VonoreTn

Kirby, It seems foolish to me that with all of our ability to use technology to see stuff and control things, we insist on fully relying on the highly fallible drivers, many of whom know very little about physics or safety like you and I do. I saw one yesterday filling his gas tank while smoking. It also seems foolish with all this technology that the best we can do to save highway lives is to provide a low tech pillow explosion during the impact period (too late to do anything really effective). Surely we can do more. Radar has been out there since WW2.

You people need to study fatal accidents harder. A very high percent of them would have been prevented by early warning collision avoidance systems, and full time auto braking. There is hardly a typical news story about a fatal accident that would not have been positively impacted by these systems. 10,000 deaths saved a year may be a low number out the the approximate 32,000 today (USA). Airbags are one of the most desperate, too late, minimal accident impact mechanisms out there to save lives, and they save about 750 lives a year. Preventative measures happening quicker has less to do with stopping distance and more to do with earlier response than would have occurred in a fatal crash. People are going to continue texting, eyes off the road phone usage, eating, talking, lighting cigarettes being distracted for 104 feet ( 1 second) of travel at 70 mph, and these systems will come into play much quicker. It will prevent a suicidal manic from ramming into a bridge support. It will very much support the results of careless driving of drunks, (I'm not advocating driving while drunk), and they are responsible for about 10,000 auto deaths a year all by themselves. So you can name some situations where they won't help? I didn't say they would eliminate all deaths did I? Only a third.

I am hoping that the 2016 MKZh will have an active laser/radar collision avoidance system, that will stop the car without driver assistance to avoid a frontal accident. And not just with the speed control on. From what I have read, the 2016 Lincoln MKX has such a system, but I am not sure about the MKZh. That will be the deal maker for us, if they have that feature we are ready to buy. I think that if this feature was as common as air bags, we would save another 10,000 lives in the USA today. The technology is there, but it is slow coming out. Lots of foreign luxury cars already have it. Truckers get insurance discounts if the retrofit it. We are loyal Ford buyers, and we will never buy anything but a hybrid, the technology makes conventional cars with energy wasteful brakes obsolete. But we are old, and we may only buy one more car ;-)

Speaking as a retired engineer who worked in the area of accessory drive belts for years, there is no need to replace the serpentine drive belt under 100K miles, ever since the industry switched from Neoprene to EPDM belts in the mid 90's. Just keep an eye out for excessive cracking or any "chunking" (missing rubber between cracks on the rib side). A few rib cracks does not indicate imminent failure. The belt cord will only break if an accessory freezes up, not likely on an FFH. If you look hard at product specs for aftermarket belts, you can usually see where they specify that the belt is EPDM material. If it is Neoprene, it would not be worth the savings to buy it. All US original equipment belts are EPDM.

Were they nickel metal hydride or lithium batteries? We have probably all heard about the taxi fleet of Ford Escapes hybrids in California (nmH batteries) where no new batteries have been required at an average mileage of 300K, except for 2 that were damaged in an accident.

It has a chain, which should last the life of the engine, like 300K miles, which would put you past the distance to the moon. I hate cam belts, they are costing like $1000 at the dealer to replace on many modern cars out there (friend with Subaru), and you need to worry about them starting at 120K miles. Yes, they are quieter, and cheaper than a chain, require no lubrication, and few customers ask their new car dealer if the engine has a belt or chain, but the right thing to do for consumers is use a chain. I plan on driving my FFH through 2020, unless my wife talks me into a Lincoln hybrid.

Think of the lifetime air filter in these terms. Unless you have a premium passenger air filter (most people don't) somehow during rain, snow, mud, etc. the car ventilation system gets fairly clean air into the passenger compartment, with no dust or water in it. OK, you get skunk smell if not in recirc mode, but that's not dirt particles. the passenger compartment air is clean enough to run an engine. So if you have a well designed engine air entry system, with sufficient baffles, and water drains, you can also get pretty darn clean air into an FFH throttle body without the need for a replaceable air filter. Be mindful that the FFH was never designed to support farm work in extremely dusty conditions, so the air entry system probably will never need to be serviced. My dealer assured me it should not be on my top 20 worry list. I have not had a radiator or battery cooling system flushed at 112,000 miles, but I do watch my coolant levels.

You might check your 12 volt battery status, mine was reading 11.9 volts with engine off first thing in the morning, which is too low. I'm at 111,000 miles. I told the dealer to check it out, they said it was fine, but a week later it wouldn't start. I put a volt meter on it and the voltage was dropping to 7 volts when my wife was trying to start it. That's not high enough to support fundamental functions, like spark and fuel. So I charged the battery, and drove it to the dealer who put in a new battery. The dealerships are the only place you can get that battery, $119. They put it in for $129 including the battery which I thought was a good deal. Did you get the AC fixed? While driving to the dealer with the weak 12 volt battery, the left 2 AC registers were pumping hot air, while the right 2 were cold, no matter what settings I had. After they put in the new battery, it fixed itself, neither they nor I know why.

107 K miles on my 2010 FFH. The brakes are like new, 11 mm of pad on the fronts, 7 mm on the rears left. I had to replace the upper O2 sensor, did it myself for ~$70, with help from this forum. I had 2 tire press. sensors fail, the first one cost me $160 to have replaced by the dealer, the second I bought the tps at Rockauto for $37, and had a local tire shop install it and reset the system for $15. Of course I am on my second set of Michelin tires now, no complaints there. I am still getting 39 mpg in the winter, and about 41 in the summer. I have a complete gas usage record. My previous vehicle that I loved and drove 190K miles was a 2000 Ford Explorer that averaged 20 mpg. Compared to it as a baseline, I have saved $8,330 in gasoline cost to date. There was a report on this forum that the Escape hybrid Taxi's in a California fleet had no failed high voltage batteries at an average mileage of ~300K miles, except for 2 that had been damaged in accidents. These were the same type nickel metal hydride batteries that we have. This 2010 FFH engine has a lubricated long life cam chain, not a cam belt, so we don't need to worry about the expensive new cam belt replacement ($500-$1000) at ~ 130,000 miles on cam belt cars which are about half of new cars still. Funny that very few people ask about what type of cam drive the car has when they buy a new car.

That's pretty reasonable, I'll just pay it if I get the wrench light ever again with that code. Thanks.

Thanks for the info. I found this at Amazon, at http://tiny.cc/wwfhpx Which looks like the same tool you show above, for $34 +. http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac317/vonoretn/FFH/TPMS19remote_zps31feee40.jpg On the above photo, do you know which of the two tire TPMS's are the correct one for a 2010 FFH? They have different Ford part numbers. I'm guessing the 9L3Z-1A189-A. I am already using a Schrader TPMS on one wheel successfully, part # 20315 that I got from rockauto.com for $37.79. I noticed on the comments from Amazon on the above tool that someone said it wouldn't allow him to reset the car, but then he figured out that if he let air out of all the tires to below 20 psi, then added back to the spec. psi, it would reset. Like the sensors had to be cycled once.

Glad to hear of your success, and low maintenance cost since. I'm at 102k miles now, and everything is working fine. Did you use one of those slotted socket wrenches to get both of those sensors out?

That one might, I tried 2 of the longer slotted 7/8" sockets, and the slot opened up sufficiently to allow the socket to slip on the O2 sensor hex. Reading the reviews at Harbor Freight, it sounds like this is a superior socket to the ones I had and mechanics use the HF socket most of the time. By removing the six, 6mm bolts and lifting that heat shield, I was able to get a large crescent wrench on the sensor hex, with a 14" pipe on the wrench arm, and develop enough torque to finally loosen the sensor. The worse part about removing those 6 bolts, was that one fell into the tray below and it took me 40 minutes to find it and get it out with a mirror, special light, and a magnetic tool. I used rubberized cork on the rest of them so they would stay stuck in the socket when loose. Now if I ever have to remove the downstream O2 sensor, I don't think this will work, because that heat shield is trapped in that space, and I don't see how you could get a crescent wrench down there. Let me know how your tool works, being shorter than the 2 different ones I tried, there is less opportunity for the slot to open up.

I just finished replacing my upstream O2 sensor, to fix the the engine light, which coded out as P0130 on my $55 Autozone OBDII reader. It was not that easy, the slotted deep sockets did not work at removing the very frozen-in-the-manifold sensor. But once accomplished the light seems to be permanently out, and the code gone. Total cost, $72. Pictures available on requested.

5 year old 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. 101,000 miles, second set of tires, original brake pads, which look like new, since most stopping is in regen mode. Original 12 volt battery, although getting marginal on capacity (10.3 volts at 100 amp load). Things gone wrong, 2 tire pressure sensors failed and replaced, and one up stream O2 sensor replaced. Left Door handle cracked, I fixed it, no new parts needed. I have only spent about $300 on the car other than for new tires and oil/filter changes. I do my own maintenance. I intend to drive the car for 300,000 miles. Average FE so far 40.3 mpg. I love the car, fun to drive, very smooth ride. The navigation system has raised my standard of living for finding places, Sync works great. Based on fleet data, the nickel metal hydride high voltage battery should make 300k miles. I have saved $7700 on gas so far compared to the Ford Explorer I drove before. I did not buy any extended warranty, and I haven't needed it.

I am getting smarter about controlling the cost when a tire pressure sensor goes out, this having happened twice now, 2 different tires in 100,000 miles. The sensors are advertised as lasting 150,000 miles, but how would they know the actual battery life? For my car, the tire sensor part I need is this one: Schrader Automotive part # 20315, $37.79 at Rockauto.com. And I found a local tire place Pauls Tires, Loudon, Tn, where he has the tool to determine which tire it is, and his display told him to reset it exactly as 13dreamz described above. Thank you 13dreamz. Paul charged me $15 for his service, including diagnostics and replacing the sensor that I provided him. Using his diagnostic tool which had a display, he confirmed the bad sensor was in the left rear tire, as I predicted, using the above method that I described. 13Dreamz, if you are still around this forum, how much does that tool you show above cost? That tool would save me the steps of relieving and refilling the air in each tire.

I was getting the engine light and PO130 code a lot lately, but it is always erasable with my Auto Zone, $55 OBDII code reader, which suggests to me it is a short event that triggers it and not worth worrying about. But I tried to get the connector off, (difficult to access) and after blindly pulling on both sides and pushing stuff, and not being able to disconnect it, I gave up. But now the code hasn't come back for over 1000 miles, suggesting that maybe it is just a weak electrical contact at that connector that is triggering the code. I have tried several times to remove that upper O2 sensor with 2 different slotted deep sockets, but it is still too tight to loosen. I will forget about it for awhile. We just passed 100,000 miles and my Wife who drove it straight through to Austin last week (1000 miles) got 41 mpg on the trip. We are still on our original 12 volt battery, and as long as it doesn't drop below 10.5 volts with 100 amp load on it, I will continue to use it. I keep the battery fluid above the plates and ignore the specific gravity readings and the red dot. Les, what is your trick to disconnect the O2 sensor wire?

Note that your tire warning light will be flashing on and off if it is a system failure, which does include one or more tire pressure sensors giving no signal. But if there is a real low pressure signal coming in and all 4 sensors are good, you will get a solid tire warning light. You can determine which tire sensor is the one not giving any signal by lowering the pressure in each tire below 20 psi with the others all up to pressure, and noting if the resulting warning light is flashing or not. It will be flashing only with the tire that is not sending a signal, the others where the sensor is working will result in a solid, non-flashing tire warning light when they are below 20 psi. Whenever you have the spare tire on, the light will be flashing, because the spare gives no signal. Unless you also have very low pressure in another tire.

I'm doing about the same on my 2010 FFH at 96,000 miles and 5 years next month. If I try hard I can get 42 on everyday driving, and also on the highway at 70 if I don't go into a head wind. Tail winds are great, I can get 45 at 70 with a tail wind. Still nothing major wrong. I've had a couple of problems with the tire pressure sensors failing, just the battery in the sensor goes bad, and you get the display warning, when the tires are fine. But you have to take the wheel off to put a new one in. They are supposed to last for 150,000 miles. Oh yeah, the brake pads are all like new. 11 mm of pad thickness on the fronts, because they hardly ever get used with the regenerative braking.

If you put your AC/heater system in the recirculate mode, you will only be treating the air inside car already. On my 2010, it's the button right below the AC button. I always try to be sure it is on before I pass skunk road kill ;-). Recirc is the most efficient mode for the air conditioner, since you are not taking moisture out of outside air continuously.

I'm at 91,000 miles now, I have saved $7100 on gas compared to the Explorer I was driving for 10 years before that. Since it averaged about 20 mpg, and the FFH is averaging about 40 mpg, whatever I have spent total on gas on the FFH is what I have saved, simple math. I still have my original 12 volt battery, although I keep an eye on it with a 100 amp load meter. It drops to 10.8 volts at 100 amps, which from my experience is acceptable. I added distilled water to it once. The only issues I have had with the FFH is twice now I get a low tire pressure warning when the tires are all at 35 psi. I guess the batteries in the sensors, inside the tires, are only expected to last 100K miles, so that's not a deal changer. But when I took it in for that issue the first time, it cost me ~$150 to fix one sensor. Like $60 to hook up their computer to see which tire and reset the system, $60 labor, and $30 for a new sensor, since you can't just replace the battery. So this time, I might just decide to live with tire light on, same as I have done for 50 years before. That system was actually useful one time when it told me I had picked up a nail just before heading out on a long trip. I fixed the hole myself, with a plug from the outside. That always works as long as the hole is not near the tire edge, and the hole is fairly straight going in.