My car is an electric teapot! In battery mode I can drive kids to school and heat water. In -7° weather. Well, at least that is what the water temp gauge seems to be telling me. And there is heat blowing out of my vents and defrost without the engine on. pic.twitter.com/xqHb0zBFrC
2nd trip this a.m. in Ford Cmax Energi was not good. Oil Maintenance Mode came on & forced engine to run. 38 mpg Temps were still at or below zero. That's twice this winter this has happened. My engine has less than 600 actual miles on it. The computer is keeping it in pristine condition it seems.
I think it's the sensor thinking it's detecting moisture because the oil separates when not being circulated in real cold weather. Many people have reported this same problem who live in cold weather. I believe Ford fills the oil with 5W-20 Synthetic Blend from the factory when the oil should be a full synthetic oil. It would be interesting to see if a full synthetic oil would prevent this problem. I do hear people say a long trip also solves the problem for a short time. The 2014 C-Max is going to 0W-20 oil and that may solve the problem also. Gary
A Ford representative has answered my question and said the new 0W-20 '14 C-Max oil is not approved for the '13 C-Max. I'd stick with approved 5W-20 to maintain your engine warranty. On a good note, I just hit the big lifetime 500mpg today in my Energi. Hypermiling, supercharging for EV range and keeping the tires at 62psi for long EV coasting helped. This summer required the A/C and preconditioning for about 8 months 100% of the time, but our winters are not that bad. My lifetime brake score is 98% and got 604.5 miles out of regen on flat roads. That's a total of 3,754.8 EV miles and only 172.9 ICE miles so far. I have a total of 3,937.7 miles on my Energi now. This is so much better than the FEH. Gary
My lifetime Cmax Energi is down to 148mpg because I got the car in Oct, and have been in very cold weather for the last 2 months. I have had two Oil Maintenance episodes so far in near zero temps. The last one took 5 days to get out of because I only drove short trips. Must have been 50 miles. I have about 500 miles on the gas engine and over 2200 miles EV. I was getting around 30mpg in oil maintenance mode, as the engine ran constantly. Mostly at 1500 rpm below 30mph, and up to 3400 rpm on the highways. There was a slight help from the electric motor, or I would have got in the low 20s mpg. It was below zero much of the time. And I ran the HVAC because - why not. I did get back into EV mode a few days ago. Even though it was still below zero outside. I hate that gas sucking mode. At night my car is kept in an underground garage at about 48 degrees cave temperature. (Yes, I am the Batman) It takes my car a few miles to figure out that it's below zero outside. So I get a good run on EV in the morning. Today I got 15.8 miles EV before the engine came on for the last 2.2 miles in hybrid mode. That was 134 mpg on the commute. I could have probably got all 18 miles in EV if I wanted to hold my breath and not use HVAC. ERROR note: Last night, I was running in EV, no HVAC, and had "3 miles" left on the battery pack. It was zero outside. The engine came on for no reason. Well, it said for performance then normal operation. When it comes on, it stays on for at least a few minutes. So I punched the MAX Defrost button. Nothing. No fan, no heat, no response. I tried just the heater fan button. Nothing. Yet the gas engine was running and I was driving just fine. I could not get any HVAC response from the dash buttons. I did not try the touch screen controls. At a good spot, I pulled over and turned the car off. On restart, HVAC worked fine. Definitely a bug of some sort.
Energi How-To and Info Videos Many of you already know about this Ford link, but I thought I'd post it again here. There is so much basic information about the '13 Fusion Energi that applies to our Energi, I THINK YOU SHOULD LOOK. http://owner.ford.com/servlet/Conte...oPage&year=2013&make=Ford&model=Fusion Energi It's a good link if you're thinking about getting an Energi also! Gary
My Focus has the 3 blink turn signal feature which is nice but I'm so used to signaling the old school way (by holding the turn signal stalk) I can't get use to this ((working on it though))
An update on my EV range in the Energi. My temperature here in Jupiter FL is fantastic now and I no longer need the A/C. My best trip during the summer was a 33.9 EV range on a single charge. The EPA gave the Energy a 21 mile range, so 33.9 with the A/C was fantastic. Now that the A/C is not needed, I've been seeing EV range above 36 miles without watching my speeds. I took a trip this week and kept my speed below 40mph. The results was a 39.6 EV range on a singe charge. I had a MPGe of 238.5 for the trip, and the EPA rates the City at 108 MPGe. http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/gallery/image/361-record-ev-mileage-5/ Gary
With temps above freezing, my Energi range is getting back over 20 miles. Now when I have a 15 mile commute, I can drive more aggressive and at higher speed on the freeway. During the winter I usually limped home with nothing to spare in the battery. Except for 2 times when oil maintenance mode came on, I used about 4 gals of gas during commuting in Nov-Feb; about 2800 miles. No way to do that in the Prius I used to own. This is why I got this plugin. Although that amounts to only $500 or so in gas, I would still choose a plugin if I was getting a car today.
I took a 16 mile trip earlier and only used 55% of the battery. I took the back roads into one of the small towns near me so it was all 25-40mph but hilly. Only used 25% on the way in. It's got about an hour left to charge and the range shows 20 miles right now. It should be 24 or 25 when it's done. The Volt and the Energi ranges are definitely looking better! PS: It ended up at 25 miles range when fully charged.
Quick follow up: I took my 2nd trip in the Energi today after the full charge. This one was more challenging with 22 miles highway and 6 miles city. I went 23.5 miles on the battery before the engine kicked in. Totals: 28.1 miles, 0.06 gal used, 468.1mpg, 5.9kwh. Now I'm off in the Volt to pick up dinner. That 0.06gal is all I'll be burning today!
Last Thursday, I went by my dealer to check if there was a way to drain my gas tank before the gas goes stale. I still have ~12 gal from the original dealer fill and it doesn't look like I'll burn that within the next 1 1/2 years in my Energi. My SA took me back in the shop to ask a senior TECH, and he first said no. He then looked on his computer and said he could disconnect the fuel line coming from the tank and use his computer to activate the fuel pump. He told me to bring it in with two 5 gal gas cans Wed. I hope this all works out and I know now to only put a gal in when I need it. Gary
Would you be better off putting E0 (ethanol-free) gas in the car? At least it won't go stale. The Sunoco at 1625 N Old Dixie Hwy, Jupiter FL sells it but I don't know how much of a premium you'd pay for it. I put it in my PIP for the same reason. I just don't use enough gas.
Good advise for the future, but the 87 octane you get here is E10. The only non-ethanol here is for marine and that's 90 octane. The Energi uses 87 octane, so I might as well just add one gallon at a time to keep it fresh. The manual says only add as much gas as you will use in 6 months, so I estimate just adding that to my tank from now on. Gary
It would be fine for the Volt that recommends a higher octane, but it will reduce MPG in the Energi. I have used higher octane by mistake in Ford hybrids that call for 87 octane, and the results has always been negative. You should always use the manufactures recommended octane for the most efficient use of the vehicle. Gary
I have switched back and forth between 87 E-10 and 91 E-0 on my 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid twice, and my mpg has increased both times with the 91 E-0. First time about 8% higher. Still in testing on 2nd time. My TCH calls for 87 octane.
