milleron

Toz, I'm really sorry to hear that you canceled your order. For the life of me, I cannot understand waiting a year for the cosmetics of a dual exhaust and a heated steering wheel which is just another mileage drain in a hybrid. As I mentioned before, my wife's heated wheel goes unused because old-fashioned gloves keep ones hands warmer on a cold winter morning. You said that you know yourself and know that you'd be kicking yourself for not waiting for those two features. Well, how hard will you kick yourself when you get your 2014 FFH and then see the added features of the 2015? Perhaps it's not too late to continue with the order that you've already invested a lot of time in.

Turns out that there was nothing really wrong with the car and nothing to fault the good folks at Hermosillo for. There was a little moisture in the connector to the sensor for the inverter cooler. It was cured by the application of some waterproof grease. No biggie. Something very interesting did turn up today, and perhaps I should start a new topic with this, but I'll start here. The recommended inflation pressure for the tires on a FFH is 35 psi front and rear. Mine came from the factory at 44 psi all around. The max inflation pressure for the Goodyear Eagle LS is 51 psi. Now there are many hypermilers who advocate pressures even greater than the manufacturer's maximum. This was probably a glitch, but it occurred to me that it's just possible that this is Ford's way of turning a "normal rolling resistance tyre" (as appears on the Etis build sheet) into a low rolling resistance tire. Has anyone else with a new FFH checked the pressures at delivery? If so, what were they?

Interestingly, my car checked into the rail yard near Flat Rock, MI around 4 am Monday (three days ago), and it arrived by truck at my dealer, about 165 miles from Flat Rock, before closing on Wednesday. It's conceivable that you might see yours this weekend, "early next week" at the outside.

Sorry that the sun wasn't out for these photos. This car is photogenic, so I'll try to get some that do it justice and add them later. The color calibration is obviously a little off, as anyone who's seen Ruby Red can tell. It's significantly deeper than these pictures show. It has no "click - clunk," at least not yet, but as soon as we drove it around the block, an orange wrench icon showed up on the left display, which means "powertrain fault." It drives perfectly, and gave me 40.2 mpg on my first jaunt around town which was mostly freeway driving. The icon went away but came back again, so she's going back to the dealer at 8:30 AM for an OBD-II reading. The other feature I couldn't make work was the automatic high-beam. The high beams came on automatically, but they wouldn't go off automatically whether facing oncoming headlights or following other cars pretty closely. I'm so glad to have her after the 17-week wait, though, that I don't really care much. I became enamored of the FFH because of the many advanced driver-assist features, and all the other ones worked to perfection -- lane keeping, adaptive cruise, Eco-cruise, rain-sensing wipers, BLIS, cross traffic (which actually did warn me of an approaching car in the mall's parking garage), voice recognition, remote start. I haven't had a chance to try the park assist. I'm not an audiophile. In fact, I have a high-frequency hearing loss, but the Sony sound system showed me instantly what I've been missing in automobile audio for the last umpteen years. That alone makes the Titanium upgrade worthwhile. Even though I'd read the manual twice and followed the thread on hybrid-driving tips and techniques closely, the learning curve is going to be fairly steep for me. There's a lot to watch and keep track of. By the way, this car made it from Hermosillo to Detroit in 12 days and from Detroit to my dealer by truck in two days. It beat Ford's ETA by 7 days.

A contrary opinion: I never resented anything you said, acdii. I found all of your posts insightful and helpful or else simply clever and humorous. Never considered any of them to be rants or merely bashes. Post away, brother.

My car was received by my dealer in Columbus, OH, last evening, and I'll take delivery this afternoon. I post this only because it may be the first Ruby Red Hybrid Titanium to reach a member of this Forum. I'll try to get photos up later today. Wazzul, if you have one out there in Seattle Portland (oops, sorry), please let us know and post pics.

At least you DID get notified. I'd tend to be satisfied with the flow of information, not dinging the salesperson. Please realize that most of us never see anything at all like what you received from your dealer. The rest of us have to hop over to the Vehicle Locator froum at BlueOvalForums.com to request (more like "beg for," actually) information like you got without even asking. So sorry that the build got pushed back two weeks. That hurts, but I'd suggest you give your dealership some positive feedback at this point and let them know that you're interested in being apprised of any changes in production as soon as they can let pass the info along. As Jeff_h said, let them know that it will be considered in your survey answers.

Hope you continue to hang around and contribute here.

Well, that addresses the theoretical question, #1. I still don't understand, though. No matter how fast the pistons and valves travel, they still do one complete stroke cycle per revolution, so I don't understand where the "wear pattern" comes from, at least as far as piston rings are concerned. However, it's not important for me to understand that. What I would really like answered is my question #2. Does anyone know the practical details of how to manage speed during that first 1,000 miles? "Avoid constant speed" is just too vague. I'll do anything necessary to break in the engine properly, but I don't want to spend the first 1K miles changing speed ceaselessly if that's not truly required.

The admonition against driving at a steady speed for the first 1,000 miles is age-old . . . like me. I've tried to follow this fuzzy rule ever since my first new car in 1976 without understanding the intricacies of it. I wonder if anyone does. Why is this important?How long can one remain at a steady speed during the break-in period?? Should one avoid using the cruise control altogether? Is it so important that heavy freeway traffic, that more or less dictates a steady speed, should be avoided?My dealer says they expect delivery of my car today, so I'd like to understand this better. I'm pretty sure it won't, in fact, happen today, but just in case . . . .

The links at owner.ford.com have been reworked, and they'll now take you to the manual for the Fusion Hybrid and Energi (one manual for both EVs).

We're both in Columbus, OH. I placed my order in late December, almost 2.5 months before you did, and my car was built 3 DAYS before yours. The ETAs are now the same. What dealer ordered for you??? (Mine is Germain.)

1 -- I definitely have seen a decrease in gas mileage when replacing worn-out OEM tires with new ones, but the payoff was in much better and safer handling. "Softer" tires have higher resistance but provide better traction, so that's not surprising. 2 -- It's interesting to note that on the build sheet for my car at Etis, the tires are specifically listed as "Normal Rolling Resistant Tyre." So, it would seem that Ford acknowledges in some way that there is variability in rolling resistance in tires, and in the case of the FFH, indicates that they've chosen a tire that does not have "high" R-R.

That's true, come to think of it. There were several sections I had to skip over in the Hybrid manual because they pertained to the Energi, rather than the standard Hybrid, so the links on the Hybrid page are now complete and correct. As mentioned, the Quick Reference Guide for the Hybrid and the Energi ARE different, and there are links for both.

I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, but I know that it's behind a tool-free panel in the back of the van. That's why I laughed about the guy asking me to remove it myself. It's not quite as hard as removing a transmission. I'll go over there after work in a day or two to have a look & let you know how that turns out.

I have a photo from when I was in the AF in 1977 of the couple who lived across the street from us in base housing with new his-n-hers CORVETTES. I'd post it, but it's on an old 35mm slide. Jeff's photo is thus the neatest I've seen for over 35 years! However, if I were lucky enough to live in a state that didn't require a front tag, I'd certainly have those Ford ads off the cars. James Bond wouldn't have a Ford ad on his Aston Martin.

What I like about this forum is that they put a nice photo of MY car at the top of every single page ;)

Right! Even if it didn't include the filter, it's capacity is nowhere near a quart. They overfilled, but probably not critically.

Well, I said the Fusion Hybrid, not the Fusion Energi. However, I note that on that page, they do have links to the Quick Reference Guide for both the FFH and the Energi. Isn't there a separate Web page for the Energi? I'm still claiming the cigar ;)

As I ordered every option, I'm probably the last guy who should be saying you don't need such and such. However, my wife has a heated steering wheel on her Buick LaCrosse. It's sorta neat but no more comfortable than wearing gloves, really, and I'm thinking that anything that draws electricity might keep my ICE on more. That said, just where do the amps come from to run heated seats, rear-window defoggers, heated steering wheels, etc.? in conventional cars, it obviously comes from the alternator/12-v battery. How does that work in a Fusion Hybrid? Can I run all those accessories without affecting the HV battery?

I spent an hour or two this afternoon driving from tire dealer to tire dealer trying to get a Continental 135/90-R16 special ordered. They wanted nothing to do with me at all. "You'll need to see your dealer." Pep Boys would say that they could special order Bridgestone or Firestone tires of this size; the cost -- $185 and $335, respectively, but they're out of stock and don't know when they might become available. I didn't try my dealer because they're not open on Sunday, but I did an Internet search and found a new Continental-brand T135/90-R16 for $50 including shipping on eBay. Bought that, and I ordered the wheel from TeamFordParts.com. I have an inquiry in to a local salvage yard to see if the jack is still in the 2003 Windstar they received in unrepairable condition last week. If that doesn't work, I'll order one of the many available on eBay for $40. I think my total cost for the project will approximate $215 plus whatever it costs to get the tire mounted and balanced. It could pay for itself the first time I get a puncture. If I never get a flat in this car, oh well. My Accord is 10.5 years old, and its spare has never been out of its well, so this one may never be used, either, but I'll appreciate the peace of mind. Interestingly, many of the T135/90-R16 tires listed on eBay came mounted on 16" wheels identified as Sentra or Altima spares. IF the lug-bolt pattern were the same as ours, then I'd love to know if those wheels would clear our brake parts. If they would, one could get a turn-key spare for less than $90. Some of them were already balanced. Many, many thanks to GrySql for blazing the trail here. Edit: They guy at the salvage yard does work on Sunday. He says I can have the '03 Windstar jack for $5 if I take it out of the vehicle myself (I am not making this up)

The danger of overfilling is that if the oil gets high enough for the pistons rods to hit it on their descent, they can whip it into a froth, like whipping cream, and the oil pump can't circulate froth. Honestly, if there's been no trouble in the first few days after the overfilling, I don't think there will be any. Hope an actual mechanic might weigh in on this, though, because I'm an amateur.

The links at owner.ford.com are now correct for the FFH. They even have an HTML manual if you don't like PDFs. It took them 5 or 6 months to get any links at all there, then they got them totally crisscrossed. Now, 8 months into the 2013 MY, they're valid for the first time.

Good-ol'-boy networks are hell to fight, aren't they. You are dead right, of course. I'd be angrier if I knew that Ford is worse than other manufacturers, but I suspect they're not. To reiterate, I placed an order for an SE Hybrid, all that was available at the time, in mid-June 2012. As of early December, I had no VIN, sticker, build date or anything at all. I wanted that car badly, but I was so incensed that I actually did cancel the order -- i.e., I feel for you. If this is some solace, though, I ordered my Red HyTi seven weeks before you did but got a build date only 4 weeks before yours. There are many of us who will have encountered much longer waits, however, I must admit that I wasn't aware of folks who ordered Ruby Red after I did but got build dates before mine. That would be a particularly difficult pill to swallow.

Erich, go back to the Web site in question and search on CV6Z1015B, CV6Z1015A, and CV6Z1015C and see what you get. I'm guessing that although the search engine brings up multiple sizes on the initial search, the "B" in the part number is specific for the 16" compact spare wheel. Further evidence for that deduction can be found here. I doubt that you have anything to worry about with your order.