully charged the battery going downhill (Blue Ridge Parkway that time) the car shut down, threw nasty warning signs at me, stopping the accelerator from working, etc etc. So while I COULD have put in a full charge, I chose not to, hitting perhaps 80% full by the time I got to bottom. But if I had been willing to risk the overcharge, Mount Washington would have worked fine!

3925 total miles. 1267 EV miles. 43.7 mpg according to the fuel meter. 89.65 gallons of gas. I70 east out of Denver to ST. Louis, seconday roads south along the Mississippi to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky, south on secondaries to I40, east to Chattanooga, Chenola Skyway to Robbinsville, hooked up with the Blueridge Parkway in Cherokee, up the Parkway to central Virgina north of Roanoke, east to Amherst and north on 29 to Washington DC. Return trip on US50 to Ohio, and then I70 from Ohio back to Denver in one shot, sleeping in the back of the car for 5 hours in Illinois. 3 tanks better than 51 mpg, 35 mpg worst tank, 1 high 40's. No additional charging at any time. Charged the HVB to full on about 4 occasions on downhill runs, including one that involved the car first running the motor, then turning on the heat and throwing error codes all over the dash, and turning itself off. A/C used during most interstate runs. The car used maybe 1/2 qt of oil over the entire trip. The car is comfortable, fast enough, does GREAT on hilly roads, LOVES those. Flat roads at 80mph with the motor running the entire time, mpg was dependent on wind direction, and would run 34-38mpg most of the time. Still air and 70mph can get 40mpg. Carried between 15-40% SOC at all times, let it go to hybrid mode exactly once, and only because I knew I was about to make a downhill run soon and could load the HVB back up. L works great for turning the accelerator into a speed dial, makes charging on downhill runs great. Ran the Blueridge hard on the uphills when possible, because once the motor was on, why not? Enjoyed the cars handling (best described as a fat sedan, but it corners flat and even, and doesn't do anything unexpected, and is well damped) and then puttering downhill at 35-40mpg smelling the roses and enjoying the scenery. One tank had 2 or 3 EV miles for every gas mile, that was along the Parkway and turning a 55 mpg tank. Had oil changed, tires rotated today, and had dealership pull any codes possibly related to the downhill run where the car shut itself off. I think the code section line says: u3003 abs u3003 pscm p0afa dcdc uo263 gfm u046b ipc p1534 ipc It was explained to me that this was related to the 12V, and they tested it, it checked okay, took it for a test drive, the only difference I have noticed is that I am seeing 12.7 and 12.8V when the car is off, compared to 12.2 and 12.3V previously. I see 12.4V now after the car is off and the lights and everything are on, but then it settles back to 12.7V after the car turns off all the extra stuff. They also said something about the electronics for the dashboard, but weren't specific.

It isn't a lemon if something is draining the 12V system, it is a car that for some reason is draining the 12V system and you just don't know why yet. I'm not a fan of the voltage on my 12V either, seems a little low for a fully functional 12V system (runs 12.2-12.3 most of the time) but once you learn the work around, you can prepare for it, jumper cables or one of those portable systems you can hook up to the under the hood connections to get the car up and running.

Unfortunate. I've owned Fords that had issues before, transmissions in Mustangs come to mind, fuel pumps in Rangers and hybrid Escapes, but on a vehicle with the complexity and more computing power than the space shuttle, I would probably have allowed them some time to figure out issues, I mean really, NASA had the best engineers they could hire and their stuff still exploded at random intervals, the guys working there way through Energi problems are lucky to have a few SAE certifications to their credit, and most of that probably wasn't debugging combined software/hardware issues on computers with wheels. My Energi Ti is doing okay, used a little oil on its ongoing 4000 mile road trip maybe, but I think the engine probably hadn't been broken in by the prior owner who used it primarily as an EV, whereas I use it more as the hybrid the world should have been given 10 years ago. Good luck with yours though, Ford isn't BAD though just because you aren't completely satisfied. I mean, they are cars, my Toyota van puked a motor in the middle of nowhere Kansas with entire family onboard, the same weekend as my Camry hybrid threw a CEL that required some hunting and pecking around to figure out. Nobody makes perfect cars, that is just the way it is.

The car has 15K on it, still under warranty sure. I can have them check the codes when it goes in for an oil change when I get it back to home.

I charged from low to full, didn't start out empty. On the downhill run where the car shut down, I started down the hill with too much charge. Didn't realize I had such a big downhill, filled the HVB early, and then just kept going downhill. I had done this same thing 3 times the day before, and the engine had kicked on to let me know the HVB was full, but soon thereafter I hit the bottom of the hill and began draining the HVB. Didn't think what would happen if I kept going downhill, should have kicked on A/C, stopped using low, used brakes abruptly to minimize regen, but I didn't. My bad. Will know better next time. The engine came on first. I know it runs just as a means to waste excess power, HATED that on the older hybrids I owned. The brakes got wonky second, The car turned itself off, gave me some "Active Power On" error message, red triangle with exclamation point, and the heater turned on. Damndest thing I'd ever seen. Drifted into a parking stall, brakes and steering worked, EV button did nothing, throttle did nothing, system error messages gave me the pull over safely thing. Rebooted car, and everything worked okay. Figured I overheated the HVB or overcharged it. Drained the battery down going up the next hill, and was a wee bit more careful after that trying to charge the battery on long downhill runs.

That's what I figured as well. But it isn't often you get to get free recharge of that magnitude, plus I am still in the experimental phase with this car.

This has been about what I've settled on. I kick into EVLater when I have about 4-5 miles of range remaining, and lately have only been fully charging the car when I know I am about to use it enough to put an appropriate sized dent in it. Don't let 100% charge sit on the batteries any longer than necessary. Has been a pain with the wife, because it means I need a few hours notice that she is going to tai the car any distance to make sure it is "fueled" up for her, but we're working it out. However, something that might not be so great on it then, if the rate of charge is important for battery life, is what I did on the BlueRidge parkway this past weekend. I charged the HVB 3 times in a day by running it downhill in L and using hill descent, and it sure charged pretty quick that way, compared to even a 220V charger. Did it so badly once the car shut down to protect itself I think, turned on the heat, lit up the dashboard, the regen stopped working going down hill, it was quite exciting. Happened after the engine came on first, I assume to attempt to waste electricity. Then things got wonky in the braking, and then the car dashboard wigged out with warnings, turned itself off, said to stop soon. I managed to drift into a parking lot/visitor center, pulled out the owners manual and tried to figure things out, knowing it was probably an emergency protection of the battery in some way, for temp or overcharge. Rebooted the car, it worked fine in EV mode, and I immediately ran it up a hill to get the battery into a more discharged state. Having tried charging it to max since then though, hoping I didn't hurt it in some way. Managed to EV more than 300 miles on a single tank without recharging via wall socket though, that was an amazing stat at the end of the first day on the Parkway, just the amount of ICE free motoring I was able to do.

Pretty good. My best over a long trip so far has only been 41 mpg. I've just completed a 55 mpg tank, but that was under optimal conditions I think, across the lower half of the BlueRidge Parkway. I consider low 40's to be a solid decent trip average, but I would consider 47 to be an excellent tank average, let alone trip average.

Day 1 Denver->Warrenton MO 3 200+ mile tanks, 39,40,37 mpg. All A/C, 75-80 mph, 95F ambient. Day 2 Warrenton -> Chattanooga TN 1 400+ mile tank, 43 mpg, 60/40 A/C on/off, some 70 mph interstate, a fair amount of 50-60 secondaries. Gained about 4 miles of EV range dropping down into Chattanooga along I-24. Will run it down tomorrow to much lower SOC, maybe 1-2-3 miles remaining, in preparation for the Chenola Skyway and some big downhills where I expect to be putting a lot back into the HVB. Expected mileage to be better in the 50-60 range, and it was, the car was pretty solid (according to the mpg meter) in the 47-48 mpg range until I began running those last few hours on I24 to Chattanooga. Then the higher speeds began rolling the mileage back, which isn't unexpected.

So, after becoming engrossed in the thread where voltages were checked during usage, mV here and mV there, and percolating on that information, and then understanding that the HVB is THE battery in the car, and when the car is in hybrid or EVLater mode, the hybrid mode will be operating at that SOC that exists when it does this, be at with the HVB exhausted, or nearly full. Seeing that the HVB appears to be more stressed when operating at a low SOC, it would seem logical that if I had intentions of running the car for 1000 miles in a day, it will certainly be operating as a hybrid, and that the HVB would take better to playing "hybrid" at a 50% SOC rather than a 20% SOC. Reasonable assumption? After all, the car can imitate a hybrid at anywhere from full HVB to empty HVB, but it is using the same battery, just at different SOC. So it would seem reasonable that the best place for the Energi to "play" hybrid would be the place within the SOC range that places the least stress on the HVB. So, if our max range is 20 miles, min range 0 (already operating within a smaller window SOC "allowed" by the car, never fully charging or depleting the battery), what would be the best miles to carry on the meter to place the least stress on the battery? Certainly not 0, or 20, but perhaps 10, near the middle? 5? The goal here being to minimize stress on the HVB, while driving only in hybrid mode on the interstates. This isn't a theoretical, I'll be doing the first official road trip starting tomorrow, 2000 miles one way including the Blue Ridge Parkway end to end (haven't done that in 20 years). This trip, unlike the last test trip, will involve fast interstates, solid 80 mph, big secondaries in Kansas (65 mph), back roads (southern MO and western KY), and then the Parkway from Smokey Mt NP through Skyline drive to Front Royal. Then on to DC, where the car will sit for days, and then mostly interstate back. 4000 miles all in.

They certainly are. After finding an excuse to sit alone in the car for 10 minutes clicking various buttons, I discovered that indeed, the GO settings were on in the car. Even more amusing, as an experiment I changed them there, and when I refreshed my MFM, they suddenly appeared there as well. I erased everything in the car, confirmed it erased on the MFM as well, and hopefully that solves the problem. Also cured a problem I had been having on the weekends, for the life of me the car would obey the weekday value charging, but not the weekend. Turns out, it appears to have been following the one listed on the car. But when it came to weekdays, it was following the one on the MFM. Erased all of those and reset them, so that issue on weekends should clear up as well. As a result of all this, the car is now responding to the MFM much better, I can plug it in and use the Value Charging yes/no slider on the MFM to put some juice in, turn off and wait till morning, and then top the car off for the last 2 hours of charge in the morning, to minimize the time it is at maximum charge.

According to MFM, I have no, I repeat, NO, Go Times set. And I am aware of the fan running in the rear of the car to cool the HVB, that happens quite often and I researched around here to figure out what it was. If there some place else I can check possible GO times that wouldn't be picked up by the app? In the car itself perhaps?

I know. But as I explained earlier, I consider the Energi a hybrid….just a REALLY good one. Yeah, I wish I had the bigger trunk, but there is nothing quite like storing miles and miles on downhill runs that the FFH never could, and using it to putter around towns during gas stops.

So it has been warm in the garage as of late, 90F or so, and I was charging it during the day today, and I walk out into the garage and lo and behold, the car sounds like it is running! It isn't, but some big fan is certainly running under the hood, I figure it had something to do with cooling the battery after fully charged. Turns out, it was running a big cooling fan, but it was running the fan so it could turn on the A/C. The car was crispy cool inside, and darned if I told it to do that!! The car is pulling the full 1300W to do this, so I assume it is pulling from the HVB, and as it depletes a little, it charges from the wall plug, the charging ring is out, and the car is fully charged a couple hours ago. But it apparently needs to cool itself, so it did!! Quite interesting. Does it warm itself in the winter as well? And what happens if I didn't leave it plugged in afterwards? It would just sit in the garage and the HVB would bake in its own heat?

Mustang GTs.

I don't. I can't even see the rise in the electricity bill, lost in the normal variation of household use. So I only care about gasoline used, and around town that is mostly none. When used as a normal car on road trips, the highway mileage is excellent, and better than anything I've owned before, and that is good enough until someone drops a European sized turbo diesel into something the size of a Focus or Fiesta, and then I'll buy that for road trips to get 60 mpg. And use the Energi for an around town EV.