Waldo

Those systems are all tied together in the brake control module.  You should be able to pull the codes and find out what the fault code is.  Could be a bad reading on a wheel speed sensor.

Might be time for a new 12V battery.  If you still have the original battery in there, you're well overdue.  My wife's Pacifica was doing the same thing, remote start would try and fail, even though starting it normally would work fine.  Put a new battery in there and now it works every time.

Might be time for a new 12V battery.  If you still have the original battery in there, you're well overdue.  My wife's Pacifica was doing the same thing, remote start would try and fail, even though starting it normally would work fine.  Put a new battery in there and now it works every time.

Would be pretty hard to have a 2021 Ford Fusion part since 2020 was the last year of production.

While I won't jump into the battery load tester discussion, it's not relevant in this case as bbf is misunderstanding the pop-up message.  This is the message that comes up when the vehicle can't detect the key fob after you've driven some where and turn the car off.  Imagine the scenario where you're driving your spouse to the airport.  You both get in the car together, but in fact you've forgotten your key, but your spouse has theirs.  When you get to the airport, spouse hops out, taking the key.  You turn off the car to get out and help with the luggage.  This pop-up will warn you that you don't have your key and gives you a time window to restart.  Otherwise your spouse runs into the airport with your key and you're stuck in the airport drop-off with a vehicle that won't start.
 
It's almost certainly a result of declining battery in the key fob.  Could be that the fob battery is right on the edge and after sitting in your pocket while you're driving it warms up enough to where it's not putting out enough signal.  Could be the location of the fob inside the vehicle at the time you turn off the car that's causing the variability.  Either way, replacing the battery in the fob is the first step to try.

The EcoBoost is direct injected, so the fuel never runs over the valve.  Therefore running a higher octane fuel won't help clean any carbon off the valves - that's why it's an issue in the first place.

I recently replaced the rear shocks on my Fusion Hybrid.  One of them was completely dead.  Yet my tire wear was still perfectly even.   So another vote for the alignment.

I guess the first question is if you're actually getting regen.  When you lift off the gas, does it feel like it's coasting in neutral, or does it fell like the brakes are dragging a bit?  Does your cluster have a battery state of charge display (they deleted that in later model years)?  If it does, what do you see it doing?  How often/long does it operate in electric mode?  You should be able to cruise at light throttle on the highway for about half a mile with the gas engine off.
 
I'm still getting 45mpg easily on my 2014, so no reason you shouldn't be much better than what you're reporting.

Would be pretty hard to have a 2021 Ford Fusion part since 2020 was the last year of production.

There are two tight areas around the front wheel in a 1st gen Fusion.  1 is the between the top of the tire and the ball joint stud on the upper control arm.  The second is when you turn the steering wheel one full turn in either direction.  The tire on the inside of the turn gets very close to the flange that joins the firewall to the body side (you can't see the flange, it's behind the plastic wheel liner, but if you rub through the wheel liner, the tire will be scrapping on metal).  So you can take a look and see if you feel comfortable with those dimensions.  But keep in mind tire math is not as simple as the numbers printed on the sidewall.  Those numbers are just "guidelines" and actual tire dimensions can vary significantly.  The manufacturing guidelines for tires are so broad that you could in theory produce a tire labelled a 205/60 and it would actually be taller than a tire that is labelled a 205/70.  And then combined with the spring rate of the tire which will determine the compressed height, you may or may not get any noticeable difference in ground clearance with a tire size change.

There are two tight areas around the front wheel in a 1st gen Fusion.  1 is the between the top of the tire and the ball joint stud on the upper control arm.  The second is when you turn the steering wheel one full turn in either direction.  The tire on the inside of the turn gets very close to the flange that joins the firewall to the body side (you can't see the flange, it's behind the plastic wheel liner, but if you rub through the wheel liner, the tire will be scrapping on metal).  So you can take a look and see if you feel comfortable with those dimensions.  But keep in mind tire math is not as simple as the numbers printed on the sidewall.  Those numbers are just "guidelines" and actual tire dimensions can vary significantly.  The manufacturing guidelines for tires are so broad that you could in theory produce a tire labelled a 205/60 and it would actually be taller than a tire that is labelled a 205/70.  And then combined with the spring rate of the tire which will determine the compressed height, you may or may not get any noticeable difference in ground clearance with a tire size change.

The start-stop feature is essentially regulated by the EPA, so the way it works has to meet the definitions set out by the regulations.  The system isn't smart enough to be able to predict how long you will be stopped for, so it's designed to strike a balance between shutting off too much in stop-and-go traffic vs waiting too long and missing out on fuel savings.  It's used as an "off-cycle" credit for CAFE purposes, meaning that it doesn't directly factor into the fuel or emissions testing for any particular vehicle, but based on the number of vehicles that an OME sells that have it, they get a credit to improve their average fleet fuel economy.
 
Now a lot of people like to politicize anything that's part of a government regulation, but the facts are that it does save fuel and it does add up over the lifetime of a vehicle and over the millions of vehicles on the road.  It's also a fact that many, many people find it annoying and would gladly trade off the small amount of savings to avoid the nuisance.  But remember that every bit of fuel saved by every person in every car results in better air quality for all of us and lower fuel prices for all of us.
 
My data is not made up, it comes directly from an engineer who's career is devoted to understanding fuel economy.

The start-stop feature is essentially regulated by the EPA, so the way it works has to meet the definitions set out by the regulations.  The system isn't smart enough to be able to predict how long you will be stopped for, so it's designed to strike a balance between shutting off too much in stop-and-go traffic vs waiting too long and missing out on fuel savings.  It's used as an "off-cycle" credit for CAFE purposes, meaning that it doesn't directly factor into the fuel or emissions testing for any particular vehicle, but based on the number of vehicles that an OME sells that have it, they get a credit to improve their average fleet fuel economy.
 
Now a lot of people like to politicize anything that's part of a government regulation, but the facts are that it does save fuel and it does add up over the lifetime of a vehicle and over the millions of vehicles on the road.  It's also a fact that many, many people find it annoying and would gladly trade off the small amount of savings to avoid the nuisance.  But remember that every bit of fuel saved by every person in every car results in better air quality for all of us and lower fuel prices for all of us.
 
My data is not made up, it comes directly from an engineer who's career is devoted to understanding fuel economy.

The start-stop feature is essentially regulated by the EPA, so the way it works has to meet the definitions set out by the regulations.  The system isn't smart enough to be able to predict how long you will be stopped for, so it's designed to strike a balance between shutting off too much in stop-and-go traffic vs waiting too long and missing out on fuel savings.  It's used as an "off-cycle" credit for CAFE purposes, meaning that it doesn't directly factor into the fuel or emissions testing for any particular vehicle, but based on the number of vehicles that an OME sells that have it, they get a credit to improve their average fleet fuel economy.
 
Now a lot of people like to politicize anything that's part of a government regulation, but the facts are that it does save fuel and it does add up over the lifetime of a vehicle and over the millions of vehicles on the road.  It's also a fact that many, many people find it annoying and would gladly trade off the small amount of savings to avoid the nuisance.  But remember that every bit of fuel saved by every person in every car results in better air quality for all of us and lower fuel prices for all of us.
 
My data is not made up, it comes directly from an engineer who's career is devoted to understanding fuel economy.

Sorry, but your "experts" are full of BS.  The "gulp" of gas is equivalent to the amount of fuel consumed at idle in 0.6 seconds.  So any stop longer than 1 second is clearly saving gas.  And that same "gulp" produces just as much "emissions" as it would if burned while idling, so your theory doesn't make any sense.

4 inches!!!!  That's crazy, the Fusion suspension doesn't even have that much travel.  The Fusion is a unibody vehicle with an independent suspension setup, it is not designed to have a lift kit installed.  Unfortunately if you're having trouble bottoming in your daily routine, then the Fusion is just not the right car for your needs.

The price you paid for a car has no direct relation to it's value when you sell it.  The difference in value between your car and a similar car with a 2.0L doesn't depend on the price you paid.  The bottom line is the cost difference in trading your car for a 2.0L is still going to be less than the cost of acquiring and installing a 2.0L into the car you have unless you really do everything yourself.  And that would include a lot of software programming, which chances are if you're asking on this forum, you don't have the experience or tools to do that.

Really?  You'd rather die than risk a one in a million chance that you'll have a dead battery on your car in the morning?  You joined this forum just to post this ridiculous logic?
 
Ford is literally replacing MILLIONS of airbags.  And here is ONE tale of a potential negative consequence.  ONE out of MILLIONS.

First of all, starting and running your ICE vehicles in the past on cold days was not a great idea.  All that does is drain the battery, cause internal engine wear, condensation in you exhaust and waste gas.  Unless the battery itself really heats up - and it takes a good bit of driving to accomplish that, then it's not really charging up much anyway.
Secondly, while -7 feels cold, it's not really that cold.  Ford tests all it's systems to survive in -40 weather, so you're really not even close to the vehicle's limits.
Third, the hybrid really isn't that different from an ICE vehicle in this regard.  There's really no need to start it up in cold weather.  My 2014 Hybrid has been sitting outside in my driveway for the last month and I haven't even touched it.  Last year over Christmas it sat for 5 weeks.  Still on the original 12V battery.
 
What I have done though is ordered a CTEK trickle charger.  A device like this can keep the battery topped up over long periods of time.  I plan to mainly use it for my summer cars that sit in the garage all winter, but I'll also hook it up to my Fusion to see how well it works.

You can never measure mileage on a hybrid by the trip.  If you start a trip with a full battery and end with an empty one, your MPG number will be spectacular (I've seen over 100mpg on some short trips).  But then the next trip the MPG will be terrible, because it will have to run the engine harder to re-charge the battery.  You also need to account for the break-in period, that can cause a big change.  The EPA doesn't test vehicles until they have over 4000 miles on them, so until your car has 4000 miles, you can't really be sure what you're long term fuel economy is going to be.  The break-in effect will be far greater than any of the changes you've made, but you're experience learning to drive the hybrid is probably the biggest factor.
 
I used to be a big fan of the K&N filters, until it started causing issues with the MAF sensor on a previous vehicle.  In a Fusion hybrid with the Atkinson engine there is no gain to be made with a freer flowing filter, only risk of damage.  My advice would be to get that out and put a clean stock one back in.
 
As for the fuel treatment, even at only $1.50, that still comes out to more expensive then you might think.  Doing a little math and assuming $2.50/gallon gas, you'd need to see a 2.5mpg improvement just to pay itself off.  On a new car with clean injectors, that seems unrealistic to me unless you're buying cheap non top-Tier gas.  And don't assume "it can't hurt things".  There are plenty of chemicals that you can put in your fuel tank that will harm things (like that catalytic converters).  STP has been around a long time, so seems unlikely, but I just find it odd that you're not ok with the risk of using stock wheels but are ok with the risk of running a K&N and fuel treatment.  Seems like you've got that a bit backwards.
 
Also there is a Fusion hybrid sub-forum where you can find even more discussion specifically about the hybrid.  https://fordfusionhybridforum.com/  
 
 

You can never measure mileage on a hybrid by the trip.  If you start a trip with a full battery and end with an empty one, your MPG number will be spectacular (I've seen over 100mpg on some short trips).  But then the next trip the MPG will be terrible, because it will have to run the engine harder to re-charge the battery.  You also need to account for the break-in period, that can cause a big change.  The EPA doesn't test vehicles until they have over 4000 miles on them, so until your car has 4000 miles, you can't really be sure what you're long term fuel economy is going to be.  The break-in effect will be far greater than any of the changes you've made, but you're experience learning to drive the hybrid is probably the biggest factor.
 
I used to be a big fan of the K&N filters, until it started causing issues with the MAF sensor on a previous vehicle.  In a Fusion hybrid with the Atkinson engine there is no gain to be made with a freer flowing filter, only risk of damage.  My advice would be to get that out and put a clean stock one back in.
 
As for the fuel treatment, even at only $1.50, that still comes out to more expensive then you might think.  Doing a little math and assuming $2.50/gallon gas, you'd need to see a 2.5mpg improvement just to pay itself off.  On a new car with clean injectors, that seems unrealistic to me unless you're buying cheap non top-Tier gas.  And don't assume "it can't hurt things".  There are plenty of chemicals that you can put in your fuel tank that will harm things (like that catalytic converters).  STP has been around a long time, so seems unlikely, but I just find it odd that you're not ok with the risk of using stock wheels but are ok with the risk of running a K&N and fuel treatment.  Seems like you've got that a bit backwards.
 
Also there is a Fusion hybrid sub-forum where you can find even more discussion specifically about the hybrid.  https://fordfusionhybridforum.com/  
 
 

It will be fine.  Assuming they started it up to load and unload it, that should be enough to just keep the batteries active.  My 2014 Fusion hybrid was built in September of 2013 and I didn't purchase it until February of 2014, so it sat a while, but has been completely fine.  It also sits for 3-4 weeks every Christmas when we go out of town.  Some people have had troubles with the 12V battery, so you might consider replacing that just to get a fresh start and brakes and tires don't like to sit for long times, so it might be a bit shaky and squeaky at first, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.

The logic behind mods for performance and mods for efficiency are totally different.  When talking about performance, it's usually just a question of money.  The manufacturers stopped adding performance when they got to their budget and had no more money left.  But in terms of MPG or electric range, the only point of improving those things is to save money.  So it's pretty easy to figure out when to stop improving it - when the cost of the "mod" is more than the amount of fuel that it saves.  And that's my point, you are not going to find things that cost less than the amount of fuel they save unless you're willing to give up on other things that I mentioned, like durability, practicality or looks.  If you can, then the OEMs would have already done it.

Maybe in the 2.5 years since this thread was started, Susa has read the owners manual.

Maybe in the 2.5 years since this thread was started, Susa has read the owners manual.