After lurking on here for a while, I finally found a 2009 FEH, fwd with 70,000 miles. Was very happy with the condition and the price.

I will be getting a scan guage soon, but have been doing the city driving technique where I force the gas engine to get me up to 40-41 mph, then letting up and setting the cruise at 39, 38 and running on EV for a while. Question - Is this a good way to do city driving?

Another question - When on the highway, does the electric motor assist? So does it assist for a while, run out of battery, charge back up and assist again? Is that why the rpm's seem to vary a little?

Thanks,

-Dave

 

The rpm's will vary while on the highway, until the battery gets to around 48°F, then should settle down. O/W it will assist if you need a little extra power, like climbing a hill or accelerating.

If the engine is warmed and the battery up to temp, simply letting off the gas for a sec will allow EV to kick in. Your best bet is usually to use the ICE for accelerating, then EV to maintain it.

Gary has written quite a bit on city driving and also owns an '09. I'll let him and/or others comment on that.

 

Dave:

I too have a 2009 FEH. Colchiro suggests that you look through the archives for Gary's posts. I'm sure he means GaryG. He's right that you can learn a lot from what he has said. Your profile says you live in Ohio, is that correct? I'm in northern Missouri. You won't see nearly as good mileage now as you will in a few weeks. My mileage starts to improve at around freezing and then dramatically improves to around 40 degrees.

Also what vehicle are you replacing with your FEH?

John Slavin

 

Dave:

I would make a couple general suggestions. First, it's very difficult to know what your vehicle is doing until you get your scan gauge. Second, to really maximize fuel economy, if that's what you're really after, you're going to have to radically change how you drive your car. For some people, they're never going to do that. My wife, for example drives my FEH just like she drives a normal car. It will get better fuel economy, but not great economy. So when I needed to upgrade her vehicle, and she said she really liked my FEH, I bought her a regular I-4 Escape.

Until you get your scan gauge, practice going into EV. Watch you rpm when your vehicle drops below 40 mph. You'll see that after your FEH is warmed up, it'll drop in EV, until it is warmed up, it won't. And when I say "warmed up", we're talking about the catalytic converter and the battery. Secondly, as you're going down the road 30 mph and as traffic permits, step on the gas like you're passing someone. Watch the needle for charge/assist at the top of your instrument cluster. You'll see it swing to assist in a big way. That's your battery assisting the engine, which answers the second questions you asked.

John

 

Thanks for the fast replies.

I am very familiar with Gary. In fact I credit him (Or Blame :-) him on my decision to get a 2009 FWD. His documentation and videos are great.

Gary - thanks.

I'm replacing a 1998 Ranger 4x4 with 211,000 miles. Never any problems. Bought it in 2003 with 116,000 miles, so I'm all up for buying newer, high mile cars.

I have a scan gauge from my Mustang that I don't use. They're going to re-flash it to include the Hybrid parameters. The only drawback is this only displays 2 items at once, but I can have each line "Scan" through multiple measures.

So I can keep the SOC on top, but bounce the bottom between battery and coolant temp, for example.

The Ranger gave me 8 great years. I'm sure the FEH will do the same, and get me at least double the mileage!

Based on Gary's amazing mid 60's mpg's, I hope to get in the 40's when the weather gets warm. That's pretty much a 50%/50% city/hwy mix. We'll see...

But what you're saying is that on the highway, using cruise, the electric motor doesn't add to the cruising speed... Interesting.

 

The electric portion of the drive train is used at all speeds, unless you are decellerating. It is used more when going uphill, etc.

 

No, that's not really what I'm saying. The electric engine will help. But if I'm in a mode to get the absolute best mileage, my goal is to keep it in EV with the engine entirely shut off (where the RPM gauge drops below zero) as much as I can. It's really hard to keep it in EV at 39 mph. If you have the slightest incline, the motor will start. Moreover, if you're faster than 40 mph, when you decelerate, the engine keeps turning until you drop below 40 mph. As a result, you don't have as good a benefit to pulse and glide.

In my experience with the 2009 FEH, if you pulse and glide between 30 and 40, it's pretty easy to beat 50 mpg. If your goal is 40 mpg, it's easy to obtain that by pulsing and gliding between 40 and 50, and you can use the 39 mph cruise you describe. I have some hills between my office and home over rural blacktops. When I'm in a bit more of a hurry, I'll power up the hill to 50 mph just before the crest, leave it in gear picking up some charge as I decelerate to 39 mph going down the hill. It will gradually slow as it's going down the hill to 39 mph where the cruise is set (these are not steep hills where I live), and continue across the flat, but the instant it starts up slightest part of the uphill grade, the engine will start.

So all I was saying is that if you want to stay in EV, that it will be hard to drive 39 mph unless you have a bit of downhill.

My advice to you is to try it and get some experience. Set your cruise at 39 mph and see if the rpm gauge falls into EV, or if it does fall into EV, see how long it stays there.

John

 

I definitely saw the 39mph max, although Ford says "Up to 44mph on EV only". I was hoping that my 39mph ceiling was because of the 30 degree weather...

Will try the pulse and glide with those numbers (50-40).

I really enjoy this kind of stuff - Beating the "System" (Getting higher MPG's than advertised). I put all of the same effort into my truck to get maybe 1 mpg more... It's nice to have a platform like the FEH to do techniques like these and see results...

I really started looking at these boards thinking that I'd buy a 05-07 with 130,000 plus miles, thinking it would need a battery pack, and thinking that companies would be selling Lithium Ion replacements, and maybe an aftermarket tune... But really found the opposite. These packs are so solid that it doesn't seem like anyone is messing with them.

Although, I still think someone has to have figured out how to open up the state of charge range, knowing it would void the warranty. But haven't found any evidence of that.

 

I think the 2010, but certainly the 2011 FEH will stay in EV up to 44, but the 2009 is limited to the 40 mph EV. Even with that limitation, I'm told by people on this list that the engine and software works much better in the 2009 than the older version FEH (with the smaller displacement engine and older programming). Most of the time, I really can't tell when it goes from EV to engine, unless I'm watching the tach. It's really that seamless, as I'm sure you have observed.

I'm with you on the challenge part. My FEH replaced a 1997 Dodge Dakota, and there is just only so much you can do with that, mpg wise. The FEH is fun to drive because you can continually try new strategies to add a bit of mileage. Moreover, I find myself being a much more alert driver, because I'm scanning the road ahead looking for ways to squeeze a bit more fuel economy. And driving a bit slower and watching more diligently pays big dividends in dealing with things like deer and other obstacles in the roadway.

Strange as it may sound, it almost reminds me of my days on the farm when I was driving a loaded grain truck, always driving just fast enough to utilize momentum, but not too fast. Continually scanning and planning as I was driving along.

John

 

I would think that the only difference between the 09 and the 10-11 is software.

I wonder if anyone has messed with any of the computer parameters?

I think I need to get my daytime running lights turned off - Maybe it's worth investing in a reprogram tool...