Ford fuel efficiency update guinea pig testers

[majorleeslow]

Grill Covers! They do help these cars quite a bit. Going to make me another set like I sent to HB.

Do you have a picture of how the grille cover looks like. Please share if you have it. I'll need to make one for myself.

Edited September 11, 2013 by majorleeslow

[acdii]

Do you have a picture of how the grille cover looks like. Please share if you have it. I'll need to make one for myself.

[lolder]

We discussed grill covers before. There are three radiators behind the grill, only one of which, for the engine coolant, that you can monitor the temperature of. The others are the AC and electronics. I think it is a mistake to put any grill covers on except in cold temperatures. The car already has active shutters and you are interfering with the design airflow with covers. Improving your fuel economy a few mpg is not worth the risk.

[MaineFusion]

The only reason I'd even consider a grill cover would be fore the deep of winter where there were sub-zero temps (e.g. when I lived in Alaska). But I suspect the FFH's automatic louvers would address these issues. It just seems like an inherently bad idea to cover over the grill unless you are dealing with extremely cold temps.

[FishNrib]

Things were kinda slow over at the Sonata Hybrid forum so I thought I would check and see if Ford ever gave you that update they promised.

We had to complain about jerky transition between EV and ICE or sluggish acceleration to get ours and some couldn't get it done unless it happened at the dealer. It looks like Ford has produced a pretty great hybrid with your latest update and styling. I don't get to drive my wife's car very much so most of my driving is to see the very best mpg that I can get. Here are my test mph/mpg runs at the link.

 

 

http://www.hyundai-forums.com/229-sonata-yf-hybrid/163121-steady-state-speed-mpg-runs-after-update.html

 

 

 

[MaineFusion]

Yes the update came out a couple months back now. It now allows us to be in EV mode under proper conditions all the way up to 85 mph. Although I haven't yet tried to go into EV mode much above 65mph. We do have a few speed demons around here who have gotten their FFHs into EV mode well over 70 mph. Another big plus from it is that it reduced the energy consumption of the A/C.

[acdii]

Pretty slick at 75 MPH on EV only... :)

[majorleeslow]

The only reason I'd even consider a grill cover would be fore the deep of winter where there were sub-zero temps (e.g. when I lived in Alaska). But I suspect the FFH's automatic louvers would address these issues. It just seems like an inherently bad idea to cover over the grill unless you are dealing with extremely cold temps.

I used to plug the front grille of my beater 4 banger non hybrid for days with single digit temps. It ran just fine all winter no issues. I didnt see any noticeable mpg improvement, but it helped unfreeze my heinie quicker.

Edited September 20, 2013 by majorleeslow

[MaineFusion]

I used to plug the front grille of my beater 4 banger non hybrid for days with single digit temps. It ran just fine all winter no issues. I didnt see any noticeable mpg improvement, but it helped unfreeze my heinie quicker.

 

Ya, when I lived in Fairbanks Alaska we used to stick cardboard between the grill and radiator in the winter for same reason. If we didn't we'd get no heat.

 

Of course we also had to use block heaters, trickle chargers on the battery, an oil pan heater and transmission pan heater. Seats were hard has bricks in winter, struts would freeze stiff and the tires would freeze with a flat spot in them. It was like riding on an old buckboard wagon that had flat spots on the wheels.

[hybridbear]

The grille covers that acdii made back when he had his Blue Devil and then sent me when he got rid of it before he decided to get another FFH work well. There was a noticeable improvement in how quickly the car warmed up, and more importantly they slowed down how fast it would cool when running in EV mode. Before the grille cover it was common for us to see a 15 degree Celsius drop in coolant temp according to ET mode in a 1/2 to 3/4 mile of city driving in EV mode in the winter. It then takes multiple miles of driving with the ICE on to recoup that loss. The active grille shutters would close all winter but they don't block enough air. The plexiglass cover that acdii made helps block more air, while not blocking all of it. There are a few holes in the cover (for the cable ties to hold it in place) and there's also a gap around all the edges that lets air in. With the grille cover on the temp loss from driving in the city was about 5-7 degrees Celsius instead of 15. While I don't think it's a good idea to block the grille in the summer, while our temperatures go for many months without going above 32 degrees Fahrenheit I don't think it ever would get warm enough under the hood to do damage. Even with the grille cover on the coolant temp struggles to get to 85 degrees Celsius even after hours of driving. Without the cover it would get to about 83 Celsius so the cover has a minimal impact on maximum temp under the hood. The real benefit is in city driving and in slowing down how quickly the car cools while parked. Since when the car is off the grille shutters don't remain closed the ICE cools down very quickly in winter. With the grille cover blocking some of the cold winter wind the ICE would stay warmed longer while parked and that also helped.

[kbailey990]

That's a great review of the benefit of the grill cover for those of you in the cold country. Do you know if the new PCM will allow the active shutters to stay closed when turned off next winter? I'm in Florida, so I'm not worried as much about freezing temps!