milleron

The advice murphy gave will very likely take care of it. If your Fusion is a 2017, then I don't think that the TSB would work for you. I believe that the problem it addresses was corrected in manufacturing after that Bulletin was published, so I'm surprised that you're having this problem. Because you are, I'd be just a little suspicious of a bad controller that needs replacing — i.e., I have had cars with auto-up windows for a quarter century and not one of them before the Fusion ever needed to be re-synchronized, so I'd consider a hardware problem as well as one in software. Nevertheless, applying the TSB was what gave my car a permanent fix for this recurring glitch. Just in case the correct method outlined above by Mr. Murphy doesn't cure it, and you get desperate, that Bulletin might (though I doubt it) still be pertinent. Should it come to that, you might inquire at your dealership about TSB 13-10-4

Sadly, this omission of a spare is becoming widespread through many brands. If it's any solace, you don't need a special tray if you want to carry a donut spare, and you can do it yourself for substantially less than $500 by buying your own wheel, limited-service tire, and jack. Should you elect to go that route, search the forum for recommendations on size specifications for those three items.

Congratulations on your new job. The new commute is ideal for maximizing mileage. I get similar results on a nearly-identical trip I make often to my rifle range. However, a good deal of my driving is on urban interstates, and my most frequent trip on them crosses three river valleys, so it's more like a roller coaster than a normal Interstate highway. On this round trip, the speed limit is 65 and my speeds vary from 61 to 69 mph. In order to prevent spending a great deal of time recharging the HVB while getting barely 25-30 instantaneous mpg, I change the speed to keep the ICE running almost all the time. Doing that, I can average about 44-45 mpg roundtrip, but it's a royal PITA, requiring literally constant monitoring of EV function and state of charge. The very worst thing that Ford ever did to us was the "upgrade" programming of the PCM that occurred in late 2013 when new owners were starting to mumble about class-action suits because actual mileage was worse than EPA figures (47/47 at that time). That update allowed the cars to run in EV mode at speeds far over the previous maximum of 62 mph. What I learned is that these vehicles have no business running in EV mode at speeds over about 60 mph, not even downhill (unless very steep as one might encounter in some mountainous areas). Even on a downgrade at 65 mph, EV driving discharges the battery very quickly, after which one drives at mpg figures of 25-35 mpg for a protracted period of time until the state of charge is high enough to get back over 40 mpg. It's maddening on trips like my Interstate ones. On your commute, Griswald, as on the trip I describe, our top speeds are low enough that we really can benefit from EV mode on the highway, especially if the traffic is light enough to use pulse-and-glide techniques. Why, oh why, is there not a way to lock out EV mode on the Ford Fusion Hybrid to prevent its switching into EV mode at speeds I find are too high to use it properly? If there were, I'd keep this car forever. I love it other than Interstate driving. As it is, I'll be exercising my Tesla Model 3 reservation when my number comes up, hopefully early enough to get some amount of federal tax credit.

Your car has the running "lamps," as they're the low-beam headlamps that are probably run at a somewhat reduced voltage when used as DRLs. The build sheet may mean that you do not have daytime running lamps that can be enabled/disabled by the owner. There may still be a way to turn them on through the computer the dealers attach in order to reprogram modules. I experienced the report you received (sans the reference to the "build sheet") multiple times from my dealer. In desperation, I took the car to a Lincoln dealer who also said no problem and got the DRLs turned on with the car out the door in ten minutes. It can be an arcane process; it's a task that some service departments accomplish without batting an eye while others remained uninformed about it for years because Ford corporate intentionally tries to prevent dealers from gaining knowledge of the process. Try another dealer. Like I said, with my 2013, the Lincoln dealer handled my request almost instantly after the Ford dealer had totally dropped the ball on no less than three attempts.

I think that result was fairly predictable. You might get a reduction from normal almost that large with a bike rack, even one installed on the rear of the trunk or a trailer hitch. A necessary part of the DNA of hybrid and all-electric vehicles is the lowest coefficient of drag that the engineers can reasonably achieve. Any external modification just wreaks havoc with that CD.

If they had the car for two weeks, especially if they haven't demonstrated competence sufficient for you to trust them, it's conceivable that they might have completely discharged the battery enough times to have permanently damaged it. If you're driving long trips, as you say, without being able to charge it sufficiently, you may need yet another battery. Putting lead-acid batteries in a hybrid never made much sense to me, but, then, I don't have 1% of the technical expertise of Ford's design engineers.

That's strangely low hwy mileage for a broken-in FFH in my experience. Your best hwy mileage will never be as good as your best mileage in suburbia where you can keep speeds of 40-50 mph for fairly long distances, but it should be easy to do better than 35. I have brutally long and fairly steep upgrades on the Interstates I frequent, and I can get 40-46 mpg without doing anything other than trying to keep it out of EV so that the SoC remains as high as possible. Put the tires up above 40 psi, go as slowly as you can without allowing it to lapse into EV mode often or for long, and try to avoid changes in speed. The latter can be impossible on busy interstates, but try. I've found that 65 mph will keep the car in ICE mode almost all the time but it's necessary to nudge up to 67-69 mph on some downhill stretches. My opinion after 17K miles is that FFHs have no business operating in EV at Interstate speeds, but the PCM reprogramming of 2013, unfortunately, does allow it. At those speeds, I can see a near 100% charge of the HVB depleted in 1/3 of a mile. Then your instantaneous mileage goes down to 20 while the poor ICE labors long and hard to get the state of charge back to a level that frees it to expend all its energy on propelling the car. On the freeway, you'll probably do best by limiting the HVB to assisting with uphills and acceleration, as opposed to letting the car operate in EV mode. (In town, you want to be in EV as much as possible without depleting the state of charge badly.) I'm not sure what's critical with SOC, but I try to prevent mine from going much below about 30% in town. On the freeway, I strive to keep it way up there around 90%. If those measures don't give trip mileage above an average of 42, at least in weather that doesn't require AC, then I think you're right in wondering of "something's wrong." However, if you're really having little trouble getting above 45 in town, the car is probably OK.

The two types of fuel are not isocaloric. It's been stated elsewhere that ethanol-free gasoline has about 3% more BTUs than E10. I cannot imagine that E0 wouldn't give slightly better mileage than E10, but it's likewise difficult to imagine that it would be significant. It seems very unlikely that it would be cost effective.

It's my experience that the automatic shutoff at the pump can vary from fill to fill even when using the same pump . . . which in this day and age of stations with 8, 10, and 12 pumps, is nearly impossible. I'doubt that it could vary enough to account for a 10% change, but two fuelings in succession, one 5% higher than normal and the next 5% lower, might give you the result you report. I suspect that from now on, you'll go right back to the same difference between displayed mileage and actual mileage that you've always observed. Please update the thread after the next tank.

I'll drop my to ask my service manager if they have any record of having allied this patch. If they haven't, then we'll set up the appointment to do it. Thanks, Meagan

I never had that TSB applied to the best of my recollection. I'll sure give it a shot. Thanks, Jeff

Ever since my 2013 FFH was new, there's been a problem, widely reported, with the auto-up windows forgetting how to work. I learned on this forum that manually running them through an entire up-and-down cycle would restore the automatic function. Well, at exactly two years of age, this problem continues and seems to be worse than ever. In fact, if I haven't used the windows for a day or longer, they rarely go up or down automatically without my "reprogramming" them. I've never seen this glitch, or even heard of it, in any automobile other than the FFH. So, my question is: has anyone found a way to remedy this silly problem permanently or at least make it occur less often than daily?

Very interesting reading, although I don't truly understand it. It seems that the negative cable of the charger is electrically connected to the negative post of the battery whether it's attached under the hood or on the battery post, but that's just my intuition talking. I've no knowledge of electrical engineering, so I can just accept the explanation without understanding it. However, it raises another question. Does anyone know about connecting a solar trickle charger directly to the battery posts? It's easy to leave such a device under the rear window behind the rear seats. In that position, it's not difficult to get cables to the battery itself, but I can't really think of a simple way to get its cables to the engine-compartment posts from inside the car. It seems that if one wanted to leave a solar charger attached while the car's sitting, for example, in an airport parking lot for 10 days, the only practical way to do it is at the battery posts. Could the very small current from such a trickle charger damage the sensor?

Are you against the covers in general or are you merely recommending removing them at this particular time?

I kept my 2003 Accord V6 coupe when I got my 2013 FFH. When it's been detailed, it not only drives like the day I took delivery but looks every bit as good, too. It's an utterly fantastic car. I'm a Honda fan. But I'd never buy a '15 Accord because Honda's failure to join the 21st century in providing BLIS is inexcusable. My collision-warning system in my Fusion saved me for the first time last week, but the BLIS comes to my assistance almost daily. To my mind, it is the most significant safety feature to come along since air bags. I'll never have a car without it, and the Accord doesn't even offer it. (Please don't try to tell me that the pathetic camera in the passenger-side mirror is a valid blind-spot detection device.)

There's yet another reason. The DRLs are the low-beam lamps running at reduced voltage. The reduction in power consumed by the DRLs vs. using headlamps (and tail lights) at all times is probably small, perhaps trivial. However the effect of the reduced voltage and amperage on the lifespan of those bulbs might well be significant. I don't know about the FFH, but replacing the headlights on my last car (an Accord) was not a diy job; it was a costly service-center job. To me, the most desirable feature besides the safety factor was the fact that the DRLs do not turn on the trail lamps in the daytime.

I have an old Android phone that I could repurpose for use with the setup you describe, HB. Do you have a suggestion for where to start shopping for the Torque Pro and OBDLink?

Tony, I'm glad you found a cooperative dealer, but I don't believe I've ever heard a price nearly that high. $116 sounds totally unreasonable. If you're an established customer at Friendly, they might do it for nothing, as many (most?) dealers have done for forum members, but $116 is >2 SDs from the mean.

But is it "free" or are you "paying" for it in the form of reduced operating temperature of your ICE which results in lower fuel economy? We do everything we can to keep the ICE temp UP in the winter, and the cabin heater has the same effect as the traditional radiator; it LOWERS that temperature. See where I'm coming from?

I'm not positive that there is any such thing as "free heat." The reason we block our grills is to keep engine heat as high as possible because, generally speaking, the warmer the ICE runs, the higher its efficiency. Running the cabin heater, even when the engine temp is up, cools the engine somewhat. I simply don't run the heater much in the winter at all. I'm wearing a coat and gloves, there's no wind in my face, and it's easy to stay comfortable, especially with the seat warmer on occasionally. About the only time I tell the car "climate on" is when the windows need defogging. My reservation about this involves the possibility that running the heater might allow the radiator fan to run less. Were that the case, using the heater could be a break-even proposition. Is there anyone with a Scan Gauge that can clarify that?

Waldo, that was a thoughtful reply, & I thank you for that. However, I still find it implausible that the DRLs on fleet-sale Fusions, that are perfectly fine from a legal standpoint in any locale, are different from mine. "High-end Escapes" are simply not relevant to this discussion; that example doesn't apply to Fusions. Ford designed those fleet DRLs to be acceptable anywhere. How could Ford have any concerns that identical DRLs on my car would mysteriously be unacceptable? By the same token, unless there's evidence that the 2015 MY DRLs, which can be turned off and on at the whim of the owner, differ from ours, then it's very difficult to accept the possibility that FoMoCo stonewalled enabling of them on '13 & '14 FFHs for fear that it would violate any law or regulation. I'm sorry that my musing about Ford's reasons for giving me such a hard time was offensive. Perhaps this forum was not an appropriate place for speculation.

I really hadn't considered a legal angle. My Internet research and threads on some other Blue Oval forums indicate that, while Canada and some states legally require DRLs (in the form of dedicated DRLs or headlights), there are no states where they are illegal, hence, the operability of DRLs on Fusions in fleet -- i.e., rental -- sales. The NHTSA once had a rule on the maximum intensity of DRLs, but that was rescinded about a decade ago. (Perhaps that was done in order to make it legal to use headlamps as DRLs, but I don't know the reason.) There are no limitations on DRLs at the national level. So my questions to you would be as follows: since GM and many imports install DRLs on all their vehicles, how could Ford get into legal trouble for enabling them, especially when they operate at reduced voltages and, therefore, a reduced intensity? How could there be a legal problem for Ford when the Fusions they sell to Hertz, Avis, et al have DRLs? (And, no, I don't think those questions necessarily require a JD degree to answer.)

Things that make you go hmmm . . . . If it's right there in the Tech Manual, why are all these dealers calling corporate? Why aren't they just looking up "DRL" in the index of the Manual? That "Note" makes it appear that FoMoCo might be spouting a line taken from a statement in their FFH Tech Manual which happens to be fallacious. It shows us more clearly where they're coming from, but I still wonder why they've stuck to this untenable position for so long. I don't think it can be explained on the basis of revenues or profits. Their policy doesn't seem to gain them a single thing other than the enmity of a few customers, like us, who have learned the truth. Considering the PR windfall they might reap from just telling their dealers how to enable the DRLs, the rationale for the whole thing remains inscrutable.

It's fascinating, actually. Where did you find the diagram? I find the "Note:" to be cryptic, because it seems to be utterly false if I'm understanding it correctly, but it may be the specious source on which FoMoCo bases it's DRL dogma relating to DRLs in the '13 and '14 Fusions.

Well, if you'll read through this thread, you'll find that folks have been publicly listing their cooperative Ford dealers in it for about a year, already. What these dealers are doing is clearly not against any FoMoCo rules; they're simply choosing to treat their customers like customers as opposed to following FoMoCo's suggestion to treat them like ignorant children. If Corporate had opted to "discipline" what are obviously their best dealerships for treating customers correctly, I think that there would have been a large outcry in this forum by now. I don't believe there's much to worry about.