VonoreTn

Get the one at the dealer. It's worth the extra cost. It will last 6 years.

I just sold my 2010 FFH, $5K. Kelly Blue book said $3.9K private party given my mileage 152K. I had more calls early than I could handle wanting to buy it immediately at $5k; sold it the same day as the ad went online. My 2015 C-Max has a 12 volt battery issue at 90K miles (6 years), it will not start after 5 days unless float charged. It also is at 14 volts when started and drops quickly to 11.8 with engine off. I put my 100 amp load tester across it this morning after not driving it since yesterday, and it read 10 volts. Since that battery will never see 100 amps, that is more than enough to support the system. But when that number gets down toward 7-8 volts, it won't support the 12 volt ignition, fuel pump and fuel injector systems, which might happen after a week of non-use, and internal battery cell low amp leakage. I guess I will buy a new one, since I need to park at the airport for a week at Christmas. I could probably keep this one running for another year otherwise.

A voltage of 12.44 volts should not be an indicator to replace a battery. You need to do a load test, but even that could be misleading on a hybrid 12 volt battery, because it doesn't need the high cranking amps of a conventional battery, since it doesn't have the role of starting the engine. The engine electric motor/generator does that, using the high voltage battery. If you put 100 amp load on the battery with the engine off, it should be OK if it doesn't drop below 10 volts. It probably will never see 100 amp load, but as long as the engine is running, even in electric mode, the 12 volt battery will be supported at some constant level between 13.7 and 14.5 volts. I am still on my second 12 volt battery on my 2010 FFH, at 152K miles. The first one lasted 112K miles and 6 years. Get yourself a cigarette lighter digital voltage meter, like this one (Walmart) to see what your charging voltage is (engine running), and the engine off voltage. My engine-on voltage on the FFH is 13.7 volts which is a good number to extend the life of the battery. If the engine on voltage is above 14.5, it starts to be hard on the battery. 15 volts would be too high, and it would suggest an issue with the 12 volt battery engine-on regulator. With the engine off, the battery may drop to 11.8, which would be low for a conventional non-hybrid car, but not low for a hybrid. Do you have other vehicle symptoms of the battery being bad, or just someones voltage test? If your car is sitting unused for like 5 days or more, it might have slight internal voltage leakage, in which case a short charge from a trickle charger will bring it up to over 12 volts, and the computer will allow the car to start and it will be fine for several days. I have that issue on our 2015 C-Max hybrid, and I have been nursing it along for the last 20K miles, giving it a quick charge if it sat for over 5 days, it is now at 92K miles. It has worked fine on long trips in that time period.

What kind of mpg are you getting? What year FFH? Nickle-metal hydride battery or lithium? How many miles on it? I agree with Waldo. Mine is still running fine at 160K miles, going on 12 years old.

A bad oil filter will not cause the oil to disappear. A clogged oil filter is designed to eventually bypass it's filter portion, and just keep flowing dirty oil. The oil filter engineers figure flowing dirty oil is better than flowing no oil. Dirty oil can ruin your piston rings, and journal bearings on the connecting rods and crankshaft. You will eventually hear a rattling sound from the engine when you accelerate as the journal bearings fail. Good luck.

Can you return the car and get your money back? Sounds like it is an oil consumer, bad rings likely (only takes one bad oil ring out of 4). Have a different dealer run your car through their Ford Vin number record. I did that a day after I bought a Mustang years ago, and the second dealer found that the title had been branded. That means it was either 1) in a major accident, or 2) that the airbags had deployed, or 3)that it had been stolen and abused, 4)had undergone extensive mechanical rebuild. Since I had only had it one day I took it back and got my money back. The first dealer was not interested in the cars actual history, didn't want to hear about it. If your return no questions asked warranty has expired, tell the dealer you will see him in court, and issue a Civil Warrant against him. It will cost you about $75 to have it served to him. He will not want to go to court, based on the data you have that it is an oil burner. The reason you don't see any smoke is because the catalytic converter is doing it's job and burning the smoke. But that will only last so long until the converter is ruined. I'm assuming there are no major puddles under your engine. You may have to take the under shield off, it may be full of oil if it is leaking. It comes off easy if you can get it on a lift. Also for this forum, it helps others if you provide some information on your profile about what your car is, model year, model, engine, etc.

At the end of the life of my first 12 volt battery, at 117K miles, all I did was charge it with a 3 amp charger overnight, it started up fine the next morning and I drove it to the Ford Dealer who installed it a new 12 volt battery which is still working fine at 150K miles. Once it is started, the hybrid system will keep the 12 volt battery charged while the car is on. These charger and surge starters are designed to supply about 80 amps for a very short time 1-2 seconds, long enough for a conventional non-hybrid car to start one time. But as Murphy says, you don't need hardly any amps out of the 12 volt battery to start, because the HVB starts the car. I would not even try one of those surge chargers, I would not be sure how the whole hybrid electric system would respond to that misplaced voltage/amp surge.

Business-wise, I would not have paid the dealer for the second service. You are allowed to tell them up front that if this particular problem isn't fixed, you will not pay them anything. If they don't like that, take it somewhere else, there are auto repair shops who will accept that arrangement. You have a 12 volt current drain. I'm going to guess as much as 800 miliamps. (0.8 ampere) if it is draining the 12 volt battery in one day. Possibly a light or a small cooling fan for the high voltage battery , which will run when everything is off. At least you know it is not internal leakage in the 12 volt battery. It's measurable, after the car has been off for an hour, with everything off, put a 10 amp max. meter in series with either battery terminal, and see how much current is flowing. Let a mechanic do it if you are not familiar with battery safety practices. From that point you start disconnecting 12 volt system fuses until the drain stops and note what fuse stopped it.

I sent you a message.

Is there an Escape hybrid coming out soon? That might work for us. Right now we have a 2015 C-Max (made in Wayne, Mi) and a 2010 Fusion Hybrid (made at Hermosillo). Both working perfectly. I think people are going to be disappointed with hybrid trucks because the frontal area really cuts down on the MPG. We find the hybrids are great for the COVID19 hot weather situation, we just pull into a parking lot at a restaurant, order meals and eat in the car, in park with the engine "on" with full air conditioning. That's the advantage of an electric AC compressor and a good electric condenser fan, that doesn't have to do much engine cooling as well. The engine might come on for a minute every 10 minutes to charge, and I might lose a couple of miles of range for the event, but that's just a fraction of a gallon of gas to support full air conditioning comfort. It's like having an electric vehicle, but with a generator to recharge the battery occasionally.

Define somewhat.

Wow! great job on sizing that plastic to the lower opening. Of course if you move to Phoenix, and spend a lot of time over 100F, you will want to remove it. Looks like you secured it with plastic ties? Smart. Outstanding craftsmanship. That might help my C-Max mpg on short runs, because often the engine warmup time knocks down my mpg.

I didn't know they had ACC in 2014, does that include lane control, or just distance to the car in front of you control? Are you at 220K or 183K ?

That is a good idea for any car that will be left sitting for over a month. A lot of luxury cars, with all their computer gadgets that pull maybe 1-30 milliamps of current when the car is off, recommend doing that for second home vehicles.

See how low the battery voltage drops with a 100 amp load on it. You can buy a 100 amp load tester at Harbor Freight or Ruralking.com for $22 or $15 respectively. Google it. If the voltage drops below 10.3 volts, at 100 amps, the battery is bad. If it does not, there is a load larger than 100 amps from the car on start up. It could be a defective condenser fan motor, the seat heaters, your headlights on high beam on startup, you can track the load down from there by elimination. The 12 volt battery does not start the car like a conventional 12 volt battery. it lives a pampered life of lower loads, being constantly recharged by the high voltage system once the engine is running. I suspect the battery will drop to like lower than 9 volts at 100 amps, which will barely support the ignition system for the plugs and the fuel pump, which would be why the engine won't start. Mine finally failed at 112,000 miles. I charged it, drove 20 miles to the dealer, had them install a new one for $147.

Does this 2016 Ford Fusion Hybrid look like a good deal? I have a neighbor who is interested in buying one, and this looks OK to me. She has been impressed with the mileage on my 2 Ford hybrids. It has 26324 miles, and a 12/12 dealer comprehensive limited warranty. It looks very clean, no body issues. 501A package, moon roof, navigation, etc. The sticker is really hard to read, sorry about that.

I added some water to the cells on mine, and got it to last to over 100K miles. The cost to have the dealer replace it is very reasonable. This battery has nothing to do with your high voltage batteries which will last a much longer time. Since this battery does not start the engine, there is no need to go overboard on specifications or capacity, just use the one that the dealer recommends.

I would not try to start a truck engine with a FFH 12 volt battery, even though my battery is rated to 390 amps cold cranking, and it says I can do it in my Owners Manual, page 252. Check your 2016 FFH Owner's Manual in your glovebox. Keep in mind that you can arc weld with 60 amps, you need to know what you are doing. If you accidently touch the plus and minus clamps together, with the other end across either battery, you will be into arc welding territory immediately, where people wear dark lense face masks, thick welding gloves and clothing protection. If you had a gold ring on your finger in the same electrical path, you would burn your finger off in seconds. If possible, use a good 110 volt battery charger on the Sierra, and wait the 20 minutes or so before you try to start it. Much safer, and cheaper in case something goes wrong, even including the cost of buying a good 110 volt battery charger.

Jeff, that mileage is SO close to mine, which is at 124,000 miles now. I always fill up and I have every gas receipt, and an Excel chart of all my data with charts. My average is 39.7 mpg. Of course in the summer I can easily get over 40 around town with a few freeway runs as well, but winters are hard on the mpgs. I am not worried about my brake pads, I check them occasionally and they always look pretty much like new, since most of my braking is done by the generators, not even using the pads. Regarding the high voltage batteries, these NMH batteries have lasted 300K miles on Escape taxis fleet in California, the only ones that were replaced had been damaged in accidents at that average fleet mileage, so I am not at all worried about HV batteries. Regarding brake fluid, yes it is hydroscopic, and it will absorb moisture, but if you never leave your brake master cylinder cover off, there is just not that much opportunity for water to get into the fluid. I make sure I only take that cover off for seconds, to check the level if I can't see it from the outside. In the process of bleeding the brakes, you can have the cover off for some time, but for normal driving, the need to bleed the brakes is rare. You would need to bleed the brakes if you replaced a caliper or fixed a line leak, and in that case you should put in all new fluid.

My 12 volt battery went out a week after the dealer said it was fine. But I had 6 years and 112,000 miles on it. I had my Wife try to start it while I had an inexpensive digital volt meter across the battery, and the voltage dropped to 7 volts while she was hitting start with the key, so I knew the battery was inadequate. I charged it, it started easily, and made it to the dealer, no problem. It read 13.5 volts in engineering test mode, all the way to the dealer. I had the dealer put in a new one for ~$129 including the battery, which I think was $113. But mine is the older NiMhd battery system, probably different from yours.

Oops, I let your question languish for 5 years. In case you or anyone else is still interested, it is an etrailer.com part number 24837 trailer hitch mount. The hitch is standardized, 1.25 inch square. You can get the just the hitch at Walmart or any auto store. I also modified a Walmart hitch mount luggage carrier that I use. I cut it narrower, it was too wide as bought from Walmart for about $50. It's rated at 300 lbs. I stack a few suitcases on it in large garbage bags when I have 4 or 5 of us in the car all with luggage. It does not seem to hurt the mileage, being shielded by the body for air drag, and still within the luggage weight allowed in the owner's manual. I think I have more info and pictures on another topic for the luggage rack. I used a metal chop saw to narrow it, and just nuts and bolts to re-structuralize it.

I'm at 106,000 miles with my original 12 battery. I've had the red dot showing for the last 30K miles, but it still holds at 10.5 volts at 100 amp load, 13v while driving.

Yeah, I would double check that gauge before I spent any serious money on the car. They make a digital voltage gauge you can plug in your cigarette lighter. I think they sell it at Walmart. I have 2 of them, one for my boat, and one for my car and neighbors when I loan it out. Since I have a 2010 FFH which in "Engineering Test Mode" shows 13.9 to 14 volts parked but on, I don't have a problem, but your 2014 FFH is a different animal. If that 14.95 volts is correct, it would be hard on the low voltage battery, over time, it would shorten it's life.

I doubt if the problem is the HVB, the nickle metal hydride batteries have gone over 300K miles on Escape fleets. I have 106K miles on my 2010 FFH, and I have never had a problem with the original LVB, but the car has never not been driven for over 2 weeks at a time. I have never used a trickle charger or float charger on it. I think you need to do a little more study to confirm the voltage and amp capability on the LVB on one of these dead vehicles. I have a 100 amp load tester, and if I see at least 10.3 volts at 100 amp load, engine off, I know I am good. (100 amp load tester, $23 at Harbor Freight). http://www.harborfreight.com/100-amp-612v-battery-load-tester-61747.html

I still have the key start on my 2010 FFH. I am old enough to remember on the 1940 cars they had push button start, then the key start came in in the 50's which was considered an upgrade, but it was on the dash, not the steering column. Then when they wanted to lock the steering wheel when off and in park, they put it on the column. Anyway, I have never considered the push button start to be a feature, just an annoying change back to an old concept. Maybe your FFH needs a way to totally disconnect the HV and LV batteries, but as you say, very few people tow their FFH's. I'm sure some of these experts on this forum can help you with that.