For the first time ever, I had to send my "Little Mule" via tow truck to the Service Dept. "Found On Road Dead" as the Chevy owners say, it acted like it may be the eCVT, Throttle Body or the PCM. It acted very strange for the first time since new. Here are the details:

Put her in the driveway Wednesday with 47.6 tank average, so it was running fine. Thursday, my wife pulled it out of the way so my son could play basketball in our driveway. After he had finished, she backed it back in the driveway face out like I always leave it. She came into the house complaining that something was wrong, because she smelled a gas burning smell. The wind was strong when I checked it out, but I could smell bad emission or something.

Today, I started it up and heard a rattle/grinding noice for a second, but proceeded into the street at a slow pace about a 150FT and stopped at a stop sign to enter a 35mph street out of my development. No power, Navi show low HV battery as always, but the Mule would not accelerate over 20mph. Dash info said "Safely Come To A Stop", which I had no choice because the ICE shut down. On a side street, I restarted the ICE in "Park" and it went to a fast idle and rocked like it was in gear. It shut down in less than 30 seconds and the "Safely Come To A Stop" message came on and the ICE shutdown again. This time I noticed a red "!" on the dash, but my scangauge was set to read trouble codes and said "no codes found". Repeated this starting the ICE a few more times after letting her sit for ~5min., and it did the same thing.

This "!" is not shown in my PCM/ED manual, so I don't know what to think there. The rattle/grinding noise is strange also. The big thing was, while I was in "Park" and started it up, power was coming from the HV battery, to the engine, and to the wheels. Power to the wheels while in park has never happen to my knowledge. The fact that it was surging in "Park" is strange also. Maybe a shifter problem? We all know I shift the most , we will see.

All ideas welcome, just try to keep it civil.

GaryG

 

I was wondering who would break theirs first, you or me. I have 28,000 miles now and I am starting to notice little quirks. Lately, after what I would consider a warm battery, I'm not getting much regen from the brake pedal. Still get the usual amount in Low gear setting. My highway mileage is better than ever though... like 44 MPG for 125 mile section of doing 55 MPH. Maybe the battery is showing age and since I'm getting less regen, maybe the generator is working less hard also giving my highway miles a boost?

Just rambling... I have no hard data at this point.
Oh.. the 44MPG is probably with E10 also... which is fantastic.
( pumps say "may contain up to 10% ethanol )

-John

 

Does the scangauge check all modules or only the PCM?

If the brakes or trans had an issue, I would assume the "master brain" PCM would also set a code, but you never know.

 

Hi Bob

The scangauge is limited to th ICE emissions, this is why I lean to the eCVT modual (TCM) for the problem. The PCM could also have a problem (I think) and can't show the problem. In either case, the computers have their work cut out for them on this one.

This surging in "Park" with arrows showing power to the wheels is another reason to look at the eCVT or linkage. Glad I had a scangauge to help eliminate problems, we will see if it did its job this time.

GaryG

 

Had a chance to look at the workshop manual and the "Stop Safely Now" indicator illuminated means HEV Hazard. It says the source would be either the PCM, TBCM or the TCM, so this could be serious. Here are the choices they have to repair. 1. Reflash the PCM, or replace and salvage data for a new PCM. 2. Reflash the TBCM, or replace HV battery unit. 3. Reflash the TCM, or replace the eCVT. If a reflash of the program does not correct the problem, none of the units can be repaired internally.

My guess is, it's the eCVT. The damage could have been done when my Wife backed the FEH into the driveway. The one-way clutch could have failed while the traction motor was in reverse. They should be able to still get a code from the TCM and let me know. The surging in "PARK" is what steers me in that direction. At any rate, I bet they ruin my TANK average again like their body shop did the last tank.

GaryG

 

Gary... I've told you for some time that my Nav shows arrows going pretty much everywhere in N but the car behaves normally. I attribute this to an instrumentation problem ( corrupt data ) and not to a mechanical problem.

Right now, whenever I shift to N the navi freezes with arrows in the same position they were in the moment before the shift... however the car physically glides in N as it should.

I do not think you can trust the fact that you saw power flow to the wheels in Park. This was simply due to erroneous data flowing around the CAN bus.
Your Navi was displaying erroneous data. Mine does it all the time... I'm still getting great MPG regardless.

 

John, sounds like your navi has a problem, because when I shift to "N", all regen arrows drop and only the small generator charges the battery if the ICE is running. All arrows to the wheels are also dropped every time in "N". Sometimes I do get a false regen arrow in "N" from the wheels when the small generator is charging though.

As far as power flow to the wheels in Park, you had to have been there. My FEH was surging in "PARK", and thats why I checked the navi screen to see what was going on. The parking pawl and my brakes were holding me still or my FEH would have taken off untill the ICE shut down on its own or I turned the key off. My eCVT was going haywire because of something and I think it was due to a failure of the one-way clutch. The shop manual indicates HEV hazard with a "Safely Stop Now" and a "Service" warning if the PCM, TBCM or the TCM went bad. This is why I'm leaning to mechnical damage in the eCVT.

Does anyone know if a FEH eCVT has failed before, and had to be replaced? This would be the first failure if it is that I recall.

GaryG

 

As far as I know, that would be a first. Though I said it before, I'll say it again here publicly, keep us updated, and my best to your and your FEH.

 

I'm very interested in the outcome here. Several days ago my 2006 FEH with 8800 miles stopped and displayed the Stop Safely Now message when my family began our trip back from Timbuktu for Thanksgiving. It happened twice while we were still in the driveway. I did not notice any other warning icons on the panel. I was able to back the car up and it kept running. With our fingers crossed we made the 170 mile return trip home without any problem except for a couple of apparent spontaneous reboots from the navigation system. It has behaved normally since. The night before this happened the car was parked outside in a freezing fog, but the frost had completely melted before we left.

This may have nothing to do with the problem, but I've noticed strange behavior from the regen system over the past several weeks. Sometimes the regenerative braking doesn't seem to work at all, and other times the engine will race to approximately 3000 rpm with gentle braking while the battery icon indicates that it should still be able to take a charge.

I'm close enough to an oil change that I'm planning to take it into the local Ford dealer and see if they can find anything.

Pat

 

Hi Pat

What you just said may be the problem. This eCVT is built like a rock, but if the computers don't switch everything right, it may cause problems. The fact that you returned to reverse and back to "D" may have let things back in the correct mode. Can you remember if you shut the engine off after backing up?

This thing with going into reverse where the traction motor reverses dirrection may be the hang-up causing problems a small percentage of the time in the FEH/MMH. People have PM'ed me saying they heard a stange sound after backing out, and so have I.

The fact that I proceeded in drive may have made things worse. When I go to the dealership and check on my FEH, I will suggest going back to reverse and then drive for a solution to the problem.

Thanks for your input!

GaryG