4cylinder
Fusion Energi Member-
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Everything posted by 4cylinder
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I personally use 17" Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 winter tires (reusing the stock wheels) and they have yet to disappoint me even during the arctic blast that hit the midwest hard. Unfortunately I have lost two of them to impact breaks with Michigan's horrible potholes. I found that out when I went to a shop to swap my all-seasons back on and they showed me fat bubbles along with massive dents on the inner lips of the front wheels :( Not covered under the tire warranty and I had to pay a disposal fee on top of that... Anyway like murphy said, make sure to do all 4 when you need to. I'm going to buy replacements for the two ruined ones when I see a good price. Some users here who have a separate set of wheels in addition to winter tires go with 16" on steelies instead which isn't a bad idea - more rubber and less rim = better ride and better grip, while steel wheels are easier to repair in case of pothole impacts. Winters also make me appreciate the lack of horsepower in the Energi - I'm unlikely to accidentally give more acceleration than I intended which could be disastrous in icy conditions.
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Canadian temporarily living in metro Detroit which is close enough - I practically live in Ontario and with all the Tim Hortons here it feels like I'm already back across. The Energi is fine in the snow with a good set of winter tires. Do not try to drive on snowy/icy roads with the stock low-rolling-resistance all-seasons. As a front-wheel-drive car it is naturally quite stable and unlikely to fishtail as long as you make turns slowly and carefully. If you live in an area where plows and salt are applied very quickly and frequently, you might be able to get away with keeping the all-seasons on all year, but I really wouldn't take that risk to save a few hundred bucks. I put on the winter tires in mid-November and remove them in mid-April. Snow has yet to be an issue for me, though obviously I don't try to take the car off-road into really deep pockets of snow. I see 4WD SUVs with summer or all-season tires getting into trouble all the time when it snows and it's always a facepalm worthy moment.
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Honestly, given how cheap replacement APIMs are, I'd just DIY even if it's supposed to be free under the extended warranty. Or better yet, get a Sync3 APIM+screen and reprogram it :P PM me if you want any further info.
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Oil maintenance mode might only come on during low use in cold weather. I had it occur twice during Michigan's arctic blast, but for the entire spring and summer I haven't had it turn on.
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Have you been driving the car previously for long periods of time without turning on the engine? If so, the car may be in "oil maintenance mode" (unfortunately 2017+ models don't have a visual indicator of that anymore) and that requires the car to be left on for about 30 minutes before the engine finally shuts off. The car needs to stay on continuously - you can't drive 20 minutes, turn it off, then drive 10 minutes. Kinda stupid. My round trip commute barely fits within the EV range of the Energi, and I don't go out much, so I can go for over a month without the engine ever turning on, or only for brief moments (winter). If I keep that up long enough, eventually the car says "Engine on due to low use", but the message goes away on its own so it's easy to miss - that is indicative of oil maintenance mode though.
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Same here, latest version on Android and I keep getting asked to agree to that popup. Very annoying.
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Great work! I did this to my old 2013 Fusion Hybrid SE and my 2015 Escape Titanium.
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The Metro Detroit area is your best bet for a good deal because of Ford executives getting them as fleet cars and turning them in after 1 year, often with low miles. I got a '17 Titanium with 7800 miles, fully loaded except no ventilated seats, for $22,998 before trade. Amazing deal.
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Congratulations. Love the fact that you have an electric bicycle to go with the car! Totally fitting.
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From what I've observed over the years, most if not all cars don't have dedicated DRLs. They use PWM on the low beams (if equipped with halogens), or use the parking lamps or fog lights (if equipped with LEDs or HIDs). Yes, if you didn't touch either the low or high beams, what you actually replaced were the parking lamps. Though I believe you might be able to use ForScan to reroute the DRLs to those lamps (or the fogs).
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Interior - the seat pattern is different and the FCIM doesn't have the Sony logo and a different climate button layout.
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Congratulations. Since you have one of the earlier models, the first mod I'd suggest doing is replacing your FCIM (the panel under and around the screen with the radio and climate buttons) with one from a 2016+ Fusion, which has the hard buttons (you can get that on ebay for $100 or less I believe). I did it when I previously owned a 2013 Hybrid and it was a night-and-day difference - absolutely hated the soft capacitive buttons on the old panel.
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https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/feu/en/news/2016/09/08/drivers-can-now-use-a-smartwatch-to-check-that-their-ford-electr.html (I was not aware either until reading this thread) Given the unreliability of the existing app, and the lack of fanfare about this feature, I doubt the smartwatch capability is reliable either.
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Congrats! Minor nitpick - you have an SE, not a Titanium ;) Though the SE still offers more than enough great features.
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Note - you can get an SE with all the tech minus cooled seats but 99% of the SE vehicles on dealer lots tend to be lacking in tech, necessitating a factory order. Titaniums are far more likely to have more options, while Platinums are fully loaded by definition.
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Don't the 2013-2016 Fusions actually use the low beams as DRLs through pulse width modulation to run them at 6V? I think you might be referring to the parking lamp instead. When I had a 2013 hybrid SE I did a HID swap and since I was living in Canada with DRL laws I needed to run a relay to the ballasts from the 12V battery in order to power the HID low-beams at full brightness (as PWM would kill HIDs). For those who lack steady hands and don't have extended warranties, an independent mechanic can do the job at a fraction of what the stealership charges :)
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Having switched from a 2013 Hybrid SE I'd recommend looking for clearance or pre-owned deals on a '17 Titanium or Platinum instead - the seats are much better and if you get options like adaptive cruise and lane keep your 90 km commute will be FAR more pleasant :) He is in Canada - in his province they get an instant rebate rather than a tax refund and it's $7,000 CAD which is more generous even at current exchange rates :)
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I actually have that planned out haha. Work requires me to stay till at least 2019 :/ Low cost of living is nice though!
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Yes, mine showed the recall on the website. I checked it before heading to the dealer. Definitely escalate to Ford directly on this one.
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I live in Michigan where pothole collisions often cause wheel misalignment and when that happens the car will pull a bit to one side and require the steering wheel to be angled slightly in order to maintain a straight direction. When I had my 18S08 steering wheel recall (the one regarding potential detachment) done at the dealer, I decided to ask them to realign my wheels at the same time, in order to kill two birds with one stone. Two weeks before doing the 18S08 recall, I swapped my winter tires with the stock Michelin all-seasons. The shop that did this found that my two front wheels were bent at the lip from pothole collisions, but they didn't have the ability to repair the wheels, so they rotated them to the back of the car in order to reduce vibrations. The wheels that are now in front are still good. At the time, I totally forgot to tell the shop to do an alignment as well, so I decided to wait till the 18S08 recall visit. The whole time, my steering was slightly off center to the left. After the 18S08 visit, I noticed that the steering was off center again - this time to the right! I have three theories as to why this might have happened: 1) Whoever did the alignment job at the dealer did a poor job, i.e. not centering the steering wheel when supposed to 2) Whoever did the 18S08 recall did not calibrate the steering wheel after reinstallation 3) The bent wheels on the back of the car may be causing the pull. However, each theory requires a different solution. If it was #1, I'd go visit an independent shop instead of trusting the dealer again. If it was #2, I'd go back to the dealer and demand a free service. If it was #3, I'd have to go buy new wheels or find someone who can repair them. Any input and suggestions would be much appreciated!
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PM me if you want a tutorial on how to do a DIY replacement. It's very easy to reprogram replacement parts. If you want to stick with MyFord Touch it will set you back about $200 or so - less if you only need to do the APIM and not the screen. Reprogramming is basically no work in this case because you just copy and paste your as-built data over. If you want to upgrade to Sync3 it will be a bit more expensive, about $700+ (screen + APIM), but well worth it. Reprogramming is little more complex as you can't just reuse as-built data but I know people who can help.
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Say goodbye to all but two Ford sedans
4cylinder replied to Blastphemy's topic in Articles, News & Reviews
To be fair they aren't fully abandoning the sedan market - they're still keeping those vehicles active in countries that haven't jumped on the SUV craze as much as North America has. Hopefully if future economic conditions demand the reintroduction of sedans, they can simply federalize their foreign-made sedans and ship them over to fill the void. It would bring prices up (especially if imported from Europe where the labour costs are higher), so that's another challenge to figure out. -
Say goodbye to all but two Ford sedans
4cylinder replied to Blastphemy's topic in Articles, News & Reviews
Same here, the Energi will be my last Ford. I'm already looking at trading my 2015 Escape for a hybrid Japanese SUV like the RAV4 or Lexus NX300h. This is a very disappointing decision. They should at least import limited quantities from offshore plants - after all the Mondeo is already made in Spain and China including a wagon form. -
Seems like they didn't disconnect it on mine either, but everything seems fine. Adaptive cruise and other controls related to the steering wheel all worked fine.
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My car is at the dealer now and I'll pick it up after work. Hoping for the best...