How to Drive a FORD Fusion Hybrid to get Great Gas Mileage

[ptjones]

YouTube views are up to 2550 now and still going up. :)

 

Paul

[Mister MMT]

As said before, I have now augmented the tire pressure of my Hankook Ventus Prime3 215/60 R16 95V tires to 42 psi.

 

As expected, the steering is more precise and the car's handling is clearly improved.

 

To my delight, the ride is as comfortable as before and my glides seem more efficient.

 

In addition, the road noise from the rear tires is dampened.

 

I did not expect to have only positive effects and will keep that pressure.

 

Jan

 

PS: From Germany, my thoughts are with the brave people in Texas and Louisiana who are suffering from the Harvey impact.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Mister MMT

[ptjones]

When you replace your tires it would be interesting if you could put Michelin Energy Savers on it to see what improvement in mpg's you could get. :)

 

Paul

[Mister MMT]

You're right, these Michelins give the best mpg. But they also have some weak points. And in Germany, we drive faster and cars must handle very well. I'll not replace my tires before probably 5 years because half of the time, my Mondeo is on winter tires: I live close to the Black Forest and the Alps are also not more then 150 miles away.

 

Jan

[ptjones]

Just got back from about 2,200 mi. trip to NY and back and averaged 55mpg on mostly Interstate HWY. :) You can do this too if use the info from My YouTube videos. :)

 

Paul

[ptjones]

I very rarely do I get my HVB SOC higher than 65% going down hill, it would would stop charging and the ICE would come on with no fuel to slow the car down. On my trip I twice hit 70.5% SOC, I'm wondering with so many miles on the car (164k mi.) and HVB diminished capacity the HVB computer allows higher percentage of SOC going down hill.

 

Paul

[Mister MMT]

The batterie of my Mondeo H can be charged up to 75% during a descent.

 

The screenshots of a HA report of a trip comprising a short but steep descent added below show that during that time, the CCL is lowered to zero.

 

By the way, Xavier from the HA team told me HA made compatible for the FFH, FFE, C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi will soon be available for downloading from the Playstore.

 

Jan

[ptjones]

A lot of info there. :) The only way I can get my SOC higher than 70.5% is to have 50%+ SOC when I shut off car and let the HVB cool off and then I have hit 80% SOC when I turn it back on. It's like driving an Energi then. :)

 

Paul

[Mister MMT]

Can you monitor the temperature of the HV-Battery? I left that out, but here it is in °C.

 

I also add a link to a HA report (in metrics, but I hope it's OK for you) of a trip in July when I passed two Alp passes: the Simplon and the Grimsel.

 

It starts from the top of the Simplon pass. The batterie was hot (107 °F)! But the Batterie SOC soon was 75% and stayed there until I reached Brig, in the Rhone valley. There is a lot of interesting stuff in this report. Just download it from my Dropbox and display it in your browser.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4vo7dz12gns8l0/Report_07_2017-07-08_12-53-11_Simplon_Grimsel.html?dl=0

 

Jan

Edited September 4, 2017 by Mister MMT

[ptjones]

I can monitor HVB Temp with ScanGaugeII, I will replace RPM with HVB temp which now reads 96*F. I noticed your Engine Coolant Temp is low which doesn't help MPG. The Minimum temp should be 202*F(95*C) looks like you need to make some Grill Covers to keep WT(cylinder head coolant temp) 95*C to 110*C for the ICE to run efficiently. Here is a Link: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/970-cmax-grill-cover-testing-2-5-mpg-gain/ Are your Trans and Inverter Coolers located in front of lower portion of radiator? If so I would keep Center Grill Cover permanently on and Lower Grill Cover removable for when going long uphills and temp wants to go above 110*C.

 

Here is a good link: for ScanGaugeII programing codes: http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/1293-scangauge-x-gauges-programming-c-max-ffh/page-1

 

Paul

Edited September 4, 2017 by ptjones

[Mister MMT]

I gather you're referring to the temperature graph I uploaded. I made the same HA report in miles and gallons, to make it easier for you and the readers here.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dopw0mvjc5hy174/Report_2017-02-23_15-02-45.html?dl=0

 

I saw your video about the closing and opening of the active shutters. The Mondeo H has them too. Are you referring to something else I could add? I indeed see that the engine does loose temperature rather rapidly when on off, during descents or even long glides. I will also check this forum.

 

The trip was made in February under near freezing temperatures (32 °F). The car had been parked in a garage after a previous trip, for about 4 hours, so it's starting temperature was already 104 °F. It reached 180 °F after a few km, but 202-212 °F was only reached later to fall back to the 185-190 °F when there were long EV stretches.

 

During my short 9 miles trips to work, the engine seldom reaches temperatures above 185 °F because the system is in EV for 70% of the distance, and with regard to the duration for 80%!. On the highway, it does.

 

Nevertheless, please look at the BSFC graph and statistics (Link included for the other readers). Most values are below 240 g/kWh, and often below 220 g/kWh, even when the engine was warming up. This is excellent and illustrates how the system manages well to keep the engine in its most efficient mode of functioning.

 

Jan.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Mister MMT

[ptjones]

The shutters let to much air through keeping the ICE from getting up to operating temps. Grill covers solve this problem and the ICE warms up much quicker. These are pics of FFH Grill Covers. :) BSFC graph doesn't take into account ICE WT and would be a different graph.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Well YouTube CMAX/FFH videos views are up to 2800 now and still climbing. Was trying to get some usefully info from Fuelly.com for MPG's for our cars but finding it problematic in that some of the results don't make any sense. It would be helpful if they separated out the Energi's, Hybrid's and ICE CMAX's and Fusion's.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

I just got back from a Light House Challenge in Maryland over the weekend. Temps were in the high 70's to low 80's and was using A/C about 70% of the time, still averaged about 54 mpg for about 2300 miles. I'm a little surprised that I did as good as I did with using A/C so much. :) Also my Fuelly average went up 0.1 mpg to 48.2 mpg with 166K mi. on the Odometer. :yahoo: You Tube video views up to almost 3K now. :)

 

Paul

[md13ffhguy]

I just got back from a Light House Challenge in Maryland over the weekend. Temps were in the high 70's to low 80's and was using A/C about 70% of the time, still averaged about 54 mpg for about 2300 miles. I'm a little surprised that I did as good as I did with using A/C so much. :) Also my Fuelly average went up 0.1 mpg to 48.2 mpg with 166K mi. on the Odometer. :yahoo: You Tube video views up to almost 3K now. :) Paul

Oh, wish I'd known! Sorry I missed you!

[ptjones]

Oh, wish I'd known! Sorry I missed you!

Darn ;( Maybe in the future I need to post my travels ahead of time so I anyone wants to get together, we could make it happen. :)

 

Paul

[md13ffhguy]

Darn ;( Maybe in the future I need to post my travels ahead of time so I anyone wants to get together, we could make it happen. :)

 

Paul

We could have grabbed a beer, and I could have shown YOU how to drive a Fusion, instead of that C-thing. Lol Edited September 22, 2017 by md13ffhguy

[ptjones]

We could have grabbed a beer, and I could have shown YOU how to drive a Fusion, instead of that C-thing. Lol

Now that would have been entertaining. :) Maybe next time. :)

 

Paul

[md13ffhguy]

Now that would have been entertaining. :) Maybe next time. :)

 

Paul

Well, we would have had to shout above the drone of my transmission, and my MPGs are off about 10% (probably due to the increased friction...), but,... Yeah! Lol

[ptjones]

Well, we would have had to shout above the drone of my transmission, and my MPGs are off about 10% (probably due to the increased friction...), but,... Yeah! Lol

Now that is interesting, The gear noise didn't hurt my mpg's at all. Need to get that fixed. :)

 

Paul

[ptjones]

My Life Time Score went up to 49.2 mpg today with 166k mi on Odometer, only 1 1/2 months, 3k miles from last improvement. You Tube Video views up to 3100 now too.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Made another trip into Atlanta and back on I-85/I-285 about 80 miles with A/C running about 1/3rd of the time and averaged 57.8 mpg which included about 10 miles of City driving. YouTube views up to 3200 now.

Paul

[ptjones]

Just got back from trip to PA and NY and back, about 2,500 miles. Temps ranged from 75-33*F and still averaged about 51 mpg for the trip. Also my Life Time went up to 49.3mpg, Fuelly.com to 48.3mpg and 170k mi. now. YouTube video views are up to 3400 now and here's the link if you missed it: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/6568-how-to-drive-a-cmax-hybridffh-to-get-great-gas-mileage/

 

Paul

[ptjones]

Couple of days ago I had to get my oil changed and tires rotated so I took my wheel and fender covers off. The next morning went to work and on the way I have a stop sign stop then accelerate about 100 yds uphill and then down hill for a half mile. Once I reach 40 mph I put car in Neutral and coast down the hill, only got upto 45mph. The next day with covers on I did the same thing with no wind again and got upto 50mph. I knew they made a difference of 2 mpg, but now 5 mph too. YouTube video views upto 3640.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

I tested MADMAX to see if the ICE is running in Neutral does it charge the HVB and it does. The opportunity for this to happen is pretty rare, but can be done when you first start up the Hybrid Model as it needs to lubricate the trans so the ICE runs for a little bit above 35mph.

 

Paul