MaineFusion

I wish I had thought of this before asking the dealer to fix this. Better yet, I wish they had thought of this before replacing the whole assembly and leaving two dents in the quarter panel in the process.

Makes me wish there were max and min temp settings for a FFH. Temps higher than max would kick in AC below min would kick in heat.

Man you are just trying to get some quality time with your Energi by having to sleep in the garage.

I use a mount that suction cups to my windshield. It puts my cellphone near my line of sight when I want to use its navigation. The rest of the time it stays in my pocket.

One nice thing is that once the engine is warm, it takes almost no extra electricity to warm the cabin, unlike on a hot day where the A/C does add a noticeable draw. Admittedly this is a very small consolation prize for cold temps.

Ya, I've noticed that rain soaked roads really cut MPG. At temps in the 70s I can reliably get 51 - 53mpg going and coming from work. This evening the temp was 58F and I got 51 mpg. This morning the temp was 45F and I could only squeeze out 47mpg. I have observed that I can get my best MPG at about 75F.

Reserved for future updates if needed.

I've decided to use my Trip 2 to record my seasonal difference in fuel economy between summer and winter here in Maine. I've decided to focus on summer vs winter and will use the first day of fall (today) and the first day of spring as my two cut points between the two times of year. I am really curious to see how cold temperatures and winter driving conditions alter my overall MPG compared to summer driving. While my Trip 2 isn't the complete from the first day of this past spring, it is pretty representative of this summer: Over the 4716 miles I recorded with this Trip 2, I averaged 51.5mpg and recorded 2211EV Mi (the trip EV doesn't record the thousands digit and instead rolls over at 999.9EV). If I forget, remind me to post my winter Trip 2 come spring.

By state laws, hybrids sold in "California emissions" states must come with a 10yr/150,000mi warrentee for the HVB. This longer HVB warrentee only applies for as long as the owner of the hybrid lives in and the car is registered in a California emissions state. If the car gets registered in a non-California emissions state, the HVB warrentee reverts back to 8yrs/100,000mi. "California emissions state" refers to any state that has adopted California's automobile emissions standards. Among other things, this standard requires extended warranties for hybrid and electric car HVBs and requires manufacturers to sell zero emissions vehicles in said states or by credits from others like Tesla. Maine, where I live is one of the California emissions states. This certainly makes buying a hybrid a better long term investment in these states since it greatly reduces the risk of having to pay out of pocket to replace the HVB later in the car's life.

Although I already have Google's navigation app on my smartphone. I purchased the TomTom app for my phone ($65 for US and Canada or ~$45 for just US). The advantage is that it costs 1/10th that of Ford's built in navigation and gets free map updates. It can go with me where ever I am rather than being stuck in my FFH. Also I happen to like having the navigation screen closer eye level on the dash rather than having to look halfway down the console. This help reduce the time that my eyes leave the road. The one drawback to the Tom Tom navigation is that it is quite clunky to use. However, unlike Google's navigation app, all the maps are stored on my smartphone so it doesn't need a data connection (e.g. out of cell tower range). Honestly, I think Ford's voice activated navigation was way too expensive, especially the price of map updates. Ford could have partnered with a major map provider and come up with a less costly option.

I suppose this is so that dealerships don't end up on the EV+ list.

Ya, when I lived in Fairbanks Alaska we used to stick cardboard between the grill and radiator in the winter for same reason. If we didn't we'd get no heat. Of course we also had to use block heaters, trickle chargers on the battery, an oil pan heater and transmission pan heater. Seats were hard has bricks in winter, struts would freeze stiff and the tires would freeze with a flat spot in them. It was like riding on an old buckboard wagon that had flat spots on the wheels.

Ideally, we should probably tie such things into a spare fuse slot, assuming the fuse slot gets turned off when the ignition is off. I don't know enough about the system to know if the spare fuse slots are still powered when the car is turned off.

What do you mean? It will void the warrentee? If this were true, we couldn't install aftermarket remote car starts. They might not warrentee problems caused by the modifications so you have to be selective how and where you install them. For instance, I'm not keen on splicing into the windshield wiper wiring as suggested above. I'd much prefer to hook directly into a spare fuse slot in the fuse box so that I don't compromise other systems. I'm also not opening up the lights themselves. BTW: I'm having someone I know who has a detailing and aftermarket modification shop do it.

I was a little tongue-in-cheek when I posted that. ;) I do plan on installing some LED DLRs. I have the LED strips I just have to get time to go have them installed.

Yes the update came out a couple months back now. It now allows us to be in EV mode under proper conditions all the way up to 85 mph. Although I haven't yet tried to go into EV mode much above 65mph. We do have a few speed demons around here who have gotten their FFHs into EV mode well over 70 mph. Another big plus from it is that it reduced the energy consumption of the A/C.

50 watts here, 50 watts there... eventually it adds up to a real power drain.

Took a while, but I found MyView. Never realized it existed. Always wanted to be able to customize the gauges. Too bad I can't replace the leaves with a customized MyView and leave the left side on something else. I'll have to play with the MyView to figure out how I want to customize it.

I can't find this on my FFH. How do you get to it?

Texas should be coming down from its hotter than hell temps soon, that should help improve your fuel economy... Provided you aren't trying to reach those Texas freeway speed limits. :peelout: