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MaineFusion

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Everything posted by MaineFusion

  1. MaineFusion
    Just installed the Rain-X blades today. Once you figure out changing the connector piece they're fine. The connector seemed pretty solid to me. I didn't like the factory original blades, at all, so I wasn't going to buy them a second time around. I don't mind paying for good quality blades, I just didn't thing the ones that came on my FFH were that good of quality.
  2. MaineFusion
    Just got back from the auto parts store. We tried the 28" blade and it was too long. It came within in 1/4" of the paint on the roof. We decided this was not a good idea as ice being moved by the wipers would scratch the paint over time. Went back to the 26" blades. They do fully clear the rain sensor and while neither wiper fully clears the lane keeping camera box, between the two blades the entire box does get cleared. I can't help but little design decisions like 27" blades and the non-standard 12V battery were at a minimum poorly thought through and at worse a nefarious attempt to force us to buy replacement parts from Ford.
  3. MaineFusion
    Just tried to install my 26" Rain-X wipers, they were an inch shorter than the stock blades. They did NOT fully cover the rain sensor/lane keeping camera area. Can't get 27" blades, so I'll try a pair of 28" blades. I'm afraid that if I use the 26" blades they won't properly clear the sensor area and I'll get a lot of false readings. Since nobody makes 27" blades and 28" blades are just a hair short of being too long, this seems like a bad design decision by Ford. Slightly longer wiper arms would have allowed 26" blades to work perfectly. Why is it that Ford could get the overall FFH so perfect and screw up so badly on the little details like this? :banghead:
  4. MaineFusion
    How/where did you wire them in to the electrical system? When do they turn on?
  5. MaineFusion
    I have to keep the lane keeping turned off on my daily commute because I drive close to the white line due to the fact that the pavement in the normal tire tracks is worn really badly from people using studded tires. Even with lane keeping turned off, I still get the driver alerts from time to time, but not as often on my daily commute route. I'm not convinced lane placement is what triggers it. I almost think it is the feedback we are giving the steering wheel that triggers them. Studded tires are evil, they chew up roads and really don't improve traction except on ice. On dry pavement they actually make traction worse. Even when I lived in Alaska (eight years), I never used studded tires (except on my bicycle).
  6. MaineFusion
    Local car parts place sold me two 26" blades. I plan to install them today. I'll start with the driver side to see if there are any issues with the blade being an inch too short. I do a lot of driving and hate it when nicks in the blades leave lines on the windshield. I also hate streaking. I normally buy premium blades because I've been sorely disappointed by cheaper ones. One trick I try to remember to do on a regular basis (ever few tanks of gas) is to wash the blades. I take the gas station's window squeegee and run it across the length of the blades to get them wet and then use a paper towel to clean them. I do this until the blades don't leave so much black junk on the paper towel. I also clean my windshield on a regular basis. This helps keep the gritty material off the windshield and wipers, which seems to give me a longer life on the blade and reduce the scratching caused by the wipers. Quartz grains in the road grime in our area (we have lots of granite) is as hard as glass and will scratch the windshields over time.
  7. MaineFusion
    I don't like the idea of shortening the life of my normal headlamps to get daytime running lights and have a pair of LED light strips that will give a really cool effect. Before I install them, however, I'm looking for advice as to how/where I should wire them in to the electrical system? I suspect the easiest way to wire them in is to just have them come on when the car is running. Looking at fuses section of the owners manual (starts at page 239), I suspect the easiest/safest place to wire them in would be on the interior fuse panel (pg 246) into one of the spare fuse slots (e.g slot 4). Could someone provide advices/insight where the best spot to wire in the LED strips would be? I won't be doing it myself, but given the FFH is a totally different electrical beast than a standard car, I want to come armed with knowledge when I'm talking with the person who will be installing them. Of course I'll post photos once the lights are installed. :camera:
  8. MaineFusion
    I started a poll on this issue at http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/7532-how-did-battery-hard-reset-affect-your-mpg/ Five people who were getting less than 40mpg did respond to the poll and have posted their results of trying the hard reset. Three saw improved MPG. One thought it reduced MPG and one saw no difference. I suspect that in order to get the most benefit from a hard reset, one has to drive their FFH fairly conservatively for the next tank or two so that the FFH learns good running habits. It is probably aggressive driving habits early on that caused the FFH to run in a less than ideal manner to begin with.
  9. MaineFusion
    Eleven votes so far. Five from people who have tried the hard reset on FFHs with MPG less than 40. This is hardly a good sample size, but it does seem from the initial responses that the hard reset results are promising. Has anyone else tried the hard reset?
  10. MaineFusion
    I still want to know how it decides I need to take a break or that my hands are not on the steering wheel. The vast majority of the time, it wrong on both counts.
  11. MaineFusion
    My FFH is pretty close to adding my dealer to the EV+ list. I still wish it would kick into EV+ mode twice as far from the destination than it does.
  12. MaineFusion
    Are you sure you weren't reading the instruction's from your wife's OGBYN? Seriously though, why would you leave the nozzle in for an extra ten seconds? I can see leaving in for a few to make sure gas doesn't drip on the paint, but that doesn't take ten seconds.
  13. MaineFusion
    The only reason I'd even consider a grill cover would be fore the deep of winter where there were sub-zero temps (e.g. when I lived in Alaska). But I suspect the FFH's automatic louvers would address these issues. It just seems like an inherently bad idea to cover over the grill unless you are dealing with extremely cold temps.
  14. MaineFusion
    Probably a good idea. A first responder getting hit by 300v from the HBV because they didn't know what they were approaching would not be a good thing.
  15. MaineFusion
    Oh great! Let's do a mashup of systems of measure. L/100km is also the standard for measuring fuel economy in Europe. It is the U.S. who are the odd balls when it comes to what system of measure is used.
  16. MaineFusion
    Ya, shopping mall parking lots and traffic lights can eat up a lot of time. Especially when I keep the car running when parked to take pictures of the display for all the data collection. ;) I could have increased my MPG and average speed if I hadn't agreed to go shopping with my wife while cruising about.
  17. MaineFusion
    Here's what I can get driving around secondary roads in the greater Portland Maine area. :yahoo:
  18. MaineFusion
    A perfect example of this is my ability to consistently do over 60mpg (typically around 63mpg) when driving country roads between 35-45 mph. This past weekend I intentionally puttered around country roads between Saco and Portland Maine to pad extra MPG on in an effort to break the 600mi in one tank barrier. Plus it was a nice day and I really badly wanted to go for a drive. In the course of 100.1 mi with plenty of stops (e.g. engine cooling down), I averaged 61.8mpg and was in EV mode over 70% of the time. When I'm doing normal highway driving I'm lucky to be in EV mode 50% of the time, because when I am in EV mode at highway speeds it requires more electricity to keep the car up to speed.
  19. MaineFusion
    100.1mi of country road driving between Saco and Portland Maine: 70.4mi EV; 61.8 MPG

    From the album: MaineFusion

    © Kenneth Barbalace

  20. MaineFusion
    Simply driving in LA increases your chance of getting into an accident. :hysterical:
  21. MaineFusion
    Ya, I don't plan to try it either, why screw up a good thing. :shift: I did think, however, the poll might be helpful for others.
  22. MaineFusion
    Above 60mph, you are pretty much assured of losing 1 MPG for every 1MPH in increased speed even with the software update. When cruising country roads at between 35 - 45 mph, I typically get 62-65 mpg. On my daily commute when I set my cruise control to 63 mph I typically get 53 mpg. When I set it to 65mph, I typically get 50 mpg. The one time I did set my cruise control to 70mph for extended periods I averaged 38mpg (back in march about a month after getting my FFH). During the time frame when I got 38mpg doing 70mph, I was getting about 43mpg doing 65mph. I encourage everyone to try setting their cruise control at different speeds over a regular known route to see what kind of MPG they get at different speeds.
  23. MaineFusion
    It is for anyone who has tried the hard reset regardless of the software update.
  24. MaineFusion
    I thought it might be a good idea to try and systematically track whether or not the hard reset is helping to improve MPG for folks so I started a poll to help track everyone's results: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/7532-how-did-battery-hard-reset-affect-your-mpg/
  25. MaineFusion
    I thought I'd start a poll to help track how the hard reset (where you disconnect the HVB and 12v battery for 10min) affects folks MPG. Please wait for at least one tank of gas after trying a hard reset before reporting results.
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