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Engine problem this morning


md40022
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Hoping someone can help me with this....

 

2010 Hybrid. 135k miles.

 

I live in the Chicago area, it's been getting a little chilly overnight - may or may not factor into the problem.

 

Car was sitting since 5pm the previous night. Went to start the car for work this morning, about 7:30am. It started in EV mode. Everything seemed fine. I turned the defroster on while still in park. Upon doing this the gas engine kicks on and immediately gives me a wrench icon on the left side of the dash. Not the check engine light, but this wrench icon thing. Engine sounds very rumbly at this point too. I pop the hood and see a fair amount of shaking and vibration from the engine. Far more than normal.

 

I need to get to work though and I only work 3 miles away, so I give it a shot. No pickup from the car at all. Acceleration is very very minimal and it seems to literally top out at about 40 mph. The car is in ICE mode while I'm driving. However, when I come to stop signs and the EV kicks in I notice the EV battery meter at maybe 10% of life

 

At this point I go back home and call in sick to work. Here's the goofy part though, I shut the car off for maybe 3 minutes while I called in sick. Upon starting it a 2nd time it started up fine. The wrench icon is gone. The engine isn't rumbling. I drove it around the block a few times and it seems back to normal. EV battery gauge is back up to about 50%. Acceleration is back to normal. ICE sounds normal again. Since then, I've started the car a 3rd time and again all seemed normal though I didn't drive it at all this time.

 

I hate chalking this up as a fluke and not taking action, because with winter coming I know this will bite me.

 

My initial thoughts, with having very minimal knowledge of a hybrid system, are the issue seems to be clear to the ICE. I suspect the lack of acceleration and the fact that I was topping out at 40mph would be from the EV (which normally does top out at that speed, roughly) to be related to the ICE struggling and the EV system carrying the entire weight. This also might be why the EV battery was virtually drained by the time I got back home from my attempt to get to work. Obviously the rumbling and shaking from the ICE would again indicate an ICE issue..... Could this be the 12v battery failing? Because again, the problem started when I flipped the defroster on causing the car to switch from EV to ICE this morning. Within seconds of flipping the defroster on is when the wrench icon popped up and when the ICE kicked on I immediately heard the rumbling. Could the car have initially started in EV mode, then when switching to ICE the 12v battery wasn't able to do it's thing? I only bring that up as an idea because on my 2nd and 3rd starts, now that the battery maybe got charged up a bit, all seems fine. Battery is straight from the dealership and was installed in August of 2021, so it's just over 2 years old. I did put a meter on the battery and it shows 12.3v with the car off and 14.0v with it on, though this isn't at a cold start anymore though so I know those numbers can be misleading.  And my brain only went the battery route due to the fact that the problem was only at a cold start when the ICE first kicked over.  25 months seems like a short life for a battery though (albeit, Chicago winters can be brutal)........ I might not even be in the ballpark though with the battery idea lol

 

Any thoughts?

 

Edited by md40022
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7 hours ago, md40022 said:

actually in searching these symptoms it's looking like people say this could be a Throttle Body issue....

i thought i answered this earlier, yes it is the throttle body it is very common and the TB on the fusion hybrid is the only car with the 2.5 that they did not recall it-and it is the exact same TB as what is on the other models.  it is not very expensive, I did mine in about 10 minutes maybe a year or two ago, i think it was maybe $60 total.

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Thanks. It may have been your response that I saw on another thread. I don't recall who posted it, but regardless -- Thank you.

 

I did change out the TB a few hours ago and all seems good right now. Like you said, it's a 10 minute job.

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