Car is in the shop

[Russael]

Greetings everyone, long time no post.

 

So I still have my 2013 Fusion Energi.  It now only has 50,500 miles on it, so not much.  I noticed some new, under hood symptoms that came on within the last month.

 

I purchased new tires early last month and had them installed with a wheel alignment.  Not the OEM tires, but I did get the Michelins that are designed for Mercedes, so they're super quiet and ride a lot nicer.

 

This is actually the second time I've had an issue with the eCVT.  The first one was a couple years ago - the RTV sealant failed and I noticed a drip on the bottom of the transmission during an oil change, and then saw a larger stain on the underside cover (I really don't like that cover since it catches drips and leaks that now won't hit the floor and will instead be absorbed by the cover).

 

Anyway, the first symptom:  The wife now uses it as her daily driver since her car got t-boned a couple years ago and written off.  She is absolutely terrible at backing out of the garage and driveway, so sometimes I'll go out with her and keep an eye on where she's going... and that's when I heard a new chattering noise coming from the front of the car, but only when the friction brakes are applied; regenerative doesn't make any noise.  It is barely audible from inside the car, but outside was very noticeable.  I walked down the driver's side and heard it, passenger side and heard it, but walking up front was the loudest.  I jacked it up, removed the front tires, and checked the wheel bearings, steering linkages, ball joints, and the half shafts.  All checked out (to me).  Twisting the half shaft would make some noise on the transmission side of the spline, but it sounded more internal to the transmission than the shaft itself.

 

Second symptom:  At speeds over 35MPH, the amount of noise coming from the transmission was higher than usual (and no, not because I could hear it better from the new tires; it came around a couple weeks after).  Wasn't electric motor whine as I'm very used to that, but a slightly different whirring sound that was louder than normal.  I checked for transmission leaks and didn't see any, but all of the fluid could've drained out;  thank you Ford for not putting a dipstick in to check it.  Now you have to pull the fill plug and stick a boroscope camera in there to see if there is fluid.  Brilliant design.  I do not have one of those nor know anybody who does, and I wasn't about to buy one for a single use.  Besides - the transmission is still under the "unique hybrid components" warranty for 8 years, 100k miles.

 

So the ride is in the shop; they replaced the right half shaft, saying it was noisy to the tune of 550 bucks... I don't know anybody who's had a half shaft fail that early in its life; the boots were fine.  They say they still hear noise from the transmission at higher speeds, so now they have parts on order for that.

 

Generally, the car has been reliable; it always turns on, it always drives, and the HVAC controls have behaved.  Oh, and just to tease Murphy a bit ?, I'm still rocking the original 12v battery.  7 years old and still going.

 

Aside from that, I'll let ya'll know what the final result is once I get it back.

[murphy]

" Oh, and just to tease Murphy a bit ?, I'm still rocking the original 12v battery.  7 years old and still going. "

 

7 years is a long time for any wet cell lead acid battery.  I would have it load tested so in the near future you don't get a call from your wife telling you she is stranded.

 

The one in my standby 20 kW generator is replaced every 3 years.  I don't want to learn the battery is dead when I need the generator to start because the power company has failed to supply power.

 

I have much lower mileage than you do.  I just turned 10,000 miles.  The vast majority of it is in EV Now.  Driving every day avoids the battery problems that come with driving once a week.

I am retired and basically confined to the house since getting Covid-19 would probably kill me because of permanent damage to my heart from a heart attack 28 years ago.

[Russael]

7 years is a long time, but not so long if it's connected to a smart charger the whole time.  My Expedition truck battery is now >7 years old now but it doesn't get driven much, so it stays connected to a batteryMINDer a lot, and it still turns over like new when it does get driven.  The battery charger in the Fusion is likely also a smart charger, and there were firmware updates for the module that controls it.  Its never gone dead or given me any kind of low battery warning since that was taken care of.  And yes - if the 12v gets low while the car is plugged in, it will re-engage the EVSE and top it off.  It has sat for a week a few times (before the wife inherited it), and a few days later I've been in the garage and saw the EVSE engaged without having driven it.

 

Most of the driving in the Fusion is in EV mode (we just leave it on auto nowadays) and the wife is an HVAC junkie... never drives with a window cracked, down, moonroof open... nothing.  Always AC, always heat.  It isn't able to make 20 miles anymore.  It'll get her to work (about 10 miles from here), and will get her part of the way home before the ICE kicks in.

 

We isolate too...  we just go out for groceries mostly.

[Russael]

Alrighty,

 

After a week and two days in the shop, it's done.

 

They replaced the passenger side CV shaft mid-bearing.  That apparently failed.  About 550 to replace that plus a 60 dollar wheel alignment.... which pisses me off because I literally had one done a month ago when I got the new tires installed.  Seems like I'm always trapped in to spending more money than I should've needed to.

 

And they replaced the transmission.  Bearing in it failed, ate into the case.  They swapped in a remanufactured one.  It was covered under the unique hybrid component warranty.  Had it not been, labor would've been at least 1600, and according to Fordparts, the eCVT Remanufactured item is 5,100 + a 1k core charge.

 

Thinking maybe I should get rid of the car before it hits 100k in case this happens again.  The hybrid component warranty is done for me in May 2021, as it'll be 8 years old.

 

So the list of warranty issues with this jalopy grows a little more.  The other stuff was HVAC controls a couple times.