No EV mode today

[4cylinder]

I bought the car used on Nov 10 2017 with a nearly-full tank of gas (no idea how stale it was).

 

My commute to work is about 8-9 miles each way, and entirely on suburban streets with no freeways, at speeds between 35 and 50 mph, with a duration of 20-30 minutes. I haven't done any driving besides my commuting and errands since I bought the car, except for one brief trip to Windsor, Ontario and back (50 mile round trip). I try to do my errands only after sufficiently charging the HVB, because getting my groceries without burning a drop of gas is awesome!

 

It is currently winter and as we know an arctic blast hit Michigan during the New Years week. During the extreme cold, I was forced to run my defroster, and the battery also needed to get warmed up, so the engine would periodically come on, but I estimate it only ran for no more than 10% of each drive I took.

 

Last week, on January 5, my gas tank dropped to 1/2 so I filled it to full.

 

Yesterday (January 11), on the way home from my martial arts class (a 5 mile drive), my engine turned on despite the relatively warm outside temperature (above 50F/10C), and my left cluster screen said "Engine on due to low use". I was surprised since the engine had come on every single day during the last week, just not for very long. I figured that this was probably the equivalent of the "maintenance mode" on the Chevrolet Volt which forces the engine on every few months to avoid having the gas go stale.

 

However, during my morning and evening commute today (January 12), the engine stayed on 100% of the time. Pressing the EV button gave me the message "EV Now not available". When I went to the "power flow" screen, it said "Engine on due to normal operation". The car still drives perfectly fine - it is just bewildering that it refuses to go into EV mode despite having over 90% in the battery.

 

There are no warning lights on the dashboard. The weather got much colder today (below freezing - had to scrape a lot of ice off my car this evening!) but I doubt that is the cause, since I was still able to drive in EV mode during the arctic blast which was significantly colder than today.

 

Is this normal behavior for the car or should I get it looked at? Thanks.

Edited January 12, 2018 at 11:44 PM by 4cylinder

[murphy]

If the gas in the tank gets to be 18 months old the car will run the engine until it is down to 1/8 of a tank.  However putting in a 1/2 tank of new gas should have aborted the "burn".

There is also an oil maintenance mode.  I don't recall ever seeing that in my car.  I keep my tank at less than 1/4.  That's less weight to haul around in electric mode.

[4cylinder]

However putting in a 1/2 tank of new gas should have aborted the "burn".

 

That's what I thought. I also don't have any messages that indicate any sort of "maintenance mode".

 

I'll let it sit overnight and see if it persists tomorrow.

[ravenz2k17fuse]

Newer owner of a 17 SE here. I have the exact same problem to the T as you described. I'm going on day 3 of my car not going into EV mode. While it has been cold here in CLE, it was colder two weeks ago and I was able to get EV mode then. Frustrating how the power flow just states that ICE is on and it is due to "normal operation". I can see battery is being used when driving, but ICE is always on now. And this is on a full HVB and I also turned off all climate controls. I'm taking it to the dealer this weekend. I also put a full tank of gas in two weeks ago. Keep me updated 4cylinder

[Russael]

If it is too cold outside, the engine will come on regardless of climate control, etc.  The very first year I had my car (a 2013) I drove the whole winter without heat... or at least tried to... and I'll never do that again.  When it drops below freezing, it is a crapshoot if the engine will come on or not.  Most of the time, it would, and if it did, I'd turn the heat on.  Figure I may as well not waste the comfort.  And this is regardless if I was in EV auto or EV now modes.  I use about 2 tanks of gas for the whole winter season, depending on the trips.  The Volt does the same thing.

 

As far as oil maintenance mode goes, I get hit with that maybe twice a winter season.  It requires about 30 minutes of uninterrupted driving to get it to come out of that mode, is what I've discovered.  

[4cylinder]

I forgot to mention that on Saturday, I did the oil life reset to 100% and the engine stopped coming on. It probably wasn't the best idea, but my car is "back to normal" now. I'll inspect the oil sometime this week.

 

At no point did the car tell me of any "maintenance mode" regarding the oil, but I suspect that was exactly what went on since the oil life reset did restore normal operation.

Edited January 16, 2018 at 10:49 PM by 4cylinder

[ravenz2k17fuse]

I followed your advice and reset my oil life to 100 percent. Back to EV mode now.. But why did my power flow app say that ICE is on due to normal operation?  I bought my car a month ago, have service record saying oil was changed 800 miles ago. Maybe they didn't reset it?

[4cylinder]

If it is too cold outside, the engine will come on regardless of climate control, etc.  The very first year I had my car (a 2013) I drove the whole winter without heat... or at least tried to... and I'll never do that again.  When it drops below freezing, it is a crapshoot if the engine will come on or not.  Most of the time, it would, and if it did, I'd turn the heat on.  Figure I may as well not waste the comfort.  And this is regardless if I was in EV auto or EV now modes.  I use about 2 tanks of gas for the whole winter season, depending on the trips.  The Volt does the same thing.

 

As far as oil maintenance mode goes, I get hit with that maybe twice a winter season.  It requires about 30 minutes of uninterrupted driving to get it to come out of that mode, is what I've discovered.  

 

Do you get an explicit message from the car saying that oil maintenance mode is on when it happens? Also come to think of it my commute is rarely longer than 20 minutes, so when I "lost" EV mode, I never got a chance to drive continuously for 30 minutes.

 

I followed your advice and reset my oil life to 100 percent. Back to EV mode now.. But why did my power flow app say that ICE is on due to normal operation?  I bought my car a month ago, have service record saying oil was changed 800 miles ago. Maybe they didn't reset it?

 

It's possible as I had a dealer forget to do that when I had my 2013 hybrid serviced.. I also just realized that there's no actual oil life reading anymore - I had it on the 2013 hybrid!

[Russael]

Yes, the car will pop up a message in my left cluster screen telling me the engine is on due to Oil Maintenance, and it would do that continually (on each restart) until it came out of that mode.  The actual message is something like "Oil Maintenance Mode.  Engine will run."

 

I would purposefully extend a commute or just cruise around until it went back to normal operation.  This typically only comes on if your engine comes on for short drives.  There's time for the engine to warm up, but not enough time to boil any moisture out of the oil.  When the car cools down, more moisture condenses in the oil and eventually could cause a problem.

 

Even though the car offers the ability to reset your oil life monitor, that is not the intended solution - the moisture content in your oil will only continue to increase.  I honestly have no idea why they put that in there.

 

Here's the excerpt from my owners manual about it, and remember, mine is a 2013:

 

Oil Maintenance Mode (If Equipped) The oil maintenance mode is equipped on Energi models only. The oil maintenance mode keeps the engine oil quality in good condition when you drive the vehicle with limited engine use. If the vehicle is in oil maintenance mode when you start the vehicle, a message will appear in the instrument cluster. While the vehicle is in oil maintenance mode, the vehicle will run the engine as necessary. If you select the EV Now mode while the vehicle is in the oil maintenance mode, the oil maintenance mode will be suspended for as long as you continue driving the vehicle. The oil maintenance mode will resume the next time you start the vehicle. Changing the engine oil and resetting the oil life monitoring system will suspend the oil maintenance mode.

[Russael]

How funny that I just found a video that basically goes hand in hand with OMM and why it is there.

 

The mechanic's first explanation is the one to pay attention to - many short trips where the engine doesn't stay warm long enough and causes condensation buildup... sort of looks like (in his words) butterscotch pudding under the oil fill cap.  Granted, there could be other problems that lead to this symptom, but short trips is one of them, and why you should NOT defeat your OMM.

 

[4cylinder]

Thanks Russael. I'll inspect it tonight. Would I be able to just clean out the "pudding" if I find any? Should I schedule an oil change just to be safe? (I have about 9000 miles on the car, and the first 7800 was from the previous owner).

 

I searched the 2017 Energi owner's manual and don't see anything that would tell me of an oil maintenance mode being active.

 

I guess it's another feature Ford removed from earlier model years (I noticed EV+ mode and lifetime summary were gone, and the trip summary after turning off the car does not show the quantity of fuel used, just the fuel economy).

Edited January 18, 2018 at 03:33 PM by 4cylinder

[Russael]

Went through your manual... you should've received a message that said, "Engine ON Due to Low Use Normal Operation."  If you saw this, that is the same thing as my Oil Maintenance Mode.

 

If you've only defeated it once, I wouldn't worry too much about it.  The video sample above probably took a little while to get to that point.  Next time you change your oil, if there's any of that pudding in the cap, just clean it out.  You can change your oil now... cheap preventative maintenance.

 

If that message pops up again, make sure you run your car, take a drive, or extend your commute to something around 30 minutes, give or take, to get it to come out of that mode on its own, but don't defeat it or you may wind up with what is in the video.

[4cylinder]

Thanks again for your help Russael.

 

Next time it happens I will use it as an excuse to drive to Trader Joes which I normally am too lazy to do due to the 40 minute drive :P

[ravenz2k17fuse]

If the car was telling you it needed an oil change, why would it constantly run the engine? Doesn't make much sense to me.

[4cylinder]

If the car was telling you it needed an oil change, why would it constantly run the engine? Doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Not an oil change, oil maintenance. An engine that is off over 90% of the time will face the problem of moisture condensing in the oil compartment. Running the engine to heat things up and boil off the moisture helps preserve the oil quality. 

 

The Chevrolet Volt has a similar feature where it forcefully makes the engine come on if it hasn't been used for a while, both to prevent the gas going stale and to prevent the oil from getting degraded by condensation. 

[ravenz2k17fuse]

My car has 10,800 miles, bought it with 10,200. Oil was changed at 10,200. I have had a few trips of 30 miles already so i've used the ICE engine a few times before it decided to stay on for 3 straight days until i reset the oil settings. I highly doubt my car needed an oil maintenance mode. 

[4cylinder]

My car has 10,800 miles, bought it with 10,200. Oil was changed at 10,200. I have had a few trips of 30 miles already so i've used the ICE engine a few times before it decided to stay on for 3 straight days until i reset the oil settings. I highly doubt my car needed an oil maintenance mode. 

 

Thing is that even if the ICE does come on during a normal trip, it often doesn't stay on for very long, in order to give you maximum fuel economy. For example during the arctic blast my ICE came on more often than normal to run my heater but I estimate it would be for no more than 10% of my trip time. Consequently, it isn't able to remove much condensation, if any.

[ravenz2k17fuse]

My ICE came on 100% of the time for 3 days. No matter if I had 100 % charge or not. Thats why i'm thinking they didn't reset my oil change interval. Now its operating like it should be; ICE when needed when its cold like it still is here by the Great Lakes, but mostly EV mode. 

 

 

Thing is that even if the ICE does come on during a normal trip, it often doesn't stay on for very long, in order to give you maximum fuel economy. For example during the arctic blast my ICE came on more often than normal to run my heater but I estimate it would be for no more than 10% of my trip time. Consequently, it isn't able to remove much condensation, if any.

[4cylinder]

My ICE came on 100% of the time for 3 days. No matter if I had 100 % charge or not. Thats why i'm thinking they didn't reset my oil change interval. Now its operating like it should be; ICE when needed when its cold like it still is here by the Great Lakes, but mostly EV mode. 

 

Ah, makes sense then.

[Russael]

Got the Oil Maintenance Mode message on my way home from visiting the cousins.  It's a 10 mile cruise... was not enough time to get it back out of that mode.  So, the ICE will come back on again when I drive it next, and I will intentionally lengthen my commute to a good 30 minute ride until it comes out of it on its own.

 

I make this commute once a week, but the rest of the time I drive just to work once a week which is 5 miles one way (work from home the other 4 days), and to local grocery stores, restaurants, etc.  With it being so cold, the ICE would come on, but wouldn't stay at operating temperature, which is why OMM exists.  Rides to the parents' is 8 miles.  But even with those moderately extended commutes, the car still boots me in OMM usually once or twice a winter season.

 

But if you choose to defeat it, that's all up to you.

[openair]

My ICE came on 100% of the time for 3 days. No matter if I had 100 % charge or not. Thats why i'm thinking they didn't reset my oil change interval. Now its operating like it should be; ICE when needed when its cold like it still is here by the Great Lakes, but mostly EV mode. 

 

100% of the time doesn't say much.  If it came on 100% of the time of 5 km of all city driving that is meaningless.  The oil maintence mode is to remove moisture built up in the oil.  You need to drive the vehicle in EV later at highway speeds for 15+ minutes to get the engine warm enough to boil all the moisture out if you're seeing the low use message.

Edited January 20, 2018 at 11:30 PM by openair

[4cylinder]

Got the Oil Maintenance Mode message on my way home from visiting the cousins.  It's a 10 mile cruise... was not enough time to get it back out of that mode.  So, the ICE will come back on again when I drive it next, and I will intentionally lengthen my commute to a good 30 minute ride until it comes out of it on its own.

 

I make this commute once a week, but the rest of the time I drive just to work once a week which is 5 miles one way (work from home the other 4 days), and to local grocery stores, restaurants, etc.  With it being so cold, the ICE would come on, but wouldn't stay at operating temperature, which is why OMM exists.  Rides to the parents' is 8 miles.  But even with those moderately extended commutes, the car still boots me in OMM usually once or twice a winter season.

 

But if you choose to defeat it, that's all up to you.

 

Definitely not going to defeat it again haha. The first (and only) time I did it was because I didn't understand what was going on, as the 2017 models don't explicitly say "oil maintenance" in the on-screen messages anymore, which is annoying.

[Russael]

The comment about defeating it was more of a general statement. :)  My car did come out of OMM after being out and about for 30 minutes... plus it was somewhere in the 40s yesterday.

 

While the car was in OMM, I decided to have just a little fun and stomped on it a few times... thing takes off pretty quick.  It makes me scratch my head over those who want even more power, but to each their own.  Driving fast is too expensive (especially if you see red and blue in your rear view).

[4cylinder]

This just happened to me again today, and I followed the advice in this thread and made sure to keep the car on for at least 30 minutes.

 

The trip home from the barber's (all suburban roads, max speed 50 mph) took 25 minutes, so when I got home I just idled in the garage (with the door open of course). At the 5 minute mark, I got nervous since the car still didn't shut off the engine, but at the 7 minute mark, it did! I was then able to change EV modes with the button behind the shifter.

 

In total it took 32 minutes for the car to come out of the "invisible oil maintenance mode". I wonder if it would have taken less time if the car were in motion the whole time, rather than idling for a part of it.

 

Anyway, I am still annoyed that the car does not use any visuals to tell me that oil maintenance mode is on, or instruct me to run the car for 30 continuous minutes. That is a bewildering omission considering many first-time PHEV owners (like me) are likely to be unaware of all the specifics.

Edited February 6, 2018 at 05:12 PM by 4cylinder