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Everything posted by murphy
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Who is the boss, you or your car? Now that it is cold outside I am seeing many posts about driving around without using the heat to get better mileage figures. I did that for a while until it dawned on me that I was letting the car control me. I never rode around without using the heat when I had a gas only car or even when I had the 2010 Fusion Hybrid. My longest regular trip is 10.5 miles. My approach now is to precondition the car to 72 degrees. Drive to my destination in EV Later mode with the heat on. Drive home in EV Now mode with the heat on. The mileage game is now over for me. I drive the car in comfort and don't worry about mileage.
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Read about the memory function (page 134 in my copy of the Owner's Manual). Basically the car can link a key to a seat position and a mirror position.
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12 gauge will work. There will be more loss due to heating the wire than with 10 gauge. The result is it will take longer and cost more to charge the car. How much longer? I don't know. As long as the cord is stretched out and not in a coil it should be fine. If it is going to be used outdoors make sure it is an outdoor rated cord.
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One thing to consider. The HVB gets its air from the vent on the rear shelf. If the cabin isn't heated the air going to the battery will be cooler than if the cabin was heated. This might make the battery capacity lower than if the cabin was heated. How much? I don't know and I'm not interested enough too try to measure it.
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The "rule of thumb", from 50 years ago, was that it took 25 miles of driving to replace the energy withdrawn from the battery to start the car. Granted that we don't have a high current starter motor so it shouldn't take that long. The 12 volt battery is in continuous use. Every time the MyFordMobile web site requests an update and every time the car initiates an update the current spike on the 12 volt battery exceeds 10 amps (the highest direct current that I can measure). My longest regular weekly trip is 10.5 miles. Throughout that trip the voltmeter that I have plugged into the forward power port indicates 14.4 volts which means the battery is being charged. I very seldom see it drop to 13.2 volts which indicates a fully charger battery. The majority of my trips are in the 2 to 5 mile range. Most of the time when I receive the text message that the car is charged the charger has not shut down and continues on for an hour or two.
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The manual does recommend against using an extension cord. IMHO that is because the vast majority of extension cords that people may already have use 16 gauge wire which is totally wrong for this use. A 100 foot, outdoor rated, 10 gauge, 3 wire extension cord would work fine. That would cost around $140 to purchase given the price of copper today.
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It was charging the 12 volt battery.
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Frustrated with the "Value Charge" feature
murphy replied to mikenmar's topic in Batteries & Charging
If your car is sitting in a low signal area for AT&T cell phone service the web site will have trouble communicating with the car. -
There is only one HVB. A portion of the HVB is reserved for hybrid operation (about 1.1 kWh I think). When the HVB is fully charged that includes the hybrid portion since it is the same battery.
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We wern't talking about turning lane assist on. That is a manual operation each time the car is turned on. We were talking about whether there should just be a warning or a warning + steering assist. That is what should stay the way it was set in the menu.
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Flat? No prob, I'll just get out the spare and... D'OH!!
murphy replied to mikenmar's topic in Tires & Wheels
I have a plug kit, a can of flat fix that does NOT destroy the TPMS sensor, a jack, and a tool box. I got the jack because of previous experience with plug kits. It is much easier for me to put a plug in a tire when the tire is not mounted on the car. The plug can be difficult to insert and I need to be able to use my full body weight in the process. -
It should stay where you set it.
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Only getting 16 miles of EV. Should I be worried?
murphy replied to bfenster90's topic in Batteries & Charging
The battery mileage number is an estimate based on how the car has been driven. Once charged the battery has a fixed amount of energy available. How the energy is used determines how far it will propel the car. Drive the car at 80 mph with hard accereration and deceleration and it will be empty in a few miles. Drive it with smooth accereration and deceleration at 35 mph and it will propel the car considerably further. Think of the battery as a bucket of water. Put a pinhole in the bottom of the bucket and it will take a long time to empty the bucket. Put a 2" hole in the bottom of the bucket and it will be empty ery quickly. -
The easiest way to achieve the same result, assuming fuse #10 isn't blown, is to disconnect the negative battery terminal in the trunk for 30 seconds. The ICE will have to re-learn its operating parameters and a few other items may have to be reconfigured. Somewhere in the Manual it lists what has to be re-entered. To see the fuse panel put the drivers seat all of the way to the rear and then lay on your back on the floor in the drivers footwell with your head near the accelerator pedal. With a flashlight you will be able to see the fuse panel. The white plastic thing in the upper left corner of the fuse panel is a fuse puller. Stuff some towels behind the carpet because if you drop the puller or the fuse it will fall behind the carpet and then it's a major disassembly to get something out from behind the carpet.
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Remote Start Options
murphy replied to newbeetle18t's topic in Alarms, Keyless Entry, Locks & Remote Start
Are you using a restricted MyKey instead of a Master key? -
My hypothesis was disproved. I ran the GO time heating test. The car was parked in the garage. I hung a square sheet of aluminum foil in the center of the cabin from the front edge of the moon roof. I measured the temperature of the foil, using an infrared thermometer, after it had enough time to match the cabin air temperature. I set the GO time for a half- hour later. 10 minutes after the GO time I measured the temperature of the foil again and recorded the power used. I opened all four doors and allowed the car to return to the garage temperature for an hour before doing the next test. This was done for 65, 72, and 85 degrees. Setting Start End Rise Offset Power Used Fan Noise 65 degrees 39.3 53.9 14.6 -11.1 1.20 kWh Low 72 degrees 47.4 68.7 21.3 -3.3 1.24 kWh Medium 85 degrees 55.9 73.9 18.0 -11.1 1.47 kWh high
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Are the car and space heater on the same circuit? The car should be on its own breaker. Is the breaker for the bathroom a ground fault breaker or an arc fault breaker? The heater probably has a thermostat with a bi-metallic temperature controlling element. When that element opens there will probably be a spark (arc) that an arc fault breaker might detect and open the circuit. The minimum panel these days is a 200 ampere panel with 200 ampere service from the power company. How old is this house? It sounds like my parents old house that was built in the 1920 era and had two fuses for the whole house. My house, built in 1957, has 200 amp service with a 40 breaker panel.
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Rain Sensing Wipers
murphy replied to Hardp's topic in Glass, Headlights, Fog lamps, Lenses & Window Tint
Right, one notch above off. -
How happy are you with your Fusion Energi?
murphy replied to TCMALIBU's topic in Lounge - Fusion Energi
1. 10 2. 2010 Fusion Hybrid 3. In a heartbeat. I wanted the Energi when I bought the 2010 Hybrid but had to wait 4 years for it to be available. -
It might be but you should run the report before you clear the error if at all possible.
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Navigation -- Car's location not accurate
murphy replied to mikenmar's topic in Audio, Navigation & SYNC
It takes awhile for the 12 receivers in the GPS to lock onto the satellites and complete a synchronization on each channel. It needs to be synced with at least 4 satellites to compute your current location. If the GPS antenna doesn't have a clear view of the sky it will take even longer. -
If you are in EV Now and "floor" it the ICE will come on with a message that says performance requires it.
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On my 240 volt charger the yellow charging light turns on. In the car the blowers come on.
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I just ran a quick experiment with GO time cabin heating. I tested 85 degrees F and 72 degrees F. 72 degrees F puts far more heat into the cabin than 85 degrees F does. I won't be able to do a complete test until sometime next week. Anyone that has a recording thermometer could do the test with little effort. The Hypothesis: The 65 degree setting is actually 72 degrees, the 72 degree setting is actually 85 degrees, the 85 degree setting is actually 65 degrees. The only way to tell for sure is to measure the cabin temperature rise for each of the three settings. Unfortunately I don't have a recording thermometer so it will be a time connsuming test.
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In my early experiments with GO times last April I found that if the car overshoots the set temperature it appears to use the air conditioner to bring it back down. I only did the test once and should probably test it again to be sure.