jay2000

I was out there over Labor Day, I remember thinking the same thing.....not many Fusions. Could it be all Fords? The Bay area does have lot's of Prius's, and other high mileage cars. They are setting up charging stations for electric cars. They are early adapters. You would think FFH's would be popular amoung the Mid sized set.

This is just a thought, I really don't know what is going on. Could the defrost be coming on? Could that override everything under certain conditions? I think that can activate the A/C, even in winter, in order to dry out the air.

Thanks for the input, mgbabe. Let me repeat a comment I made in another thread, "what is up with this TPMS stuff?" It seems that some folks do need the triggering tool, and some don't. I got the tool from Tire Rack, but after a week now, I haven't needed it. I have a Ford Fusion Hybrid, 2010. I know that the sensors are different for 2009 and 2010. Is that what is going on? Jerry

Thanks.

Hi, Glad things worked so well. Let me ask a question. After you installed your new winter package, did you get a TPMS error on your dash, BEFORE you trained the sensors with the transmitter? Jerry

What is up with this TPMS stuff? I, too, have a similar situation. I put on my new winter tires and wheels with TPMS from Tire Rack, and there is no warning light. EVERYTHING I have read, including the TireRack info and the saleman, says that you need the Ford triggering tool to train the sensors. But I have no light. I have driven 180 miles this way. (Longest trip was maybe 40 miles.) I have not trained the sensors. To prove to myself that the sensors were in there, I lowered the pressure on one tire to 20 psi and immediately got a "low tire pressure" warning. Filled it back up and the warning went away. At least I know that they work. I am parked close to the old tires. And I can move them to the basement if I have to. I will do some more driving, but it seems like a 40 mile trip would be enough. What is the point of buying the triggering tool? Jerry

I am thinking about winter tires. In the past I have bought a separate set of wheels for my winter tires. That was before the days of tire pressure monitoring systems. I am happy to buy the separate wheels without the TPMS installed, and live without the benefit of the sensors. I know that the dash board light will come on. My question is will it be a solid warning light or a flashing warning light? Pages 199 and 200 of the owner's guide are not very clear about this. Have you done this yourself? and what did the light do?

Hi, I agree this is decieving. My computer has been telling me I do about 1 mpg better than what my own calculations show. I use a Scanguage II on my other cars and it can be calibrated so that I get a fairly accurate number overall. It seems that my dealer should be able to hook the FFH up to a computer and calibrate it's readout. But, based on my experience, the dealer isn't to comfortable with anything hybrid. And yes, I can mentally subtract 1 mpg from what ever my readout says, but I would have thought the car is capable of this sort of thing. I wonder if the Prius is accurate? Jerry

Just some thoughts off the top of my head. I believe the Volt is using "series hybrid" technology. To me it seems more simple. Use regen and ICE to put juice in the battery, use the battery and the motor to push the car. Over the years I was very suprised to see that this was not the first hybrid. Parallel seems complicated. I do not think trains use regen. Seems like a good idea if you had a long train coming down out of the mountains. It may be on the new engines, not sure. My guess is that the higher cost is because they are using a more expensive battery. As costs come down plug in hybrids will be the norm, we will all have them. Will they be parallel or series? If you had a big battery and a big motor (so that you could go freeway speeds on electric only) maybe parallel would be the way to go???? All that said, the efficiencies of electric only for the first 40 miles is going win out at some point. All electric will win out to some extent. Most of use will have 2 cars, just like now. One will be a hybrid when we need range and one will be all electric for one spouse to commute daily. Jerry

Hi, It sounds like environmental concerns, and using less foreign oil are not really part of your decision. So...if money is the issue. In general, you are always going to come out ahead KEEPING a 1-2 year old car. You just are not going to get that much for a trade in. $22,900 from a private buyer sounds pretty good, if you can then buy a Fusion for just a little more. I would wait until I have that money in my hand before I bought the new car. Won't you have to pay sales tax? If you were planning to keep it for years, you may see $4 gas and up.

Its almost like the conventional brakes are hardly ever being used. Is that a valid assumption? I would agree that this is a valid assumption. I assume that riding the brake puts a little more juice in the battery than just coasting. What about the amount of pressure on the pedal? If I push a little harder, do I put a little more juice in the battery?

I would like to do my own tire rotations, but I am not sure about the TPMS reset tool. I know that most Fords require reseting the TPMS for each tire when they move to a different position. I am prepared to buy a reset tool, but I am not sure if the one that other Fords use will work on the FFH. In fact, I am not even sure this reset is necessary. I have some instructions I found on the web. And yesterday I tried to do a "preparation" sequence that was to be done prior to "training" the sensors. It did not seem to work at all. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if the FFH can detect which tire is where. Anybody know the real story?

This morning I checked, about 20 mpg at the 1.5 mile mark. (There's all kinds of variables at play here.) This is bound to be better than a Fusion SE, and not as good as a Vespa. You sound like a good candidate for an all electric car. Can you wait a year? There should be more choices than just the Nissan Leaf by then.

I had this warning Saturday. I am not sure what set it. It may have been a hard turn I made, that could have set in motion the Electronic Stability Control. Not sure. Turning the car off and on was no help. A call to the dealer service department was no help. ( My biggest concern was how safe is it to drive???) I left the car off for a few minutes, and the error did not clear. I finally decided to go ahead and drive, at least a little, after all, it was a 3 day weekend and I was not going to be without my new car! About a mile down the road, the error light went off and stayed off. Jerry

Hi, On my car, it starts out white, then turns green ( very soon, like within 1/4 of a mile.) then it goes back to white (at about half a mile into the trip) and then it goes green again and it STAYS GREEN the rest of the trip. I will try to watch this for a few days and see if this pattern is true all the time. I don't know it this is important, but in the manual it seems to be talking about the "hybrid system" being warm enough, not the engine (page 28). I am not sure what the "hybrid system" is, I am embarrassed to admit. Maybe someone can explain that part of it. Or better yet, is there a good web site that explains the FFH process? Jerry quote name='ethereal' date='30 May 2010 - 01:12 AM' timestamp='1275199920' post='27205'] Thanks for the confirmation! Guess there's not much I can do about this then. What sort of distance and driving conditions (stop and go? much regenerative braking + EV mode?) do you see your 40 mpg on? I can get close to 40 on the highway, but unless I've built up a reserve in the battery and am very careful with EV mode over a longer distance city commute, I don't see close to that in the city.