acdii

I have used the Ford compressor many times with those crapyear tires that it came with, they leaked all the time, so the compressor got several good workouts and it does a very good job. It is not a cheap compressor, but a very good one. Not having a spare in the FFh did concern me with my current job where its a 60 mile drive on state highways with no towns in sight. When I blew a tire on the chebby and got stuck on the side of the road with a spare tire that was not coming down, it gave me pause on whether or not I should replace it with a spare tire. Roadside assistance will tow me to the nearest dealer, but what good would that do if they dont have a PureContact in stock and have to order one which could take several days? Gieco could tow me wherever I want, but again, who stocks a PureContact? Walmart takes a day to get them, thats where I got them from. So having a regular spare is a lot better than the goopressor.

You would think a truck would be noisy inside, and the F150 is just as, if not more quiet inside than the Fusion. Unless I have a window down, I cannot hear the engine start, and the only time I hear it is when I get on it to pass someone, or take off with gusto, otherwise all I hear are tires thwacking the tar strips. After 45K miles in the Fusion, knowing how quiet it is except for the ICE on acceleration, this has totally impressed me. BTE how did this thread get so far off topic?

Thats great! Better than I got in the MKT which aerodynamically should have a lower COD than the Exploder. Then again it does have about 100 more HP that the Exploder does. LOL My F150 so far is doing almost as good as the MKT did, its hovering just under 20 MPG, with less than 2000 miles on it. The trip gauges are dead freaking on! Each fill except for one, have been within .02 gallons, the exception was at a station that I question their pumps as I had also filled up two gas cans, one with gas, the other with diesel, and the diesel can holds 6.6 gallons to the mark, but the pump said I put in 7.1 gallons. The other can also filled up with more that it holds, so if I eliminate that one fill, which was off by nearly 2 gallons, then my average goes up .5 MPG. I filled at 4 different stations for 5 fills now, and each one was right on the money except that one. I towed my plane hauler Friday, got about 11 MPG, but the entire tank average still came out over 19 MPG. Doesn't sound that great compared to the Fusion, but factor in COD, size and weight, it is doing just as good as the FFH did. It may only be half the MPG, but it is nearly twice the mass. I would say that is happy MPG talk! :)

The one thing that wasn't mentioned is ICE temps. The hotter the engine is, the more efficient it becomes. When you can get up to and sustain 200*+ in the ICE, it will use less fuel, this is a reason why cold weather has such a large impact, along with winter blend fuel which is not as good as summer blend. It uses aromatics that in the summer evaporate much too quickly and is used in the winter to replace slower additives. Why they do this, who knows. When the combustion chambers are at their peak temps, less fuel is needed to get a clean burn, so it runs more efficient. In really hot weather the decrease is mostly due to AC use, as I have frequently seen 47 in 100* temps with just the roof vented and the back windows down to provide airflow and not use AC. In cold weather, the use of grill covers(which is a hot debate now regarding trans temps) helps to keep the heat in, but getting to that magic temp of 200+ it not easy even with covers, unless you drive a lot of highway miles and use little heat inside. The most I usually saw was 186*, with it peaking over 200 only when I came to a stop and the ICE heat soaked for a few moments, but quickly drops once the ICE runs again. Whats funny is the last 4000 miles I drove the car, I didn't care what the gas mileage was, I just set the cruise and drove it. As long as it fell somewhere in my expected range I was fine with it, and it did, no complaints. The average driver should expect 38-43 MPG in this car, as long as you are in between that range, you are doing fine. Then there are those like a few members here who have an exceptional drive everyday and can get well above 43 MPG all the time. They are not typical to the FFH, they are the exception! 38-43 that should be your goal, go above and you are doing great!

After reading about trans problems, and with the funky braking I experienced, in a way kinda glad I dont have it anymore. Hoping this isnt a trend though, would suck for owners and Ford if it is. Especially those who are out of warranty.

There you go, seems like I'm not the only one who looks at it like this. I never consider a car an investment unless its a Classic that I know I can flip some day. There was a commercial on the radio years ago that made me laugh calling a car an investment. Investment to me is something that eventually earns you money, like a house(though recently...), or an IRA or 401K, those are investments, and payback on those are something you want to know. Buying a car is more of a choice, like a refrigerator, or stove. You will never get back what you paid(unless its an LG and it craps out in 8 months) for any of these, so just get what you want and enjoy it. I enjoyed my HyTi tremendously, and to me it was a great car for the time I had it, would still have it if I could have found a way to keep it, but having a car sit outside not being driven is bad for a car.

I always laugh at the "payback" thing regarding hybrids. Whats the payback of buying a GT 500 instead of a V6 Mustang? It is nothing more than a matter of choice. There is more to buying a Hybrid than saving gas. So what if it cost a bit more than the gas version, but in the long run using fewer gallons of gas over the ownership of the car saves more than just pocket change, environmentally is an even bigger savings.

Sounds like you found the issue. Pretty sad when owners know more about the cars systems than the technicians do.

Well a couple things to note, this is not a drivability issue, so a lemon law may be difficult. Second to note, intermittent issues like this are very difficult to resolve. You can keep persueing Ford to get it fixed, or do like I did and just get rid of it. I have been down this path with the first one, and it was a nightmare, wish I had the issue you have, at least you got some codes to work with. The problems I had with the second one were very minor, and only I noticed them because I was in tune with the car, and since no codes, it would be even more difficult to track down once they figured out just what my complaint was, so I just came to the point, wasn't worth my time. I did not get rid of my second car due to the problem, but because it was too painful to drive, I could barely walk after an hour in the car, so I had to replace it with something I could drive, otherwise I would still have it. Unless the car stops working, has to be towed, has left you stranded, then you have a long uphill battle with Ford. I have been through this, so good luck.

Yeah, wish I knew.

For controlling the HVAC/Seat heaters. That dash panel only has switches in it, the part that does the actual work is somewhere else. There really isnt much difference between the Fords when it comes to these controls, the Flex and Fusion have the same control inputs in the Titanium and Limited. The F150 is really close to those to as well. The MFT is just a touch screen with a module on it, the radio is a unit all by itself behind and underneath MFT. There is a lot of consistency between the models when it comes to these, probably for repair and troubleshooting purposes. Once you have the cosmetics off, they all look pretty much the same back there. I just had the dash apart in the F150, and the front panel has a 5 wire connection to it, thats it, and its pretty thin, so its only switches in that panel. There were about a half dozen different boxes up and inside the dash once I got the radio out. And to think, the F150 is no where near as complex as the HyTi.

The panel comes off once they remove the 4 screws holding it in place. The MFT is all by itself behind it. That panel is just switches, the module is up under the dash.

Well the update took 8 hours! My EEnternet sux. It has so many features on it that I am still finding things. It also has two trip recorders that show miles, elevation, average speed and time. Right now I am downloading the camera software, and maps to my computer so I can pre-plan and upload to the device. What I like is the magnetic base, it snaps on and off and locks on.

That would be the faceplate with all the switches. At least that is what it is called on the F150 in the Kicker installation guide.

Interesting, for Canada. It would explain why some cars have low 12v batteries.