Hi Lukas

The reason I only put 13.6 gallons in my 15.4 gallon tank is because I always know how much gas I have. If I top-off the tank each time I will have an unknown amount of gas I burned the tank before and after because the amount of gas varies each time you top the tank off. There is .8 gallons of gas in the tank at 0 Miles To Empty (0MTE) in the '09 FEH based on me running out of gas two times. Once was by accident because I thought the '09 had the same 1.3 gallons left at 0MTE like my '05 FEH. The second time I ran out of gas in my '09 was just to calculate and make sure there is only .8 gallons left at 0MTE. I have never ran out of gas since then and I go 45 to 55 miles past 0MTE every tank now. I'm always sure I can add 13.6 gallons at fill-up because the tank is always very near empty when I fill-up. This keeps the E10 as fresh as possible and I never overfill into the vapor space or harm the vapor recovery system. Knowing exactly how much gas at fill-up helps me calculate my MPG average throughout my tank level. I know I have to go at least 130 miles at 3/4 of a tank and 330 miles at 1/2 a tank or things will look bad at 0MTE and fill-up time. With my system it's all about how many miles I can go with 13.6 gallons of E10. My last tank I went 862.4 miles which is my best tank without running out of gas.

The 4 gauges I now monitor on one of my SGII is:
SoC
Instant MPG
Water Temp - for engine efficiency
Open/Closed Loop - Open for fuel-cut

GaryG

 

How are we doing?

Well Gary I was attempting to follow your plan... The fuel light came on at 50mi to E I suppose as programmed. I drove some additional places beyond when in the past with my old car I'd normally fuel up. Decided to get fuel at the 4mi to E point to play it safe and not run out of gas. Well upon fueling up I discovered there was much more fuel in the tank than I would have thought. The pump clicked off at 13.251 gal. I was disappointed as this is below the 13.6 gal!

So anyway I took note and wrote down 366.6 miles traveled over 14 days on this first tank courtesy of the Ford dealer of assumed E-10. Math comes out to 27.66 mpg; for what it is worth the dash display stated 28.9 mpg (I reset this upon first getting in the car driving it off the dealership lot with the full tank.) Avg temp I'd say was 35F with some lows in the 20's and 2 days in the high 40's.

I have a couple leads for straight 87 although still unfounded. E-10 is pretty dominant it seems.

I did get around to checking tire pressures. They range from 32-34 psi. It was a bit nippy (19F) so I decided to not adjust them just yet. I'm planning to adjust all tires to 40 psi as a compromise between the 35 psi Ford value and the max sidewall of 44 psi in addition to comfort/harness of ride.

The one thing I'm still working on and would like to master is the accelerator blip. It seems the normal driver want's to accelerate much faster than I do from a red light. So I'm finding that from a stop commonly I'll accelerate with the engine (like a pulse from stop) and then go EV by letting up on the accelerator pedal once up to speed. However, the engine seems to start pretty harshly letting it kick in automatically. What I struggle with is the blip seems to cause a short sudden acceleration and I'm worried about other driver being too close mocking that short sudden acceleration caused by a blip and rear ending me...

 

For the record, my 2005 lets me set the cruise control at 26 MPH to 99 MPH.
Don't ask how I know that top number, but it is verified.

Also, please define what you mean by "less efficient in temperatures above 76'F". Do you mean outside air temperature, or internal battery temperature?

For the record, my 2005 performs best when the outside air temperature is about 60'F. At 60, the outside air vents can do a good enough job to cool the battery without A/C coming on which zaps MPG. My battery is very often 85'F when it is 60'F outside.

Most efficient MPG in a 2005 is any time the battery is 85'F. The battery control module allows maximum amperage when the battery is 95'F, but the A/C comes on at 85'F and above for "opportunity cooling" and is forced on, disabling EV at 95'F and above.

I call battery temp. 85'F optimal, since you only get about 3 amps more at 95 and the A/C drag is worse for MPG than the 3A gain in traction battery output. Plus you are very rarely pushing the FEH to the upper limit anyway.

 

Are you sure about this in the 2009??
The 2005 is not limited. Why would the 2009?

I think you just don't have large enough hills to coast down with your foot on the brake! On a 15 mile downgrade, I've pumped my 2005 up to 88% SOC and climbing when I ran out of hill!

Sure, the regen gets reduced at higher SOC, but I've never seen it quit.
It will phase in and out too, as the battery voltage gets higher.
The BCM needs to calculate the real "resting" voltage from time to time, so regen will cycle out, but then right back in as SOC climbs.
( In a 2005 FEH )

 

My 2005 FEH has 122k miles and feels like new, runs like new, gets the same MPG as new. ( well, a little better MPG than when totally new )

 

I use two scan-gauges at a time so can view 8 PID. But... most useful four?

-SOC
-EV amps
-HV battery temp
-Water temp

Use your car's instant MPG gauge. Don't waste one slot on your scan-gauge.
LOD is practically useless in a car with a CVT. The CVT tries to keep the load high and relatively constant. ( compared to a regular transmission ).

EV amps you are allowed to draw change with battery temperature.
This is why it is important to watch both.
Water Temperature tells you when you can enter EV mode for the first time.

HTH,
-John

 

Hi Lukas

It is hard to put 15 gallons in the tank so that's why I settled for 13.6. You have to trust me on going past 0 MTE. With only getting ~25mpg, you can go to at least 15 miles past 0 MTE safely.

Get all your tires to exactly 44psi each and remember it only takes one tire to be lower to screw-up everything. I run all my tires at 50psi and if one drops to 44psi, I see a 3-4mpg drop in MPG time and time again.

The dash or the Navi tank MPG average will always read much higher than the mileage your getting. My last tank was 63.4mpg and my navi was showing 67.5mpg as an example.

The accelerator blip gets a little scary with someone behind you at a stop. Sounds like you need to master it by not hitting the accelerator so hard. I tap it just enough to start the engine and let completely off it for less than a second and back into it to get going. It's all done in a split second and the guy behind me doesn't have a chance to rear end me. Once you master it, you will save a ton of battery SoC throughout the day. You need to learn that an automatic restart is a killer on battery SoC. I've learned to stop any automatic restarts from EV but it still happens once or twice a day.

I signed up for the Winter MPG Challenge at CleanMPG.com that I won last year. My mileage has improved since then but so has others. This might be something you want to monitor since you have an '09 FEH.

GaryG

 

Unfortunately I've recently been driving in the early mornings or at night when the temperatures are 20F or less. The past week the temperatures have been the coldest since I've took ownership of the Escape. I'm really seeing the effects... It takes 8 out of 9 miles of a regularly driven trip to go EV (not tough enough to not use cabin heat...) Also, I notice that the RPM's stick extra high. For instance driving 40-45mph on a flat road after reaching speed the RPM's hover over 2000 oddly enough.

Overall the whole vehicle feels sluggish even when gliding as if all greased parts and bearings viscosity is high.

I've yet to decide if I want to go for the Cloud Rider Winter Grill Inserts instead of waiting until next season.

In previous weeks I could drive to increase the AVG MPG. Recently the number seems to decrease a couple tenths every drive. As I mentioned, unfortunately most of my trips are less than 30 or even 20 minutes currently.

I did increase the tire pressures from the low 30's to an all around 40PSI. I know the max sidewall is 44PSI. I have been reluctant to go to that number. However, I have checked the max sidewall pressures on the fire apparatus and ambulances vs what the weekly drivers check books say the tires should be at my firehouse. Guess what, all the emergency vehicles' tires at station are running at max sidewall. Now I carry essentially no load in my Escape so I'm still considering staying at 40PSI or increasing to 44PSI.

It's been hard to practice the blip w/ limited EV driving but I have had a few successful tries at it.

Planning to order a ScanGuage soon. Thinking:

- SoC
- EV Amps
- Water Temp
- Instant MPG

I'll definitely check out the winter MPG challenge over on CleanMPG. Also, I do believe as you said 15 miles past 0MTE is a given if not more.

 

Why don't you use the built-in Instant MPG meter, and use the Scangauge for something more interesting and helpful? I'm sure when you get it you'll play around and find your personal favorites. You can always move them around on the fly, I do.

I go about a gallon's worth past zero ( 35 MPG = 35 miles ) all the time and have never been let down (run out). In a 2005.

 

EV is harder in the winter. I've managed to get engine cut and a limited amount of EV with battery temps in the mid twenties, but you really need the HV battery temp > 48°, which can be difficult in the winter w/o a heated garage. With cold temps, hot coolant (189°F) and a warm battery (>48°F), you still have a cat that cools down, requiring a shorter EV session.

For outside temps around zero, I find just cruising to 45 mph to charge, then dropping to 40 to start EV, then letting the speed slowly drop until the ICE kicks in, works for me. A little too much throttle pressure causes the ICE to kick in so a slowly decreasing speeds works in those situations.