pluggedin

The Schumacher 2/10/15 charger is what I purchased last week before I took my car to my dealer for that bogus Sync upgrade. I also purchased a battery monitor that plugs into the cigarette lighter at the same time. Both of those devices showed the battery voltage was 12.4 to 12.5v and, at times, as low as 11.9v. Generally speaking, the battery monitor reads 12.0-12.1v, however. Now, according to Schumacher, the battery is in a state of discharge at 11.9v and the battery needs to be charged when the reading is between 12.0 and 12.8v. However, the dealer goes by CCA only and they tested the battery, twice, at 390 CCA's and said the battery is good. They did not want to discuss voltage at all. My car has been plugged in and fully charged since yesterday evening so just now I tested the voltage with the battery monitor and it registered 11.7v just after I closed the door and the dash display went out...then it went to 12.0v after about minute. I disconnected the 240v charger from the vehicle and attached the Schumacher battery charger to the battery posts under the hood. The reading was 12.1v (there is usually .1v difference between the two). I put the charger in a moderate charge rate and the charger indicated the battery was currently in a 62% state of charge so I am letting the charger bring the battery to 100% for the second time this week. Here is what I think the problem is in communicating our concerns about the battery voltage to the dealership technicians. They are used to working on gasoline engine and batteries that are used to crank the engines over to start them; hence they want to talk in terms of CCA's. The plug-in hybrid is a different animal, with respect to how the battery is used by the system, from the gasoline models and I think we, on the forum, understand the system better than they do. How to educate them so we don't run into a stone wall every time we talk to them about an Energi is the question. I just find it unacceptable that I have to buy a device to monitor the voltage in my 12v battery and that I also need to buy a battery charger to keep the 12v battery in a state of full charge. Maybe I should have been doing this with all of the cars I have owned in my life but I have never, ever, found it to be a necessity.

I just drove the car 5.1 miles in EV Now. I started at 66.5 MPGE and ended at 71.4 MPGE, or about 1 MPGE improvement per mile driven, in round numbers. That still seems like a pretty significant improvement but the gauge was not spinning like it was, so maybe what they did yesterday solved that issue. Still no song name's on the radio though. When I put the car in off mode the battery monitor registered 12.1v.

I don't even know where to start with this. I took the car into the dealership with the battery monitor plugged in and showed the Service Writer, Kamilo, that the monitor was registering 12.5v with the engine of and told him it had gone to 11.9 at one point that morning. I also told him I was there for a mandatory Dealership upgrade of the Sync. I left the car there and they brought me home at around 10:30 am. At around 2 pm I got a call from Kamilo and said they checked the battery twice, using cold cranking amps, and the battery tested good. I challenged him on that based on the battery meter voltage but he insisted they go by CCA. Okay, I said, let's move on to the upgrade. No upgrade necessary Kamilo said because my car has the most current upgrade...the one the myfordmobile web site says they need to install...and that both the battery and Sync test normal, so you can come and get your car. And this is where is gets interesting. I asked him how the upgrade got on the car, since the upgrade is a Dealer install only and is not available for me to download onto a USB flash drive. He didn't know. I then asked them to retest the battery and reinstall the Sync download because I thought that Sync was not operating right and hung up the phone. While I was waiting for those results I called Ford Service and told them what was going on and they could not tell me how the upgrade got on the car either. Myfordmobile says I need the upgrade but the Upgrade History on the site shows it was installed in my car on 8/7/13 but not confirmed. My last confirmed install was on 4/6/13. Kaya, with Ford Service, called Kamilo and told him to have the Tech give her the CCPU number from the car and that would tell her exactly what upgrade was in the car. He did that and the upgrade is current??? Armed with that and based on my comments she had the Tech do a Hard Master Reboot of the system. The Tech test drove the car and everything was just perfect so they told me to come and get the car. Of course, by the time I got there Kamilo and the Tech had already left for the day. So I took the car back and drove home. Everything looks pretty much the same way it did when I took the car in. My average mpg's are spinning like a top and they didn't used to. And my local FM radio station has either quit broadcasting the song info or Sync isn't picking it up, like it once did. If I switch to Sirius the song info is there, but not on any of the FM stations. When you folks are driving your car, do your average mpg/mpge's change like a digital watch reporting seconds? Mine does and it didn't do that a month or so back. Maybe my settings are incorrect...I don't know. I plugged the car in when I got home and the battery monitor was registering around13.0 volts while the car was charging so I felt pretty sure the 12v battery was being charged. But when I went out this morning there was no power at all to the cigarette lighter plug (car still plugged in) until I hit the start button and the battery monitor registered a reading of 12.5. Apparently the car shuts all systems down after awhile. So now I unplug the car from the 240v charger and wait for about a half hour and the reading is 12.3 and steady for the past hour but it did drop to 11.9v at one point just after I unplugged the car. With the car unplugged, I hooked my battery charger to the car and both the battery monitor and the charger registered readings of 12.1v with the car in off mode. I then put the car in run mode and the monitor show 14.2v and the battery charger 14.3v. I switched the charger to charge and it indicated the battery was in a 95% charge state, so I let it charge the battery to 100% and 13.1v. So this is where I am today; I'm still confused as to how Sync was updated and the battery seems to be charging but some of my Sync feature don't seem right to me. Whatever! I am playing golf today and the car can wait.

I'm going to guess you are asking what the voltage of the 12v battery is when the 240v charger is plugged into the car. It's the same, no matter what. So the 240v charger, apparently, does not charge the 12v battery if it low. It is only charging the EV battery. When the car is off (and plugged in) the red alternator light on the battery monitor is on, which means to me the alternator, or system, is not charging the 12v battery. Also with the car off and the red alternator light on, the battery voltage is displayed. When the car is turned on the red alternator light goes out and the alternator output is displayed. If the battery is dead, a second red light will come on as well. Here is the monitor: http://answers.walmart.com/answers/1336/product/16139506/questions.htm

OK, I went to WalMart and bought a battery monitor and also a charger that pretests the battery prior to charge. Both showed a value of 12.5-12.6 and the monitor went as low as 11.9 this morning. So the battery is not holding a charge or it is being discharged by the system for some reason. I dropped the car off at the dealership this morning so we will see what they find and how long they keep it. I wasn't at the dealership long (they brought me home) but before I left I noticed they had some 2014 Fusions on the lot and at least one of them was a hybrid. I didn't see a Energi tho. So I have had my car for 5 months and it's already a year old...but I knew that would happen going in. However, I didn't really expect to see the new models until late Sept or early Oct.

This is entirely possible (probable even) but there is no way of knowing the status of the 12 volt battery, that I am aware of, until it goes dead. A recent post suggested buying a 12 volt battery gauge that plugs into the car...really...I have to buy a cheapo gauge to test the battery in my car? Guess if I had paid a little more for the car they could have included one. :stirpot:

Okay. I drove the car around in EV Later for a time and everything LOOKS or seems fine. Here are a couple of things I have noticed in the last week or so: 1. The Navigation screen came on when I did not bring up; 2. Another screen came on with out my bringing it up, that I can't recall right now; 3. Weirdest of all, I inadvertently reset my MPG's in Engage and since then the 10ths of miles per gallon have clicked off like a digital watch clicks of seconds...literally; 4. Now the battery goes dead. I think my Sync is out of sync, so to speak, and I notice there is another update available online....but....I have to take it to a Dealer for an install of the update. So, I made an appointment for this coming Wednesday, in the morning. That should be fun.

I'm not too worried about mpg's at this point. The 12v battery charger, that I borrowed from a neighbor, is small but it has a switch for 2 amp, 12 volt charging and 30/150 amp Engine Start setting. I have it set on the 2 amp side and it has been charging for a couple of hours now. I think I will just unhook the battery charger and drive the car around town to let it do its own thing.

Yes, the charger was still plugged into the car when the 12v battery died. That is what surprised me, since I assumed if there was a draw of current from any source (door left ajar, trunk lid left open) while the 240v charger was plugged into the car the charger would supply the needed electricity. I still have the charger attached to the car. Should I remove that now and start the car using the start button?

Thank you Murphy. I took a leap of faith and hooked my battery charge up as indicated above. Good to have confirmation though and I appreciate the added advice concerning the extra battery to keep everything from resetting when disconnecting the 12v battery in the trunk. Could you make the battery charger act like a battery if you don't have a spare battery hanging around? When I parked the car last night the EV battery was completely depleted but when I plugged the 240V charger in I watched the light ring cycle and accept the charger. This morning when I noticed the rear lights flashing very rapidly and no accessory lights on the dash, I checked mymobile and the EV battery was completely charged but the 12v battery was dead. I'm befuddled as to why? Once I hooked the battery charger up I was able to unlock the trunk so I now have a line attached to the trunk release that runs to the back seat. What a pain!

I went to the garage this morning and noticed the brake lights on the car were flashing rapidly and the 12v battery is completely dead. I cannot get into the truck to access the battery but have a battery charger. Is it okay to use the jumper cable posts under the hood to charge the battery? Now I wish I had paid attention to an earlier post that suggested running a line from the trunk release to the rear seats.

Energized, unless you live in a tunnel, you need to go solar. At .30 per kWh you are being raped.

Murphy, wouldn't a 30 amp RV extension cord be okay to use with the 120V charger? If there is any doubt at all, howardbc, I would not take the chance with an extension cord. Just drive the car as a hybrid.

I think this is addressed by meyersnole on page 2 of this thread.

There you go howardbc, keep it simple. Larryh seems to be only one with a real handle on that system anyway, bless his little heart.

I installed one of these as well and have not noticed any interference or degradation in reception at all.

It was pretty hot here too, at the beginning of July (around 110 degrees), but the monsoons hit here three weeks ago, or so, and it has been hovering around 98 to 100 every day, with an occasional day in the low 90's. When it rains in the afternoons, at around 2 or 3 pm, it drops to less than 90 degrees...but very humid. It's 70 here this morning but that won't last for long. I have not seen another Fusion Energi in Tucson yet. We live in a little community about 30 miles south of Tucson and mine is certainly the only Energi here. I've seen several 2013 gas models but no Energi's. My odometer just turned over to 3,000 miles this past week and the car is still doing great. I am tracking miles per gallon (makes me feel better) and had the mileage up to 127 lifetime mpg's until I started running some kids from Virginia down to Nogales, Mexico, from the Tucson airport, for a church mission project there. Now I'm at about 115 mpg. I filled the tank up in the last day or two of June and still have a quarter of a tank left, even after all the freeway driving to and from Mexico. I am averaging filling the car up once a month but will probably go a month and a half this time. Not too shabby.

All true, except, when you live in a hot climate like howardbc and I do or your battery becomes hot for some other reason, there are times the engine WILL BE forced on when in EV Now.

I'm glad you finally got some action from our members, dlb92. The X-plan has been the best deal, with incentives off on top of the X-plan, so far. That may have changed a bit though since the 2014's will be out soon. If you are willing to travel, get on the internet and start making offers...a dealer somewhere will bite. Be sure to let them know you have the X-plan available to you (if you do).

A month or so back I tried Go Times and could not get it to work, period. I messed with it for about a week and finally decided I really had no real need for Go Times and that my time was better spent on something useful to me. I must admit that I was pretty frustrated at the time.

So is there a cure or better, recommended, option at this point?

Welcome Andre07! Smart move doing your research and joining this forum. The folks on this forum are very informed about this car and very helpful. So if you research the topics and ask questions, I am sure you will come to a decision that is right for you.

I don't have many hills to negotiate here so I don't have any experience with L in the Fusion. In other, conventional, cars I have had L stood for go faster off the line or assist getting UP a hill, but maxed out the RPM's pretty fast. In the Fusion, can you drop the transmission into L at highway speeds going downhill without blowing the engine up?

I have never used Auto mode for speeds less then 55 MPH, I have always used EV Now. I will have to give Auto mode a try. However, at freeway speeds my Auto mode uses up the EV battery first and and uses it up FAST if I am doing 70 MPH+. Then you are left with hybrid only to get you home. Therefore, your MPG's will suffer. I have been using EV Now exclusively for speeds less then 55 MPH and switching to EV Later (EV later is a hybrid mode too, but will not deplete your EV battery) for anything over that, especially freeway speeds; saving my battery power for when I get off the freeway or I am close enough to home to use it up on the freeway, by switching back to EV Now, which helps to increase overall MPG. At this writing my average MPG's are over 127 and climbing, because I have been doing almost all short trip of 20 miles or less.

Sorry you are having this issue. Let us know what they find is causing the problem.