jediboytj

I've been monitoring this thread for a few months now, and I'm happy to see Ford finally doing an investigation. I have a 2012 MKZ Hybrid, (airbag recall done, car running flawlessly *knock on wood*). Although it has manufacturing date of I believe September 2011. So come next September, I'll hit the dreaded "9 years" age and probably be in the same boat as everyone else in this thread. I've been debating performing the forscan update myself preemptively, but I think I might wait for official word from Ford about this.

+1 to this. I had nearly the same identical issue on my 2012. Multiple warning lights and chimes, and a no start. I was, however, able to get it jumped. Once I had it replaced the next day, no more warning lights (get a Motorcraft battery!)

I bought my car preowned from my local CarMax dealer knowing that it was still within the limited warranty and that I would purchase the PremiumCare ESP right before it expired. I previously owned a 2007 MKZ that I kept up until Oct 2013 when I bought the Hybrid. My 2007 had the PremiumCare warranty on it that I paid ~$1400 IIRC. Literally one month after the limited warranty expired, the A/C quit working properly (kept going hot and cold in waves). Was at the dealer for over a week. A/C Compressor and Evap Temp Sensor replaced, both extremely long and involved jobs that would easily have totaled over $1000 just in labor alone. Not to mention a few other small visits for various other issues, including some pieces that would be considered "wear" items, they still took care of for me. They never once argued with me about something not being covered by ESP. When I bought my '12 MKZ Hybrid, I figured I would do the same thing and get the extended warranty. However I learned that my car already had a CPO warranty attached to it! It expires October 2017 so I still have over a year of coverage from now. I *believe* I can still attach a PremiumCare warranty to it to cover it for another couple of years but i'll look into that later. An Extended Warranty on a Used Car is a no brainer IMO. Its like insurance, you get it because you hope to never have to actually use it, but when you do have to use it you're glad had it. As long as you shop around for it and only get the manufacturers warranty (not any of those third party warranties).

Is there one you would recommend getting, and/or would running the car for longer help?

So my 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid has a bad amplifier. A loud popping sound comes from the back speakers (sounds like someone is banging on the back window every second). It started off only for a few seconds at initial start up, but eventually got worse. Only took like 3-4 days before it got worse... I brought my car to the dealer on August 17th due to most of the speakers finally going out. It still works a little bit, but as you can guess driving with a loud banging sound can get a bit annoying. I dropped it off quickly, and drove away in a nice loaner. They were able to diagnose is in less than a day, telling me its the amplifier, or "Digital Sound Processor" as its called (Its the THX 5.1 System). They said the part is on "emergency only order" status or something, and did not have an ETA for the part. He said it could arrive next day but wasn't sure. Long story short, it took almost two weeks for me to finally hear from the dealer about an ETA for the part arrival... which is now Early/Mid October! And on top of that, they told me I had to return the loaner because Lincoln will not pay for a loaner for a car awaiting parts for a non-safety related issue. I can understand the reasoning, but it certainly made me a little upset. So now I decided to just park the car at my house, I unfortunately don't have a garage so I just have it under a car cover while I wait to hear about the part. Thankfully I have an old car that I can drive in the mean time. One question I have, is is it worth escalating any higher? Other than the lack of initial communication, the service department and manager has been very helpful, and I know its not their fault that the part is not available. Should I call someone at Ford/Lincoln directly? And finally, my main question here is, while the car is sitting, Is it ok to just run it for about 10mins every week or so? I don't want to disconnect the LV battery while it sits there, so is just running the car every few days sufficient to keep the HV battery healthy? Thanks!

Hey guys! I have a 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. I was reading about the way the HV battery is cooled, and how it uses the cabin air to cool it, rather than its own separate cooling system. However, there are times when I like to just drive with no a/c and the windows down, even if its kinda hot outside (I'm in south florida). Is this possibly harming the battery? I figure if the battery was possibly "overheating", there would a message on the dash indicating so, and so far I haven't gotten anything. But I just got a little worried because of how often I like to run the car without a/c (also I tend to get 3-4+ mpg on trips when I don't run a/c). I plan to keep this car for a very long time, and I just don't want to do anything that would harm the system. It still has 4+ years on its hybrid/battery warranty so I know I should be fine in this period, but I worry for after that warranty is up.

Yeah there is most definitely a fan running with heat on in my MKZ. The main difference I noticed was that it kinda "fades" on and off, rather than running continuously like for cooled seats. I'm guessing the MKT uses more of a heating pad system.

I have a 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, which has the cooled seats standard. From what I understand, the cooled seats are just a fan in the seat blowing from a "cool plate". Its the same fan that is used for the heated seats. There is no direct connection to the a/c. I believe the only additional fuel consumption would come from the tiny amount of power used to spin the fan in the seat. And unless they changed the system for the new style, I'm sure it'll be the same as what is in mine. I've noticed that the system works best when the a/c has already been running through the car and its essentially just a fan for the already cool cabin air to go through the seat bottom and back. You wont really feel anything for a while if the car was sitting in the hot sun, I find myself waiting about 3-4 mins after driving to turn the cooled seat on, seems to get the fullest effect. Lately thanks to the cooler weather in FL, I find myself riding with the windows down, and whether I have the cooled seat on or off, I dont notice any difference in fuel economy. One thing I did do, was on my last drive I looked at the "ACCS" bar on the EmPower screen, and I noticed that turning on or off the cooled seat had pretty much zero effect on it (it was maybe the same as turning on a light, if that), while turning on the a/c caused it to jump 3-4 bars. Thats the best info I can give, hope it helps a little bit.

I know it was kinda windy in Orlando, and a cold front was just starting to come through on my way home so there was a good amount of rain in the beginning. I dont remember feeling too much wind resistance on the way home, but i'm not sure. Now that im back in town, my city driving seems to be unaffected now. I dont recall ever seeing that much of a MPG drop in my old non-hybrid MKZ on road trips, I would always get a consistent 26MPG, with only maybe a .5MPG variation. Are hybrid cars affected more by things like wind, hills, tire pressure...etc, than non-hybrid cars?

Hey Guys, I'm in South Florida, so i'm relatively unaffected by what the rest of the country calls "winter", and its very flat so there are rarely differences in MPG when driving one way or another. I took a short road trip to Orlando yesterday, which I have done a few times in this car, and I usually average about 37-38MPG. On the trip up to Orlando, I got my normal 37MPG. On the way home, right outside of Orlando, I had to stop for a fill up (I was down to about 1/4), after that fill up I noticed that even going my normal 70mph on the turnpike, my average MPG was going down quickly. I did a reset of the average, and it was floating around 31-33MPG. That seemed like such a drastic sudden change that seemed to occur right after the fill up. Now, my assumption is that the gas might of been the "winter blend" that I hear people talk about on here that causes a drop in MPG. My last fill up before that was in mid/late november. Everything else with the car is fine, tire pressure OK, and the car runs smoothly and quietly as always. Anything else I should check, or is it probably just the Winter gas?

Hi guys, I noticed the top thread in this forum about the 2013+ ET mode that is available. I have searched high and low and can not find anything similar for the 2010-2012 Hybrids. I found the procedure for the non-hybrids (hold Reset for 5 seconds as the car is turned on) and I tried that method on my SmartGauge model but it doesnt seem to do anything. Also, on my old 07 MKZ, it had a "developer mode" built in that I was able to access. I thought it was cool to dive down deep into the workings of the car/nav system, read trouble codes through it...etc. Is there anything similar on these newer units? Thanks!

I have a 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. My average is right around 37mpg, which I am pretty happy with. I'm in South Florida, so I usually have the a/c on a lot too, except at night. When I drive 10+ miles with no a/c in normal city/suburb traffic, I'll usually get a 43-46mpg score at the end of the drive. The a/c during the day will easily drop that number to 38-42, and it'll be lower if its a shorter trip with less brake regeneration. In this car, if I can get 35+mpg, i'm pretty happy. To be able to drive a car as big as ours and get the milage of a car significantly smaller, is amazing.

Yeah I wish there was a message or something too. But in the back of my mind I was thinking if there wasnt any message or dash light popping up, then I was ok. No hills in FL so rarely does my regen braking give it more than a 60-75% charge (except when the ICE stays on for the first few mins to warm up). Yeah I was mainly thinking something might of been going wrong since I pretty much never see it more than 75% tops. But I figured with all the computers and sensors and error messages that could generate, that something would of triggered a fault message if anything was wrong.

Hey guys, I know this forum is mostly filled with 2013+ models, but I know a few of you guys at least owned a 2010-2012 hybrid model at some point. (quick backstory) I bought this MKZ preowned about 6 weeks ago, and have put about 2200 miles on it since (had a couple road trips mainly). And its pretty much been a trouble free *knock on wood* 2200 miles. I spent weeks researching these hybrids, and how they work, watching youtube videos, reading this and other forums top to bottom, and feel I got a pretty good understanding of these cars (at least on paper lol). Anyway, I *think* I understand what the car is doing, but I just wanted to make sure there wasnt a problem. So today I went and started to car as normal, took a 2.5 mile ride to the gym, and noticed that even when the engine was warmed up it would not go into EV mode. The ICE stayed on all the way until the SOC was full. It worried me a little because im not used to seeing the SOC go above 50/60% and even when it got to 100% it stayed charging. Now when I finally got to the gym (it was like less than 10min), and parked, then it finally went into EV mode (but only like 20mpg for that trip!). On the way back, it seemed to function normally again, and the trip back got 61mpg, so it pretty much averaged out. Now, my assumption (correct me if im wrong, thats why im here!), is that the battery was calibrating itself (I believe I read something on this forum that talked about auto-calibration, but I thought it came with a message or something saying thats what its doing). I cant recall the car doing this since i bought it, so it caught me off guard. Sorry for the long winded post, and sorry if this is a dumb question!

Thanks for everyones input, makes sense now that the 12V battery will "start" the relays to connect the battery/electric motor, rather than needing to "start" an engine. I've also read a little bit more and found that if the 12V battery is beginning to fail, it could actually cause the whole car to shut off while driving. Is this true and has anyone experienced this? I am actually a member of that forum and have read through a lot of that to get a feel for any major issues that might crop up. So far it seems the most issues have occurred with the early 2010 models the most (due to being a brand new model). I really do hope to learn everything I can about this car, and even though I read through the whole owners manual, there are still a few tiny things (like this thread) that i'd like to know more about.

Hi guys, So I just got a 2012 MKZ Hybrid, and it still has the standard key-in-ignition. To start the car i have the make the same motions as if it was a standard car (turn to position III then back to II), and it makes no engine sounds, just tells me it's ready to drive. My question is what is really happening since there is technically no starter for the small 12V battery to run, and how will I know if the small battery would need to be replaced?

Thanks for all the replys! I just got off a 430mi (round trip, 215 each way) road trip in this car. Both ways I got exactly 38mpg. Speed ranged between 65-70mph (rarely ever exceeding that, except for a couple passes). I'd say thats pretty good. I know if I would of just went 60-65mph the whole way it would easily get low 40s. My last 50miles was at 60-65mph and my last-10min-mpg-gauge was all above 40 I'm pretty happy with it so far. The car has an amazing ride and it is such a comfortable road trip car.

Thanks for the reply! Glad to see other Z'ers here! I did search a lot on google for comparisons (google was my friend when searching for everything related to the car before I bought it). I tried going through places like wikipedia, but I couldn't find the specifics I was looking for.

Hi guys! So I just picked up a (used, but in mint condition) 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, Steel Blue Metallic with 22k on the odo. I got it for a really good deal and couldnt pass it up (bought for just under $25k! Its a $31k current KBB value, $41k sticker). Nicely loaded, its got THX Audio, Nav, Rear Camera, Park Assists, BLIS, Moonroof...etc Its hard to find a Lincoln specific forum so I hope i'm welcome here. I know the Fusion Hybrids and MKZ Hybrids are essentially identical mechanically. I'm coming from a 2007 Lincoln MKZ, which has the 3.5L 263HP engine. I was lucky to get 13-14mpg in the city with that car. Even if I just simply double that gas milage i'll be ecstatic. I'm hoping to learn the best ways to get the most out of this car. I've only driven it about 200 miles since picking it up, and im averaging about 33-35mpg. Not horrible (see my line above about my last car lol) but I know she can do better (and considering i've been idling it a lot due to learning the whole SYNC system and other contraptions built into this beast, i'm sure it'll get better naturally)! On a side note, is there anywhere that describes the differences in the 2012 and 2013+ hybrid systems? I know it is different considering newer ones can stay in EV mode up to 82mph, while this car can only stay in it up to 42mph.