larryh

I took delivery of the car immediately after it arrived at the dealer, within a month of the build date. At 9 Volts, things started shutting down. At 6 Volts, not much worked on the car. The displays were all dark. There was not enough power to start the car. However, it was enough for the SOBDM module to turn on and start charging the HVB and 12 V battery as soon as I plugged the car in and then I could start it. When it did start, I was greeted with a barrage of error messages on the displays. The car decided that 55% SOC was too low. After it finished charging the HVB, it decided to continue to charge the 12 V battery for a couple hours until the SOC reached 72%. When I measure the voltage across the 12 V battery after everything has shut down, I get 12.65 V and the battery indicator light shows green. This is what I normally see ever since I bought the car. I can't detect any difference in the way the battery works now vs. how it worked a year ago. I believe the battery is in good condition and working as expected. I will monitor the SOC of the 12 V battery more closely to see what is actually happening.

I have recorded the SOC of the 12 V battery each morning when I start my Fusion Energi for over a month. It has ranged from 55% to 84%. The average is 69%. I have not had any problems with 12 V battery for the year I have owned the car (except when the car fails to charge the 12 V when the car is turned on and plugged into the charger, but the charger is turned off). So I assume that the 12 V battery is working normally. Currently, the SOC is 55%. After opening the door and prior to starting the car, I see the car is consuming about 13 amps of current from the battery and the voltage is 11.7 V. Immediately after starting the car, the DC to DC converter is enabled and provides power for the car. Now 32 amps of current is being supplied to the 12 V battery and the voltage is 14.4 V. Gradually the current to the battery drops to about 12 amps after 2 minutes. I assume the car is charging the 12 V battery. Once the car is done charging the 12 V battery, the current drops to 0 amps and remains there until I turn off the car. After turning off the car, the current draw from the 12 V battery starts at about 13 amps and falls to 5 amps after 2 minutes. The voltage starts at 12.7 volts and falls to 12.2 V. After that the ECU turns off and I can't collect any more measurements. So I don't know how much current is being drawn from the 12 V battery after that. The car reports the battery is a Varta 43Ah 390CCA T4 Case battery. I assume Varta is the manufacturer? Note that the 12 V battery will continue to function until the voltage falls below 6 V. The car will issue a low battery warning when the voltage drops below 9 V (The SOC is far below 50% when it does that). See the following post: "http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1258-the-bxt-99r-390-is-a-standard-car-battery/?p=11181". With the Fusion Energi, I have the car plugged in all night long. The car has plenty of opportunity to charge the 12 V battery during the night to whatever level it sees fit (I have observed it continuing to charge the 12 V for up to two hours after it has finished charging the HVB. But it only does that on very rare occasions.). Apparently, the preferred SOC is around 70%.

One needs to collect measurements over a long period of time to determine a baseline for SOC, i.e. what is the normal expected range of SOC. I have observed that that average SOC for the 12 V battery is about 70% for the Fusion Energi. See the following link for PIDs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs

I have tracked the SOC of the 12 V battery each morning for over a month now for the FFE. The min was 55% and the max was 84%. The average SOC is 69%. I have never seen a battery saver message (except when the car failed to charge the 12 V battery when the car was on and plugged into the charger, but the charger was turned off).

For the Fusion Energi, there is a separate pump for the coolant loop that includes the heating element. That pump runs independently of the main coolant loop pump. The main coolant loop pump only runs when the ICE is on. See page 98 of the following document: http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdirs/diagnostics/pdf/OBDSM1303_HEV.pdf

The following link shows how tire size affects mileage: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/effects-of-upsized-wheels-and-tires-tested. For this particular car, increasing tire size from 17" to 18" decreased mileage by 4%. The 18" tire had better grip than the 17" tire--so it was not the best comparison since the tires were not the same--same model of tire, but different wear ratings. And how rolling resistance impacts mileage: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=121. The difference in MPG between the best (Michelin Energy Saver A/S) and worst tire was 7.4%.

I think the explanation for this can be found in the following patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US6600980. This invention provides a strategy and system for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) that is not equipped with a hydraulic torque converter wherein a generator motor is utilized to maintain engine rotational velocity during up-shifting of the vehicle transmission in situations where the throttle of the engine is released. This invention can reduce undesirable torque reversals during up-shifting of the vehicle transmission in such situations where the throttle of the engine is released. The engine appears to be directly connected to the wheels via the planetary gear system. When turning off the engine, the planetary gear system must up-shift to a lower gear ratio between the engine and the wheels so the engine can stop (when the engine is stopped, the final gear ratio is 0). If the ICE stops too fast, before the up-shift occurs, it will cause undesirable negative torque at the wheels, slowing the car down. The generator is used to maintain the engine rpm until the up-shift can occur. But according to the patent, this occurs for only a second or so. So I'm not exactly sure what is going on.

I have measured the circumference of the 17" tires using the same technique. Wheel rpm = 13.438 x mph. So the tire circumference is 78.58312. The 18" tires are 80.869965/78.58312 = 1.029 times larger than the 17" tires. But note that this measurement is done with the car's weight on the wheels. The circumference would measure larger if the full weight of the car were not pressing down on the wheels.

I have added quite a few additional posts regarding details of how the eCVT operates in the Fusion Energi: "http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1880-obd-ii-data-for-ice/?p=13310"

The car returns a number between 0 and 255 for HVB temperature So it can only return 256 different values. That results in the quantization that you are observing. The 9/5 = 1.8 comes from the conversion from Celcius to Fahrenheit. The conversion formula to Fahrenheit is: A*(9/5)-58, where A ranges from 0 to 255.

The generic ELM 327 scanner I used in the past, has caused the displays to go blank and reboot. It has also caused blindspot and cross traffic system faults, and disabled traction control. It sometimes seems to interfere with CAN Bus communications. I replaced it with a OBDLink MX scanner and have had no further issues. Torque Pro does not properly read DTCs. FORScan, does a much more thorough job of finding DTCs.

Additional observations for the Fusion Energi using Torque can be found here and in subsequent posts: http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1880-obd-ii-data-for-ice/?p=12923

For the Energi, the equation is RPMs = -139.65 * mph. The final drive ratio for the FFH is 2.57. For the FFE, it is 2.91. The tire size for the hybridbear's FFH is 18" and for the FFE it is 17". The tire diameters are 26.33 and 25.86 respectively, Thus the generator/motor/ICE must spin (2.91/2.57) * (26.33/25.86) = 1.15 times faster on the Energi than the Hybrid. Given hybridbear's computation, the comparable one for the Energi can be derived as follows: RPMs = -120 * 1.15 * mph = -138 * mph. That's close to the actual measurement. The generator/motor is rotating at 10.4 times the speed of the wheels, and each RPM of the wheels corresponds to 0.0745 mph.

I updated the Engine Map in the post at: "http://www.fordfusio...or-ice/?p=12414". I had assumed that Absolute Load was linearly correlated with Torque as I had read in various articles. That turns out not to be the case. I updated the map to correct for this non-linearity.

I previously mentioned that it might be possible to create an Engine Map from the OBD II data recorded by Torque. I attempted to do that for my Fusion Energi here: "http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1880-obd-ii-data-for-ice/?p=12414" Since during normal operation the ICE only operates in a limited range of RPMs and Loads, I can only get a rough picture of what the actual map looks like.

I think you can create a chart very similar to a BSFC chart using the OBD II data from the FFH, but it will take a lot of work. I am not expert on internal combustion engines, but from what I have read, the OBD II Absolute Load data, which measures volumetric efficiency (air flow into the engine), is linearly correlated with brake torque. So using this, Engine RPM, and fuel consumption rate OBD II data, you could synthesize a chart very similar to a BSCF chart. Unfortunately, the different measurements are not synchronized. They are read at different times up to a second or more apart. A lot can change in one second. So it will take a lot of work to make the necessary corrections for this issue and you won't get a complete map since the engine will not operate in all regions during normal operation. You can see a plot of Absolute Load vs. Engine RPM for a 30 mile drive on highways for my FFE here: "http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1880-obd-ii-data-for-ice/?p=12267".

So ET Mode shows all DTCs except OBD II DTCs? You need a scanner to read the OBD II DTCs?

Scan Gauge doesn't show any DTCs? When the Service Engine Soon light is on, I see the three codes that I indicated in the earlier post in this thread. Now, I usually turn the car on before plugging in the EBT so that the light does not come on--the car has to be off for three hours before the light will come on. I don't see any DTCs in ET mode. I attempted to ask FordService about the DTCs I observed with the scanner, but they refused to discuss DTCs read by the scanner.

I experienced a "Cross Traffic System Fault" last month when it was -10 F. I have not had any problems since then. The backup sensors and cross traffic sensors now function correctly.

I posted some of the data recorded for my commute here: http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1683-obd-ii-data-for-hvb/

Well those PIDs work for me to provide the motor and generator inverter temperatures. They are providing reasonable values at least. The formulas from my second post above are as follows: ModeAndPID Name Min Max Unit Formula Header224801 Hv Battery State-of-Charge 0 300 % (((A*256)+B)*(1/5))/100 022480D Hv Battery Voltage 0 300 Volts (((A*256)+B))/100 0224800 Hv Battery Temp 0 300 F (A*18-580)/10 0224815 Maximum Discharge Power Limit 0 300 kW (A*25)/10 0224816 Maximum Charge Power Limit 0 300 kW (A*25)/10 0224841 Average Battery Module Voltage 0 300 Volts (((A*256)+B)*(1/10))/10 022DD04 Inside Car Temp 0 300 F (A*18-400)/10 0224810 Battery Age 0 300 months (((A*256)+B)*(1/20))/10 0221E1C Transmission Temp 0 300 F (((A*256)+B)*(9/8)+320)/10 022480B Hv Current 0 300 amps (((A*256)+B)*(1/5))/10 0224832 Motor Electronics Coolant Temp 0 300 F (A*18+320)/10 022F41F Engine run time 0 300 minutes (((A*256)+B)*(25/16))/10 022481E Generator Inverter Temp 0 300 F (((A*256)+B)*18+320)/10 0 224824 Motor Inverter Temp 0 300 F (((A*256)+B)*18+320)/10 0 As I mentioned previously, some of them should be (signed(a)*256) + b. The ranges are also incorrect. I just recorded the sensor data for a bunch of PIDs for my 60 mile commute home today. I now have to figure out how to get them out of BlueStacks so that I can read them.

This site is not allowing me to post the web address with the formulas for the PIDs for my software above. I'll try it here. No matter what I do, it keeps deleting the link. Let's see if this works: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/2757-obd2-%E2%80%93-elm-327-%E2%80%93-torque/

I am using the scanner and software described in: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/8074-dtc-p1a18-p1a19-p0aee-p0bcd-when-using-engine-block-heater-under-investigation/?p=73590 The formulas for the PIDs for my software are posted here: (The site is not letting me post the link. See the following post). They are not quite right. Some of the values are 2's complement numbers and should be written as (signed(a)*256) + b rather than (a*256) + b. The corresponding Scan Gauge codes are here: http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/1293-scangauge-x-gauges-programming-c-max-ffh/?p=8210

When I plugged the EBH in this morning, it was 19 F. After 3 hours, the engine coolant temperature rose from -7 C to 38 C. The generator inverter temperature rose to 6 C, and the motor inverter temperature rose to 7 C. So the difference between the inverter and engine coolant temperatures was about 32 C. The service engine soon light did not come on. Most likely because I turned on the car before plugging in the EBH. I think the car has to be off for at least three hours before plugging in the EBH for the light to come on. I was experimenting with preconditioning the car this morning, so the inverter temperatures were above the ambient temperature from the heating element for climate control used to precondition the car. They were both at about 1 C when I plugged in the EBH. I didn't get readings prior to preconditioning. I had the formulas incorrect for the inverter temperatures--the value returned by the OBD II system is a signed number, I had it as unsigned. So It showed up as a very large number. This means the actual temperature was below 32 F. They were probably -7 C. So both preconditioning and using the EBH appear to warm up the inverters. They must be warmed from heat radiating from the engine block.

Above are the Atkinson Engine Map and the Motor/Generator Map for a Prius. To maintain constant speed, the car needs to maintain constant power. It can do so by varying the torque and engine speed along any line of constant power. As an example using the Atkinson Engine, if 15 kW are needed, then the car could operate at about 4000 rpm and 35 Nm of torque, consuming about 290 g/kWh of fuel. It could also operate at about 2000 rpm and 90 Nm of torque using 220 g/kWh of fuel. Both operating points provide the same power (maintain the same speed), but the later uses far less fuel, only 220/290 = 76% as much as the first operating point. So you would want to design the car to operate at the second operating point when 15 kW of power is required. You can think of engine torque and rpms analogous to the force applied to the pedals and cadence riding a bicycle. To maintain a constant speed on a bicycle, you can use a high gear, applying greater pressure to the pedals spinning at a slower speed; or you can use a low gear, applying less pressure spinning at a higher speed. Suppose instead of operating at 2000 rpm and 90 Nm of torque, we operate at 2200 rpm and 90 Nm of torque. Then, from the chart, instead of producing 15 kW of power, we produce about 16.5 kW of power. The fuel consumption for 15 kW is 15 kW * 220 g/kWh = 3300 g/h of fuel. The fuel consumption for 16.5 kW is 16.5 kW * 200 g/kWh = 3300 g/h of fuel. Thus is it possible for the engine to produce more power using the same or less fuel by choosing a more efficient operating point. The question is what to do with this excess power achieved by moving to a more efficient operating point. We can't just apply it to the wheels. That would make the car go faster. Instead, we could doing any of the following: 1. Use the generator to charge the battery and place a greater load on the engine to absorb the excess power. 2. If the generator produces more power than the battery can handle, we could divert some of the power from the battery to the electric motor. Going in series from the engine through the generator, then to the electric motor, and finally to the wheels is a less efficient route than having the engine directly power the wheels. That wastes some of the excess power that we need to get rid of, but allows the car to operate using less fuel. 3. If the battery is full, we could use energy stored in the battery by operating the generator in reverse and putting a load on the engine to absorb the excess power. This may seem wasteful at first, but it could place the engine at a more efficient operating point that uses less fuel. 4. It could be possible that the indirect route which requires more power from the engine (having the engine power the generator, which then powers the motor, and finally the wheels) actually allows the engine to operate at a more efficient operating point and use less fuel than using the direct route. I'm not an expert on engines. But this is what I think is happening based on what I have read.