jzavadil

asicking - About 90K miles.

YES!! I started the other thread back in December hoping to find a solution. Dealer had my car for 3 weeks, no solution. Just did the procedure exactly as you laid out in impressive detail - car seems to run much better now, using the battery as it is supposed to. Curious to see how the car responds when it is cold again - but I am guessing that this fixed it based on how the car drives now. The only thing I would add to this thread is the fact that when I wrote the new battery age setting to the car, I heard a mechanical noise (maybe a relay?) from the area of the HVB - so I'm guessing that whatever happened back there got the battery back in business. Awesome work - I would have never been able to figure this out. I'm going to mention this in the comments of my YouTube video on the topic and direct folks to this thread as well. Thanks again Allen. If you send me your contact info I'd be happy to send some PayPal appreciation your way. I think Ford owes you as well! john.zavadil@gmail.com

@Automate - Sorry, my copy also has the blacked out region and I don't have the jpg files.

Appreciate the detailed post. I'm going to address it point by point, not to disagree with what you are saying, but to try to eliminate possibilities and maybe?? focus in on the cause. I have attached scans of the troubleshooting communications between my dealer (who had the car for three weeks) and the Ford "hotline". 1. The HVB is topped off according to my instrument cluster (see video above). Has been full or close to full ever since this problem started - one of the things that helped me determine that I had a problem. 2. Understand, but this has been going on for about 6 months - don't think HVB reconditioning takes that long. 3. Same as #2 4. Understand, problem is when car is below 47 mph (2010 model) 5. Understand, even when coasting the ICE continues to run (again, see video above) 6. Securing heater/fan doesn't make it better. In Ford communications, they also discuss extra electrical load due to accessories (I assume they are talking about GPS, cell phones...) - I don't have anything extra plugged in to the car. 7. Still happens when car is fully warmed up. Went on a 1 hour trip on the freeway this weekend; when slowing down car still has the issue. 8. Never use L. 9. Did not know this, but when I depress the brake pedal below 47 mph it seems to encourage EV operations, even with a full battery and regen indicated. For a short time, I could get the car to go into EV mode by pressing the brake pedal and it would stay in EV after releasing the brake pedal - but this is no longer happening - when I release the brake pedal the ICE immediately restarts, even with no load on the engine (not pressing accelerator). Last comment - On the attached document (best as I understand it), the dealer spent a lot of time doing procedures on the HVB, but it was never suggested to me that the HVB was a problem or might need to be replaced. I would replace the HVB if someone could tell me that it was the problem. I'm in Cary, NC in case anyone wants to meet and compare cars... Fusion Troubleshooting.pdf

Correct, only goes green in Empower (most info mode). I normally drive in Enlighten (where it stays white), but I have verified that it goes green as expected in Empower. Says the system is ready for hybrid ops, but it doesn't shift.

It has been in the 70s during the day for the last 3 days. Car will now only go into EV with the brake pedal pressed moderately. If I am coming to a stop, the engine will shutoff when I apply the brakes, then as I feather the brakes when I am almost stopped, the engine will start up again, then turn off when I fully apply the brakes at a stop. Really annoying. I think the problem is getting worse, previously at these temperatures the engine would shift to EV on its own when conditions warranted, now it is only shifting when I apply the brakes. YouTube Video showing the problem - temperature was 73F when filmed earlier today.

Three weeks at the dealership and they just called me to say they give up. They tried resetting and reprogramming "things" as recommended by the engineers at Ford, no change. The dealership agrees there is an issue, they just don't know how to fix. Ford told them it might be due to the cold (implying that I am using so much heat/defrost that the engine can't go to EV - wrong), or it might be due to aggressive driving (lowering MPG - wrong again), or that it might be due to the age of the car (??). Kind of pisses me off (at big Ford, not the dealership) that they would not want to dig deeper and solve this problem, being that it will probably start happening to more of their hybrids. Frustrated. Going to get the car back tomorrow and just live with it I guess. I wonder if Ford reads these Forum posts?

Mine went to the dealer on Monday. I got a call today (Thursday). Basically they contact the Ford "Hotline", Ford says "try _______", they try it, it doesn't fix the problem so they contact Ford again. Definitely giving it a good effort, and since I have a loaner car I am patient. Will let you know how it goes.

So the car has been at the dealers for the last 2 days. They agree that there is a problem. They called the Ford hotline and were told to "recondition" the battery. I don't know exactly how that works - supposedly balances cells out; but the dealer carried out the procedure but it did not fix the problem. So they gave me a loaner car (brand new Escape!) and said they were going to keep the car until they figured it out with Ford. Nothing heard today. One correction to my earlier posts. The indication that engine temperature is sufficient for hybrid operations actually IS working, I didn't realize that you needed to be in Empower mode for it to work. In Empower mode, the indicator does turn green, but the hybrid system still doesn't operate properly. Don't think it is the throttle body - I had mine fail and had it replaced a few years ago. Believe it is either the system thinks the engine is always cold or it thinks the battery is always low - my dashboard indications don't show either to be the case, but those indications may not be making it to the computer. More to follow...

I haven't taken it back to the dealer yet...waiting for some colder weather.

I'm confident it is related to the temperatures. A few days after taking the car to the dealer, outside temperatures returned to the 50s and 60s, and the hybrid system returned to normal operation (although the hybrid temperature gauge is still white). The temperatures are now back in the 30s and 40s and the problem has returned. I'm going to get the car into the dealer on a cold day and see if we can figure it out.

My 2010 Hybrid has about 88K miles on it and started acting up about a month ago when outside temperatures started to drop (North Carolina). Basically, the hybrid system won't shift to EV while driving unless I have my foot on the brake pedal if the temperature is in the mid-40s or below. Acts more like an Engine Start/Stop system (does go to EV at stop lights, but as soon as I ease up on the brake pedal the engine starts). Engine runs continuously and battery stays pretty much topped off; the system is using the battery during acceleration so I don't think it is a HV battery issue. Mileage has dropped about 5 mpg as a result. Took it to the dealer who, naturally, could find nothing wrong - they tried to educate me on how the hybrid system functions, but I've been driving this car since April 2009, so I sort of have it figured out. After watching a bunch of videos, I realized that the little temperature indicator (next to the engine coolant temperature indicator) that is supposed to indicate that the system is warm enough for normal hybrid operation never changes color from white to green, even when the engine is fully warmed up. I don't know if it has ever changed color, but the owner's manual says that it should change. If outside temps are in the 50s or above, the hybrid system operates normally, even though the dash sensor remains white. So it seems like the hybrid system is not sensing engine temperature properly, but I don't understand why the outside temperature matters. Thermostat issue? Some other sensor unique to hybrid systems?