New owner and a few questions

[Cathleen Cobb Rafferty]

Hello - got my 2017 Fusion Hybrid a couple of weeks ago and love driving it. Sometimes finding answers in the manual is a bit overwhelming so maybe I can get some help in this forum. I'll try to post only 2-3 Qs at a time so here goes:

 

1) Am I correct in thinking that if I'm using A/C that likely the gas engine is running - especially if I'm on the freeway and driving +65 mph in order not to be run over?

 

2) What does the amber color on the "cruising" bar mean? Is that related to the above question in that the gas mileage isn't optimum due to speed and/or use of A/C?

 

That's all for now. Thanks for your assistance. :)

[md13ffhguy]

Congrats on the new car! I believe the A/C compressor is electric, so it runs off the high voltage battery (HVB). Of course, that depletes the charge faster, causing your internal combustion engine (ICE, i.e. gas engine) to run more frequently.

 

The amber color is an indicator of efficiency related to your average cruising speed. Driving at 65 will likely keep you in that range. If you do a lot of freeway driving, then so be it. If you have the opportunity to drive on roads with lower speeds, you might see that bar rise and turn green.

[Cathleen Cobb Rafferty]

Thanks for the information and confirmation. What you describe makes sense to me and I appreciate being able to ask questions of folks like you who have more experience with hybrid cars. No doubt I'll be back with other questions soon. :)

[jeff_h]

Sometimes finding answers in the manual is a bit overwhelming so maybe I can get some help in this forum.

 

Welcome!

 

Flipping through the pages can be a pain, just making sure you also have a PDF of the manual, which makes it faster and easier to hit Control-F and find whatever search term you want.

 

There are several sites that have the online manual, below is one -

 

http://cdn.dealereprocess.com/cdn/servicemanuals/ford/2017-fusionhybrid.pdf

Edited August 27, 2016 by jeff_h

[Cobra348]

Welcome to the club!

 

I was quite surprised to learn the A/C was all electric but it's really pretty efficient. In really warm temps like we had recently here (90+ for several days) I would do a global window open a couple minutes before using the car then remote start it to get the A/C running (this is in Settings in the left screen). Darn thing sounded like a jet engine warming up but it worked quite well. This was my prior '15 FFH Titanium.

 

I need to try this same procedure on the new car and play around with a couple more things but overall, I like the changes done between '15 and '17 model years. some of the mods I did to the '15 will be on this car next week ... including the donut spare. An inflation kit is not my cup of tea.

 

Again, happy to have you here! There's plenty of knowledge around here - just for the asking.

Edited September 5, 2016 by Cobra348

[DrDeke]

One of the really nice things about the electric air conditioners on these cars is that they are able to pull a lot of power and deliver a lot of cooling when that is needed (when it's hot outside and the car is also hot), but also to scale back and pull only a small amount of power when a small amount of cooling is needed (in cooler weather, or even in hot weather once the car has cooled down some).

 

In my 2012, the A/C can pull as much as around 4 kW when it's very hot, or as little as 400-500 W when it's not, which is a pretty great range.

[ElectricFan69]

Hello - got my 2017 Fusion Hybrid a couple of weeks ago and love driving it. Sometimes finding answers in the manual is a bit overwhelming so maybe I can get some help in this forum. I'll try to post only 2-3 Qs at a time so here goes:

 

1) Am I correct in thinking that if I'm using A/C that likely the gas engine is running - especially if I'm on the freeway and driving +65 mph in order not to be run over?

 

2) What does the amber color on the "cruising" bar mean? Is that related to the above question in that the gas mileage isn't optimum due to speed and/or use of A/C?

 

That's all for now. Thanks for your assistance. :)

The traction battery has a relatively small capacity and the A/C compressor has a sizable draw - at full honk, it' can actually draw more current than the traction motors ar low speed cruise.. The combination will reduce the all-electric cruise by a fair bit - the exact amount depends on whether you have the ECO or MAX A/C engaged.

The Cruising (and brake and acceleration) bars are coded red-yellow-blue; Red tells you you're being fuelish, yellow is 'could be better', and blue is 'max MPG'

[djminfll]

some of the mods I did to the '15 will be on this car next week ... including the donut spare. An inflation kit is not my cup of tea.

 

How did you do the donut spare? I never felt comfortable without a spare, but last week I got a flat and was stuck. Fortunately, I have roadside assistance, but I would have preferred to have a spare!

[Cobra348]

A couple threads to look at where it'll give you some ideas:

 

Parts list for dealer-purchase parts is here. Use the Invoice Part # as the guide when you talk to parts. The tread can be gotten from TireRack - just search for it by your year, etc. You want the 16" setup, have your local mechanic put the tread on the rim for you and inflate it. This was somewhat over $500 for new dealer/TireRack parts in 2015. I used the donut in my '15 and now in the '17.

 

A less expensive method is to locate a donut, assembly box, jack and wrench from a junkyard. You want a 2013 gas Fusion or later as the parts source.

 

A thread I started on comparing my '17 stuff to the prior '15 has some commentary on actually installing the spare in place of the mobility kit. See message #2 for that. There may be other items in there that would interest you.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Cobra348