Jump Starting Another Vehcile

[Marcy Maretti]

Can my 2016 Fusion Hybrid be used to jump start another vehicle or will that damage it? I've heard mixed thoughts on this topic. I need to jump start our other vehicle (GMC Sierra) but I don't want to damage the battery in the Fusion.

 

 

Edited January 30, 2016 by Marcy Maretti

[VonoreTn]

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.

Edited January 30, 2016 by VonoreTn

[corncobs]

Can my 2016 Fusion Hybrid be used to jump start another vehicle or will that damage it? I've heard mixed thoughts on this topic. I need to jump start our other vehicle (GMC Sierra) but I don't want to damage the battery in the Fusion.

 

 

Not a problem!!

 

After your FFH is running the 12V battery as no more job to do everything else runs of the engine/HVB. Just make sure you use the charge point under the hood as described in the manual.

 

Just for reference I gave my wife's Explorer a jump start a couple years ago without issues.

 

Good luck

[lolder]

It might even be a better idea to connect the cables directly to the battery terminals in the trunk. Connect the cables securely first to the FFH battery and then the positive cable to the positive of the jumped car and lastly the negative to a significant ground. Give it a few minutes and then try to start. Disconnect in the reverse order.

[machoman1337]

I've jump-started several regular sedans using the battery terminals under the hood.

 

I have not tried any trucks yet.

 

So far it hasn't damaged my FFH.

[billford]

Although you can jump start other vehicles, don't forget that you are putting your hybrid components under extra strain.

Safer to use a portable jump starter in my opinion.

[corncobs]

Although you can jump start other vehicles, don't forget that you are putting your hybrid components under extra strain.

Safer to use a portable jump starter in my opinion.

That I would like to understand not to start any arguments but just for curiosity.

 

The hybrid is built to generate power / energy and has a powerful electric generator while a regular car only has an alternator that I would be more worried about.

 

The 12V part is supplied by a DC/DC which doesn't have moving parts like the alternator.

 

Maybe I totally off in my thinking but that's my logical explanation please correct me if I'm wrong.

[lolder]

I think the DC to DC converter in the pre-2013 hybrids has a capacity of 120 amps at the 12 vdc output. I think I read that somewhere in a document about using a hybrid as a law enforcement vehicle where they have a lot more load on the 12 vdc system. That 120 amps compares favorably with an alternator output. The small 12 vdc battery in a hybrid has some cranking ability when used to jump another vehicle but not a lot. It doesn't crank the ICE in a Toyota/Ford eCVT hybrid. That's done by the HVB. That's actually one of the problems with the hybrid 12 vdc batterry; it doesn't get tested at every start. Frequently you start to notice slow cranking when the battery of a conventional car starts to have problems.

Starting draws heavy currents from conventional car batteries which also then have brief high charging currents. These stir up the electrolyte which I think is good. The hybrids don't do this and I think this is the cause for their somewhat less reliability and life. You would think that not taxing a battery would lead to longer life but that's possibly not the case.

There have been many cases over the years where the green ball was not displayed in the single cell it measured even when the battery seemed OK and even tested OK. That sounds like stratification in the electrolyte. I've measured a fully charged specific gravity in my FFH and the ball was still showing red but you can only draw electrolyte out of the top of it. I've tried squeezing the bulb of the hygrometer forcefully several times to get the green ball to appear with mixed results. You can see the red ball move sometimes but the green will not always appear. Sometimes it will appear weeks later.

Edited February 1, 2016 by lolder

[talmy]

Starting draws heavy currents from conventional car batteries which also then have brief high charging currents. These stir up the electrolyte which I think is good. The hybrids don't do this and I think this is the cause for their somewhat less reliability and life. You would think that not taxing a battery would lead to longer life but that's possibly not the case.

 

 

Our 9 year old Camry hybrid (130k miles) has the original batteries. Having the battery in the relatively cool trunk improves the battery life. This is the first time I've heard of any benefits to "stir up the electrolyte".

[lolder]

Well that is a guess. Keeping the battery temperature from extremes is a well known benefit.

[billford]

The way I see it, the FFH 390CCA battery is being used to jump start something else that may have anything from a 500 to 875CCA battery which is low or dead.

 

The FFH battery is already undersized for the jump start, so your overloading the battery and maybe DC to DC converter. When the jumper cables are connected, the DC to DC converter is now charging the FFH and the other vehicle, 2 batteries. Can it safely handle it? I don't know.

 

If somebody accidentally reverses the jumper cables, who knows what will happen to the FFH, not likely to be a cheap fix.

 

And I don't know the price difference between a DC to DC on the FFH compared to an alternator on a regular car. But I do know, that your not likely to buy a DC converter from the local parts store like you can an alternator.

 

Just think its safer to use a portable booster pack. Some of the newer ones are quite small and will do the job.

[lolder]

The 2004-12 DC to DC converters were an expensive water cooled device that I see for a price of $475. The 2013+ are air cooled and may be much cheaper. They are probably protected from overload but all the above comments are valid. If you only jump start similar cars and are meticulous about the hookups you may get away with it.

That being said, I was an electrical engineer and I hooked a jump up backward once. It damaged an air suspension on a 95 Grand Marquis.

Edited February 2, 2016 by lolder

[ElectricFan69]

 

 

Our 9 year old Camry hybrid (130k miles) has the original batteries. Having the battery in the relatively cool trunk improves the battery life. This is the first time I've heard of any benefits to "stir up the electrolyte".

The Panasonic battery in the TCH won't bet any benefit from 'stirring up electrolyte' because it's AGM - and doesn't have liquid electrolyte. Apparently, the FFH has a more conventional 12 volt lead/acid - which typically does have liquid that sloshes around.

 

In both designs - more so in the 'conventional' design, deep discharge accelerates battery death. The Panasonic AGM has been documented to have a harder time handling high loads (e.g. by jumping a ICE-only vehicle with the resulting high-amperage load) and doing so can cause its failure. Ford's apparent accessory strategy would seem to cause deeper discharge cycles than I was used to with an ICE-only car and its limited steady load battery.

 

And hooking up a battery backward would be bad news - with the reverse polarity frying (hopefully, if you're lucky) the fuses in the 12 volt circuit. If not, multiple ECUs in the car, the DC:DC inverter, etc....

Edited February 3, 2016 by ElectricFan69

[jsolan]

I've jumped my truck ('96 f150) using the front terminals without any issues. I just followed the instructions in the manual and the truck started right away. No noticeable difference to the fusion battery afterwards.

[Texasota]

I've jumped my truck ('96 f150) using the front terminals without any issues. I just followed the instructions in the manual and the truck started right away. No noticeable difference to the fusion battery afterwards.

I read those instructions in the manual also but I think they are in the context of jumping the FFH as opposed to using the FFH to jump another vehicle. I could not find instructions or guidance on jumping another vehicle but I could have missed it.

[2014FordFusionSE]

I have jump started another vehicle with the front terminals. The manual is a bit confusing. It has a sketch/picture of a long pen-like post for terminals but there aren't any (or at least I didn't see any.)

Mine has a red dome-like cap over the positive terminal and the negative 'terminal' is basically the nut/bolt on the car body, a few inches towards the cabin.

[unlockinc]

I read those instructions in the manual also but I think they are in the context of jumping the FFH as opposed to using the FFH to jump another vehicle. I could not find instructions or guidance on jumping another vehicle but I could have missed it.

 

I believe you are correct in your reading of the manual. Same instructions for my 2013 FFH SE. You would think some bright individual at Ford would have thought that it might be necessary to use the FFH system to jump-start another vehicle. Seems that, from the earlier posts in this thread, using the FFH system to jump-start another vehicle is safe, providing normal jump starting procedure is followed.