VonoreTn

Amen. But I didn't run across it for a full year, so maybe I'm not the only one who doesn't read the owner's manual cover to cover, I just read it as I have a question.

I'm going to see if I can raise someones standard of living just a little bit. Are you ever annoyed that you have to press the unlock button on your key fob twice to let your Wife in the passenger door? Did you know that if you hold both the lock and the unlock button down for 5 seconds, the control will toggle to the option of unlocking all the doors? You can do it again and return to drivers door only. Well, it raised my standard of living...a little bit. Nice on long trips.

Right on Jon. For those of you who never use your parking brake, remember that the only thing between you and that semi truck that is stopping in front of you is about a cup of brake fluid contained by a bunch of seals and fittings, that is regularly spiked to over 1000 psi. The system is well engineered, but it's a good idea to exercise and understand the backup ability of your "parking" brake.

If you have the e-brake on and you go above a certain speed, the cluster will start dinging at you, so I doubt it was left on. So she would have to be deaf or really stupid to leave it on.

I'm not calling anyone stupid, I drove a rental car for a couple of miles not realizing the parking brake was on when I picked it up. I finally saw a dash warning light (dah), and realized that the sluggish performance was already a strong indicator that the parking brake was on. The steel rear wheel rims were so hot at that point I couldn't touch them. What can happen to someone who doesn't use the parking brake regularly is they pick up their car at an auto service facility and don't notice that whoever parked it put the parking brake on. Note that we can't call it an emergency brake anymore for legal conciseness reasons (don't want to overstate it's function). It's probably not a bad idea to try your parking brake while driving in a wide open parking lot at very low speed just to get a feel for how it will stop your car if you ever have to, like if you ever lose your brake fluid for some reason. Don't do it in the snow or ice, or even cold or wet weather, the car could come around on you since it's rear brakes only.

Zack,

Don't take this personally but the most statistically and functionally likely explanation is that while your Daughter doesn't use the parking brake on a regular basis, she did once, and forgot to release it as she drove off. I have 52,000 miles on my FFH and the rear pads are like new. I will never be scammed on a repair because I do my own pads. If you monitor your pad wear and replace them at about 1/8 inch thickness remaining you won't need new rotors for over 100,000 miles, and you will spend about $25 per axle for pad replacements, which takes me about 20 minutes per axle. The rotors were the expensive part of your repair, and if you had 1 mm of pad left, you probably didn't need new rotors. Unless they saw severe heat and warped, due to the parking brake being engaged. After 10 years and 187,000 miles on my 2000 Explorer, all the rotors were still good after 4 pad replacements. If anyone ever tells you that you have only a mm of brake pad left, drive the car home, pop the wheel off and look before you spend $400 on a repair. Even better, while you have the wheel off, run down to Advance Auto and buy some inexpensive pads and put them on your calipers. They are a hell of a lot easier to replace than the old drum brake shoes. By the way, a mm is .040 inch, a hair is about .002 inch.

I usually fill up when the computer says I have 30 to 50 miles left, and it takes 14.5 to 14.8 gallons. So I usually have just over 2 gallons left. But that may not be a useful 2 gallons if you are on a hill or slant, and the 2 gallons isn't available at the fuel pump entrance.

Hi Paul,

Yes, I love bikes too. I curently have my first motorcycle that I bought in 1966 a Yamaha YL1 ( notice my sign in name) it is a 100 cc twin cylinder two stroke . I just rode it this fall on the famous Dragon Road in the Smokies 311 turns in 11 miles. I also have a 2009 Aprilia RS 125 2 stroke sport bike . It was one of the last two strokes made in the world only 125cc but puts out 34 HP top speed of 101mph. A 1998 ZX 600 Kawasaki sport bike and a 1972 DS7 Yamaha 2 stroke twin, and last a 2001 Derbi GPR 50 Sport bike 6 speed water cooled 50cc with top speed of 72 mph. Attached are pics of the 66 Yamaha and 2009 Aprilla RS125.

I live not far from the Tail of the Dragon Road. I have a 76 Honda CB 360T, that I have been reconditioning for 3 years, and still fooling with the carbs to try to get it not to foul the plugs so quickly. I haven't given up, but it's tough work because all the parts are ridiculous expensive, so I try to rebuild stuff. I also have a curiosity interest in small CC bikes that go fast. A 125cc that makes 34 hp and goes 101 is one impressive bike. My 84 Honda 9 hp 150cc Elite motor scooter only makes about 53 mph.

If you ever get near Birmingham, Al, stop at the Barber Motorcycle Museum. It's expensive, like $15, but well worth it, they have over 500 motorcycles on display, all in good shape and well documented. One that you might be interested in is a 71 Morbidelli, it's 50 cc and goes 105 mph. Of course that was a rare, race only bike.

.

I have found 65 to be the magic number anything over 70 brings down the average.

I agree completely. I have been in a hurry lately on trips, and definitely going over 70 brings down the mileage, like into the 38 mpg range. But what the heck, 38 mpg is still pretty good.

Wow, you got yourself one heck of a good deal for $10K plus those parts! And 40 mpg is right in there as far as expected performance. I think you will be pleased to find out that you get about the same MPG driving through St. Louis, even in heavy traffic. Did the car come with the navigation package?

I do some vehicle AC work, so the background on the refrigerant oil will be useful to me later if I have any AC issues. But my gauges are contaminated with conventional refrigerant oil, so I'm going to research that some more, as to ways to clean my gauges if possible. Keep us posted if there are any AC issues next summer. I have found that I get better mileage in the summer than the winter, even though I am running the AC in the summer and not in winter. Others have observed a drop in mpg in the winter as well. Really enjoyed your story, thanks for the post.

........................................... The 12 v battery does not crank the ICE in the FFH.

You are probably right because you know the FFH technology better than I do, but if you are right, why does the FFH Owners Manual give you instructions for charging and starting the car using conventional car to car jumping procedure to the engine 12v battery? Page 251.

Why wouldn't Ford allow you to start the ICE, with the 275 volts behind the rear seat then tell you not to drive for 5 minutes while the 12 v battery is charging? That would seem like a good emergency backup strategy, versus jumper cables and a second car.

Also, why do they give you a 12 v battery rated at;

• 
   
  
• 390 cold cranking amps (32F).
  
• 65 RC (65 minutes at 25 amp drain to drop to 10.5 v without charging, )
  
• 43 AH (43 amps for 1 hour, 21.5 amps for 2 hours, etc.)
  

It am guessing that the 12 volt battery max drain is less then 25 amps without a starter function load, so a good battery should keep you going for 65 minutes without charging. Plus even a bad battery will hold 12 volts while being charged, which should work for you a long time while you shop for a new battery, assuming you get a warning message based on engine off 12 v battery voltage sampling. But a problem might be that without the high current conventional starter test, you could be driving with a weak battery for a long time and not know it. Hence the battery window color test is very important if that is the case.

Info: My 2.5 year old FFH battery is showing green in its window. (I didn't even know I had this window before I started following this thread, thanks!)

I just tested my battery with a $20 Harbor Freight 100 amp battery load tester. It reads 12.8 v with no load, and 11.2 volts with 100 amp load. From my experience on other cars, that's a good enough reading. When the voltage drops into the mid 10 v range at 100 amps, I start shopping for a new battery. 100 amps is a large load, roughly as much as the starter pulls, except in very cold weather after an overnight cold soak. The vehicle now has 46000 miles on it and we are headed for the Colorado mountains Friday, 1500 miles away. They have good snow for skiing now.

Anyone using this? Have you noticed an increase in MPG over the gasoline with ethanol? Price per gallon difference? Thanks.

I keep a full record of every gas fillup since I bought my FFH in Sept of 09. I'm at 45K miles now. I tried four tanks of 100% gas over the last 2 years and only once did I get better than my long term average mpg. On non FFH vehicles I have had in the past, I noticed a bigger difference, like up to 10% better with 100% gas. You can't argue that 100% gas has more BTU's per lb that 10% ethanol gas, but I think ethanol gas runs cooler, which might mean the FFH computer dials in more timing advance which would be a more efficient setting. Just speculating. Others on this forum know more about this than I do, I just keep pretty good data.

My experience is that changing shocks usually makes the ride worse (firmer), unless they shocks were shot and the complaint was a series of undulations after a bump.

I want to get a remote start system for the winters. Does anyone know if I need a special remote start from for because it is a hybrid or can i buy any one from best buy? I have 2010 by the way.

If you get it, let us know how it works out for you, regarding any impact of fuel economy, and how quickly you get heat.

Is it possible to upload iPod songs and playlists permanently to the FFH? I can connect my iPod to the sync and operate it from the screen while it is being charged, all good, but I was wondering if the entire song library can by uploaded so that I don't have to hook up the iPod each time. Seems like the Sync instructions tell how to upload a DVD, or CD but not an iPod library.

Thanks for pointing out that I can actually see my own bumper, which means I can get much closer to a car when backing up than I thought.. I thought the red zone was the absolute limit.

This is a surprising development. A bad 12 volt battery (I assume under 8 volts) could leave you stranded outside your car. But since the FFH will not allow you to leave your headlights on indefinitely with the engine off (I think), wouldn't this be a very low frequency occurrence? (does the engine area battery even run the headlights?) And isn't there an irony to having a disabling dead 12 volt engine battery, when at the same time you probably have 270 volts DC behind the rear seats? Need to jumper from the trunk to the hood? Oh yeah you can't open the hood or the trunk manually with the doors locked. Someone smarter than me on the FFH electrical system will surely clarify this situation. Thanks for the data Harry.

If someone can assure me that my gauges, radio, engine computer, navigation system will not be reset if I disconnect the engine battery negative wire, I'll do the test myself to add another data point to Harry's.

After 42,000 miles, I think I can get slightly better mileage manually, slowing down going up hills and speeding up slightly going down hills, but on relatively flat terrain, (Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, etc), I don't hardly notice the difference, and it's a lot easier to drive on speed control, except of course as traffic builds up. My average mpg based on every tank of gas data since we bought the car (not the Fusion computer record) is 39 mpg. Worst is in cold weather, in hills, or in a hurry going 75 mph. Best is in warm or non-heater mode on flat lands, staying at 70 mph or lower. If you are like me and running 36 psi cold in your tires, you are likely going 2% further per tire revolution than your FFH computer thinks you are, so you can add that in, I measured it over a 50 mile stretch, twice. Don't run over 36 psi as it will detrimentally affect your stopping distance in an emergency stop.

We could settle this matter if someone disconnected their negative battery post and tried to open the door with the mechanical key. Somebody else do it, I'm afraid of losing all my locked in radio stations, average mpg, previous destinations, time to next oil change, dash settings, etc. ;-)

When I got my FFH in May I was able to drive in EV mode at the advertised 47 mph. For the last couple of months I can not maintain EV mode above 45 mph, even if the high voltage battery shows full charge. Anyone else seen a drop off in maximum EV speed?

I hope you guys all realize that your great FE is not because you are driving in electric mode. Yes, at that time you are getting infinite miles per gallon because you are using no gas. But the engine has to make that up at other times by charging the batteries. The process of running the ICE to charge batteries through the generator/motor, then running the motor with the batteries is less efficient than the ICE driving the wheels directly, at a specific and ideal engine rpm and car speed. The reason you get good mileage over the average of the tank, is the computer knows when to throw away waste power into the batteries, and also keep the engine at the ideal operating RPM. And yes, running on pure electric when the batteries are highly charged is part of the strategy, but only part. It's the computer strategy, not the electric running of the wheels that gives you great FE. So don't fret about how much time you spend in electric mode, it's effectively a moot issue overall. Just go with the light foot and enjoy.

The Chevy Volt demonstrates dramatically that on a steady state basis, using the ICE to charge the batteries to run the motors does not give you Fusion level FE's. I know that several of you on this thread already know this.

Very interesting conversation. I'm saving all of it for future reference.

What pulls the brake away when I push the pedal?

 

Use of the parking brake daily, helps ensure the cable doesn't rust, relieves stress on the parking prawl, and cv joints, and drivetrain as a whole, which can actually prolonging the life of all drivetrain components.. I'd rathe buy pads every couple of years then replace the transmission. Most manufacturers recommend use of the parking brake whenever parking the vehicle. I'm not here argue driving habits... But the original poster with the same premature brake failure indicated he had never used the parking brake so I doubt that was the problem.

I'm not saying jacques drove with his parking brake on. I think his wife did.

I had to drive a friend's Prius today in a semi-emergency situation, and I couldn't figure out anything. It had been sitting there, apparently he had the keys in an ambulance, finally I just stepped on the gas and it went. The tiny gear shift in a Prius is hard to figure out what gear it is in, and you can have push button start, I have no use for it as a "feature". I remember the first go around with push button start in the 40's, a key start was then and is still today an upgrade in my opinion. At least the FFH makes a serious attempt at not confusing people who are used to standardized features.

I have never used the ebrake, so I know that didn't cause the hangup. As I said when I started this thread, several times when getting out of the car after driving some distance, I smelled hot brakes and thought I had a caliper hanging up. There was no difference in how the brakes behaved, but I figured I'd get it checked before I had a problem.

 

Every oil change at 10,000 miles I get the tires rotated and figured anything going on in there would be noticed.

 

We'll see if it recurs.

I just checked my rear break pads at 39K miles, and the pads look like they did new, over a quarter inch of thickness on the inner and outer pads. These rear brakes are the kind that integrate the mechanical parking brake into the caliper piston movement, and thus if the parking brake is left on, it will wear out the rear pads. This is unlike about half of current vehicles where the parking brake is separated from the rear disc brakes by using small brake shoes inside the rear rotor hubs.

I bet if the 3 of us got together with your car we could figure it out, but you're in Indiana, rfruth is in Houston, and I'm in Knoxville.

I worked for 18 years at Ford in the belt/accessory drive area, once wrote a computer program to predict belt chirp based on groove side pulley axial offset, backside pulley plane misalignment, and belt COF (coefficient of friction). I think the program is still used.

But your description of the noise doesn't quite fit the belt chirp noise profile. Plus I think there is only one belt driven accessory anyway on the

FFH, the waterpump, with a belt tensioner above it.