hal9000

As a possible additional hint, the right hand info screen on my dash was giving me a "communication with touch screen temporarily lost" message the afternoon before.... Honestly I don't even know what touch screen they're referring to. The base SE stereo doesn't appear to have a touch screen.... Unless it's been broken since I got the car!

Well, not quite stranded, but my ffh unexpectedly shut down as I approached a stoplight yesterday morning. Dash and radio worked, but every warning for engine came on when I tried to restart and the drivetrain (ice or electric) wouldn't start . 4 way flashers didn't work (it showed them as flashing on the cluster and I could hear the relay ticking) but the mirror mounted flashers did.... Like any good shade tree mechanic, I popped the hood and trunk and started poking around. A moment after pulling lightly on the main wiring harness I noticed the flashers had started working so I jumped in and tried the key and the car started right up. (Yay, cancel the tow truck, and drive home to change vehicles) I hope to diag/fix this on sunday. It seems based on symptoms like a loose connection that's causing the drivetrain to lose power. Maybe flashers are a clue to where? Is this a known issue and/or can anyone vector me towards the problem area? Also, any warnings about sensitive or dangerous items related to the hybrid system? And is there a battery disconnect? Thanks!

Yep, for the most part keys ride solo in the left pocket. I don't bother arranging them since I wear slacks and they move around quite a bit.

Anyone know I'd any of the aftermarket performance tuners will interface with ffh's?... Especially if they'll interface with the electric drive system..... Two reasons for asking.... The "legit" reason is that I'd love to have a tool that would give me realtime or logged information that I don't have a dash display for (rpm, temp, etc). The not so legit reason is that I've always wondered what it would take to tweak the performance on a hybrid.... I know it's antithetical to what the car was meant for and I'd never do it in reality.... Just call that part a thought experiment.

I'd love to know what to expect, or if there's an on-board health check tool.

Outside of the hours/idling question, can anyone shed any light on the sooty exhaust in general? Is it typical on these cars or related to a known problem? The seller had another identical fusion (higher mileage, worse cosmetic shape) that didn't have the soot build up, but that's just one data point....

I've only noticed it on the fob I usually carry. I'll have to switch to find out if the other does it, but in my estimate it's more related to the side/shape of the button than anything. All it takes is a little outside pressure on my pocket and anything that's contacting the button (chap stick, another key, etc) will depress the button. And since it's hard plastic, there's no give for minor pressure like you'd have with a rubber button.

Thanks for the heads up on tires. I'm not sure if what's on it are low resistance or not ( haven't checked? But my first tank average was 44.5 mpg, and that included 300 miles of highway use with a gross elevation change of about 15000 ft. So it seems like I'm doing ok.

14 ffh SE with 4 button flip key. I wouldn't mind occasional mishaps, but it literally happens every day if I keep my keys in my pocket

I'll probably experiment with a piece of milk jug that bridges across the button, and a little electrical tape. Ghetto, but if it provides a bit of extra resistance and makes the button harder to push I can live with that!

I can't believe how sensitive the panic button on my 4 button flip key is. I think I set it off 3 times walking around the house this morning and once playing with our toddler this evening. I swear it goes off if I look at the fob too intently! Aside from taping a piece of plastic over the button or (gasp!) Taking the keys out of my pocket when I'm at home, is there anything else I can do?

I heard it kick into engine braking yesterday on a long descent but didn't notice any dash indicator that the engine was running..... Theoretically they could engine brake without starting the engine just by engaging the transmission (would make the most sense from a speed reduction and fuel efficiency standpoint). Dang, now that's another question I have to find an answer for!

In terms of wear I can believe that, but it's not quite the question I was asking. I'm not sure what the lifetime average speed of most cars is (obviously it's going to vary to some extent), but that's another way of thinking about it. For example, if you ONLY drove on US highways at 75mph, then at 75k miles the hour count on the car would be 1000 hours. If you only drive in neighborhoods at 25 mph, then you'd see 3000 hours at the same mileage. If the car idles for 6 hours a day and then drives at 35 mph the rest of the time, your hour meter is going to have at least 10000 hours for the same mileage.... It can be a vague but informative tool, especially if you know what to call "typical".

It's a '14 but not highly optioned. Unless I've missed something big, all I have access to on the right screen is efficiency leaves and the compass.

Thanks. The manual dash icon index didn't have that symbol, and Aside from "hill" I wasn't sure what word to search for. I routinely make a drive that drops 6k' altitude in about 100 miles so im sure I'll get some use out of that feature!

I was disappointed to see that there appears to be no traditional engine gauge (ie temp, rpm, oil pressure etc).... Aside from physically adding a gauge pod, is there any way to activate or add gauges on the OE screens? This is an ex fleet SE model so minimally equipped and all the right dash screen has is the compass.... Thanks.

The manual for my se says hill start assist activates automatically and it doesn't have any mention about a manual activation switch.... So what's the little button on the side of my shifter that seems to do nothing other than turn on a little green dash light showing a car on an incline?......

On most newer vehicles you can find an hour counter somewhere in the settings. I think I scrolled past it on this car already, but don't remember where I saw it in the menu. It's not hard to find though.... It's essentially either a "key-on hours" or "engine on hours" counter in most cases. Higher than average hours of use/mile would indicate a lot of idle time or very low speed driving. Lower than average would indicate a lot of highway use.

When I was doing the once over for the 14 ffh SE that I just bought, one of the things I noticed was that there is a lot of exhaust soot deposited on the underside of the muffler, apparently from the weep holes, and a lot of soot deposited on the underbody near the rear bumper cover. It's a former fleet vehicle so maybe it spent a lot of time idling, but not sure. It did have an O2 sensor warning showing on a code reader before I test drove it, but that cleared out after ai drove the car a couple miles. ... I figured that worst case it might need an 02 sensor, but then I googled an there seemed to be a lot of people asking about exhaust soot on these cars. Is this a normal thing or an indication of something amiss? Also, if anyone has an estimate of what a "typical" number or ratio of operation hours/vehicle miles is, that might give me a ballpark for how much idle time the car had... Thanks all!

So I'm still learning about my 14 se, and checking/understanding the battery condition is one of the things I'm struggling with. The dashboard battery indicator sure seems to show the battery charging and draining faster than I would expect, and it seems to drop by about 20-25% overnight. But will charge back to where it started after just a couple stops. Is this typical? To me it seems to indicate a potential voltage drop. Are there any on-board tools for checking battery condition? I'm thinking about wiring a voltmeter in to monitor the hybrid battery. Whats the acceptable operating voltage range?

I have this same issue on the 2014 ffh that I purchased a few weeks ago. Sound coming from the driver side door or dash when the ice operates at low rpm. Doesn't matter of the radio is on or not, but seems to drop in volume of I adjust the balance all the way to the right (could be my imagination). The guy I bought it from flips fleet surplus vehicles and says he's seen it before and replacing speakers always fixed it. But it sounds more reminiscent of a wire or linkage vibrating against a panel to me I have a couple sets of speakers on the shelf and am planning to swap them out. But im going to see about repositioning any loose wires under the dash first for good measure.

Hi all, Just picked upa 14 fusion hybrid recently and while I'm pretty happy with it overall, there are definitely a few used car issues and a learning curve to get over. I'll be searching out the appropriate forums to post my questions as Time allows, but I live on toddler time at the moment so that could be hit or miss.... Oh, and I definitely bought the car for fuel savings, but I've had this nagging itch to play hot rod games with a hybrid for years. I'll never do it (see note on toddler time above), but I'm probably going to ask some silly questions about adding performance just to keep myself entertained! Best.