FusionDad

I am the original poster. I bought spacers on E-Bay and on Amazon until I hit the right thickness. Trial and error. The spacer lug hole pattern must match the Fusion's lug pattern... if I remember correctly, 5 x 108mm. For all - I sold my Fusion Energi and kept my Fusion donut wheel and spacer. Anyone out there wants it, PM me pls.

Folks, Having had two blowouts on the highway with my Energi, I focused and finally cracked the nut on how to use an OEMFord Fusion donut wheel and not be stuck on the highway anymore. Description of my solution follows, as well as an offer to anyone also trying to solve this problem. Solution: add a hub-centric spaces with integral wheel studs, as well as a 3mm press-fit spacer. HOW: one hub-centric spacer + one 3mm generic flat spacer. This combination of spacers makes the inside of the OEM Fusion donut clear the extra-large Energi REAR WHEEL calipers while preserving the recommended wheel bolt thread depths for safe use. IMPLEMENTATION: 1. ALWAYS put the donut on the rear wheel, no matter where the blown tire is... keep reading. 2. remove the blown wheel (if a blowout is on the rear wheel) or a good rear wheel (to replace the blown front wheel). 3. put on the generic 3mm spacer (this prevents the OEM wheel bolts from protruding through the hub-centric spacer and bottoming out inside the donut wheel). 4. bolt on the hub-centric spacer using its half-height lugs on the OEM wheel bolts inside the recessed machined spaces. 5. bolt on the OEM Fusion donut wheel onto the hub-centric spacer's wheel bolts, using the OEM wheel lugs. 6. (optional) swap the damaged front wheel with the good rear wheel you just took off. GOOD DEAL: I have the spacers bolted to my Fusion donut for travel storage. Both the hub-centric spacers and the press-fit thin spacers came in pairs... so I have an extra set of the wide hub-centric spacer with its additional bolts and half-height lugs, and the generic 3mm spacer. If you need this solution, PM me... all you need other than these two spacers is a normal OEM Fusion donut (I got a brand new one off E-Bay for $68) and a Ford Fusion jack and of course a lug tool. I recommend a Billy Club by PowerBuilt which will fit any car's bolt lugs. Hope this is useful for someone out there.

...also, try replacing the brake lines with STEEDA stainless steel brake lines. If you're mechanically handy this is a DIY and the new lines give significantly more precision "feel" to braking. Yet another tip: once his OEM LRR tires wore out my son put Michelin Defenders on his Energi, and THAT certainly made a notable positive difference both in comfort and in handling, while the Defenders have a 90,000 mile life to boot as a very nice bonus.

Try a half-shafted Fusion Energi throttle body from Cordova Motor Sports. My son and I have them on our two Energis, and they helped... not tremendously, but a li'l. Easy bolt-on mod that'll pay back for the life of the car. Best!

We've been charging our 2012 Prius Plug-In and our Ford Fusion Energi out on the driveway since April 2012. Never a problem, rain, snow or shine. Of course, the 120V receptacle has an in-use waterproof Lexan cover with holes for the charge cord out the bottom. Our Level 2 Leviton 16 amp charger is mounted outside as well. I fashioned a PVC pipe holster on a nearby porch swing set to hold the level 2 charging connector in a connection-down position when it's not used.

Mileage (and "EV mileage") will greatly increase in warm months and drop in the colder months. It's a function of battery physics. However, no matter what, you'll still get ridiculously good mileage compared to most drivers on the road. I suggest you plan your drive, no matter what the length, so that you get back home with the traction battery empty, since electric power is cheaper than gasoline. Playing with the EV Now / EV Auto / EV Later buttons on the center console is the trick. You can also set the left-side dashboard display to show you what your car is using at any given moment. My son and I tend to use the "double arc" display i.e the simultaneous display that shows use of the gas engine and the EV motor display, as the most informative. Once selected, this display can teach you when and how to drive in the most gas-saving way possible. Enjoy!

This is a great car. Son and I bought it together on Memorial Day weekend in 2013, took it together on a 7,000 mile cross-country trip this Summmer, and Son moved himself and all his gear from Northern Virginia to Louisville Kentucky using just the Fusion Energi, a buddy and a Thule roof box (the largest one) - gear that included his huge flat screen TV. Apart from weirdo Ford infotainment electronics, this is a fool-proof midsize car with a fantastic gas mileage, solid driving behavior, high comfort and good reliability. The more you plug in the better it gets. I strongly recommend it.

LARRYH, thanks for sharing your observations over the last month+. Your evidence about use of the Engine Block heater confirmed empirically what I had sensed by the seat-of-my-pants on another plug-in hybrid, our 2012 Prius Plug-In: the EBH helps the car run better, (more efficiently) beyond helping the car start easily. . Now I and Son will have to talk about getting an EBH installed onto our Fusion Energi - maybe for the next Winter. Too bad it doesn't look like a snick-snick insert-into-precast-sleeve operation like on the Prius.

BLUF: the Fusion Energy is a great car. Battery: I've owned the 1st generation Prius, traded up to a 2d generation Prius and now own the 3d generation Prius plug-in Advanced (Li-Ion battery) and also the Fusion. These batteries last and last... ...and last. The 1st generation Priuses are just now beginning to die, with ten years on the road. Check the Pruschat blog. Plug-in hybrids versus the regular hybrids: if you own your home you can charge easily, often several times /day on the weekend. Each charge for this car gives you 22 - 25 EV miles as a cost of 50 - 80 cents per charge. Add that up over 30 days in a month, and it equates to well over 600 miles at a conservative cost of $25 or less. If you drive, say, 1,000 miles/month, you only pay gas for the last 300 miles. On long trips you still get a fabulous 43 MPG average with a good-sized, comfortable car. Trunk space: the trunk is short (shallow in depth) but quite tall (deep vertically). Last August, my son and I made a cross-country vacation trip of just about 7,000 miles, from Virginia to Yellowstone, the Black Hills, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Pikes Peak and lots of points in between. Two adults, all their 23-day trip gear, crap we bought enroute, camping gear, clothes, food cooler, whiskey bottles and we were fine. The folding rear seats work well as extra cargo space. I created a thread about that trip elsewhere on this forum. If you might travel long distances with four+ people and all their luggage, then you'll have space limitations. In my experience, up to three people with all their luggage is quite comfortable with smart packing. In mid-September, my 30-year old son moved 600 miles from Virginia to Kentucky. The moving vehicle was our Fusion and a son's friend along for the ride. All of son's stuff (except of course furniture - he had none worth moving) fit into the Fusion trunk and rear seat cargo area and and a Thule extra-large roof cargo box we invested in as it'll last for the life of the car. Yes the Thule coffin-sized box was full to the gills - but this illustrates that this car is flexible and relatively easy to live with depending on how you plan to use it. So, my advice is to buy it unless you already have an immediate family of four+ and, if that is true, also cannot afford more than one car. If you are single, it'll work for you. If there are two of you, it'll work for you. Two people and a small child - it'll work for you.

One addition: because our 2013 Fusion now lives in Louisville KY along with my son, I actually measured the hole spacing etc. on Virginia sales yards' Fusions - and the 2013 and 2014 models I measured seem to have the same exact seat hardware, which makes sense. So, yes this should also fit the 2014 models.

Dave et.al, Dave, thanks for posting the pix and for kindly sharing your extra bolts. We also installed these onto our Fusion and they look good and work well for the seat height, and moreover provide safety pinning between the seat rail (OEM steel pin) and the new bracket and the floor pan (the shiny steel 1/2 inch dia roll pin seen in the photo) to prevent shearing of the seat under horizontal impacts. Installation is really simple. I ordered two 2 inch x 1.5 inch aluminum billets from Grainger supply, and also a bag of five steel roll pins. The two aluminum billets were enough to make three sets of billet brackets, with a slope cut into the top of each bracket to correspond to the 17-inch rise angle (17 inches between the front and the rear seat bolts). Since I made three sets of billet brackets (three sets just in case I screwed up on cutting the 1st set) I still have one set left over. Unfortunately, with five steel pins per bag, that extra set has only one steel pin instead of two, in other words one bracket still needs a steel pin. One of the brackets also has three holes instead of two (experimental 1st bracket I drilled, of course wrong). I also have one extra set of the DAVE bolts to go with this set. If anyone out there would like this set, pls PM me and we can arrange something. MCH a.k.a FusionDad

I just wired a used Leviton 16 amp L2 charger last week in my son's house for the daily Fusion feed. It came with a whip and we put it on the garage wall next to the 1964 Bryant panel. Other than finding the correct Eaton breaker to match the outmoded panel, the installation was a breeze. Both black wires to the two breaker posts, and the ground wire to the ground bar... and that was that.

Ya know - we both completely forgot about Grade Assist during our 7,000 mile trip... this car has so many buttons it's hard to remember it all LOL :whistling:

...BTW, yes - on the Prius, 3/4 of the job was disassembling all the panels etc and figuring out a way in through a maze of complexity. Ah,the days of a 1968 inline six were so simple!

Larryh, thanks for both replies - here and in the Cold Weather Observations. I was very pleasantly surprised by the benefits of using an EBH on the Prius - even in temps up to 40 degrees. However, the Fusion is a different car - so I am curious what you think once you do a comparo.

Folks, This is a fascinating discussion. I have only Summer experience driving across the country with my son in our Fusion Energi. He has the car now in Kentucky, while I'm in Virginia. However, I have 32 thou miles' and 18 months' experience with our other car, 2012 Prius Plug-In Advanced. I recognize all the general symptoms you all have written about here - the drastically lower Winter EV mileage above all. In Priusland, most of us know to block the Prius engine grilles partially or once in a while fully to somewhat restore mileage. Of course, Fusion Energi (at least our Titanium model) has active grille shutters which is a very nice feature to regulate engine temps. The Prius Atkinson cycle engines, like the Fusion Energi Atkinson cycle engines, tend to run cooler than the Otto cycle engines we all grew up with. I finally installed a Toyota Canada Engine Block heater in our Prius this Fall. I'm very happy with it - plug it into an extension cord every morning right as I get up and get the paper before any other actions. By the time I roll to work, the car warms up within 30 seconds and defrosts the windshield fast. Note: this Prius lives outside all year. Larryh - you mentioned that your Fusion Energi has an EBH installed. Any lessons learned in EBH use so far this Winter? BTW - my experimentation with our Prius EBH points to two - three hours as optimal time. Of course, I live in Northern Virginia outside Washington DC, and not in Minnesota. I'm thinking of helping Son by getting an EBH installed at the next Fusion tune-up but I'd like to hear from the community first. Thanks in advance.

Folks, One+ year ago, I ordered a Toyota Canada Engine Block Heater for our Prius Plug-In. All Toyota Prius (and probably other model) engines have a cast sleeve designed to receive an EBH - on the Prius it's on the back of the engine. The way I figured it, the Prius's Atkinson gas engine runs somewhat cooler than a regular Otto cycle engine, and besides, the EV 12 -14 mile range in a cold Prius when the weather happens to be "wet-cold" could induce a lot of condensation int othe car cabin from our breaths, etc. Well, I finally put the EBH in this October on a warm Autumn weekend. The job wasn't too bad at all. I immediately noticed several positive things: the cabin windshield clears within a block because the engine jacket is already warm so DEFROST works well right away. The cabin heats up fast as well. And of course, the engine, being already warm, shuts off much faster while I drive without the 4-5 minute warm-up cycle. I'm sure I'll likely see an improved engine component life as well if I keep that car for a long time. I plug the EBH in via a 14-gage cord as soon as I wake up and go get the morning paper in the driveway, before I put the coffee on etc. By the time I roll 90+minutes later, it's warm. I'd rather use house electricity than gasoline to warm the Fusion up before use. IMHO too many US Army and Marines died in the Middle East in the last decade to, among other national goals, ensure a stable oil supply. So, anyone out there already have or knows about Ford Fusion Engine Block heaters? Any Canadians on the forum? If possible, how doable is the installation? Thanks in advance!

If the grade is steep enough and continuous enough, your car will self-charge the battery by itself, without using the brakes. On a loooong father-son cross-country trip this August, we did this twice in the West: once crossing the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming from East (from the Black Hiills) to West (to Cody) and gained 20+ free EV miles because the road, once over the pass, descended continuously and gently down a beautiful canyon wall for some 30+ miles, with little if any brake use. The other time, we self-charged 43 "indicated" EV miles descending from Pike's Peak in Colorado (and yes we did use brakes on that road 'cause you just have to use them all the time on that descent). Two notes: 1). the park ranger at the brake temperature checkpoint commented "cool brakes, very good job guys". This I attribute to the regen function of the hybrid axles, since the axles in regen mode can slow the car much more than do axles in a regular car. 2). the "indicated" 43 EV miles of course turned out to be a tricked computer algorithm, and got used up within 23 miles as soon as we hit the flats in Colorado Springs. So my suggestion, after driving our Prius Plug-In for 32+ thousand miles and the Fusion Energi for close to 15 thousand miles, is to "just drive it" and not try to gain free energy by specifically burning up your brake system. If the mountain is big enough, you'll get free EV miles no matter what. And if it ain't big enough for that, then in the long run it's not worth using up the brake components, i.e. you can't get something for nuthin'.

My license plate says "VOLTME"

There are extensive discussions and solutions to this on Pruis forums. Pls google "using PiP as a generator" for starters. IMHO, considering the relatively gigantic traction (EV) battery present in our plug-in cars and the attendant already built-in inverters, computer algorithms and circuitry provided, the best way to provide generator-like house power is to tap the main battery. Prius solutions go up to steady-draw 2000 Watts, and can reliably surge to 5000 Watts depending on starting draws. There's an AIMS 2000 Watt pure sine wave inverter on E-bay for just several hundred $$ and coupled with a Reliance circuit interconnection switch, this can power most things in the house for days on end. Multiple people have run their Priuses for 2 - 3 days while powering their houses in the last 18 months, especially after Hurricane Sandy. The beauty of this approach is: one "sunk cost" machine instead of two, no noise, and when you need gas you go & get some by driving to a working gas station (even 50 miles away). The Fusion Energi's battery is more than twice the size of the Prius battery, which is a great advantage. And BTW - this setup can be made to work via a standard house generator plug on the exterior wall. Two ways to approach this: either by setting up a large UPS and a small UPS (both necessary) in the house and using the car as an on-demand generator to the UPS (see www.priups.com) or alternately by just hooking the car's large battery directly into a good large inverter like the AIMS one and on to a split circuit emergency redirect switch. It's a balance between cost and ease of initial setup. Those of us with needs for uninterruptible power (medical devices, work-related home-based computer systems, etc) should look into the PriUPS setup. the rest of us, who dislike large lead acid batteries in the house, can do the simpler design setup. Also check out www.converdant.com for turnkey solutions.

I have used German RUD snow chains for two decades. Started when I was an Army guy in Germany in the early 1990s and owned a BMW 318i. Continued thru three generations of Toyota Prius and now the Ford Fusion. In comparison with the gorilla-strength Army jeep and Humvee snow chains, the RUD chains for passenger cars are wonderful: 10-second on (mounting) time per wheel with a li'l practice, same or quicker for dismounting, solid snow & ice grip, and they never ever beat on your wheel wells, unlike the Army chains. I highly recommend this brand. They have several designs - I go for the RUD "classic" model. Check out the RUD snow chain website. Note: once they're bought, KEEP THEM IN YOUR TRUNK year-round. Several of my friends over the years chucked them somewhere into the basement etc, and two+years later, when a snowstorm caught them at work or wherever, could not locate them for all the tea in China. The RUDs are packaged nicely and happily live in your trunk where they're always available when needed, and they're light and small enough inside their case so they don't get in the way otherwise.

When descending Pike's Peak this Summer, our Fusion registered 43 EV miles before the system quit charging. Of course, a distance test on a flat road after we reached the lowlands established that the "extra EV miles" were just a computer algorithm mirage - the car expended all these phantom EV miles in about 23 miles.

I went with solar grid-tied panels in late 2007, and added ground-sourced heat pump (also but inaccurately called "geothermal" in January 2012. Very satisfied with both - more so as the solar panels balance out the slight electrical usage increase of GSHP. I now wish I was a large home-building company owner - I know what I would be installing in large house tracts to instantly differentiate my product from every other tract developer's product. With economies of scale and (especially for GSHP) with the ease of rapidly pre-drilling house sites before all the fencing/landscaping is in place, the added cost per house would be a pittance.

The active grill shutters are an excellent feature for any plug-in car. This is because plug-in cars that are PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric vehicles i.e. cars that have both an electric motor and a gasoline engine) have gasoline engines which are designed to operate on the Atkinson cycle, instead of the usual Otto cycle. In cold weather, these carss' gas engines run considerably cooler than optimal. Active grill shutters help to compensate for the heat loss in cold weather, keeping the gasoline engine at optimal temperatures. Otherwise, cold weather can really drop PHEVs' mileage. We have a Fusion Energi and a 2012 Prius Plug-In, and the Prius doesn't have active grill shutters. As a result, many many Prius owners partially block their cars' grilles with neoprene pipe insulating tubes for the Winter season to mitigate this seasonal mileage drop (see the PriusChat blog for many discussion threads on this issue). The Energi's active shutter system makes that grill blocking needless. Hoo-ah for smart Ford engineering!