I have a 2010 FEH and my manual says 15 gal fuel tank. My light came on today telling me "Low fuel, 50 miles left" and I stopped and filled up. I put in 15.7 gal.

This is the first time I have let it get that low during my 5 tanks. That math doesn't compute. Is the manual wrong, pump way off or was I on fumes when my light came on?

Also, did great in DC blizzard this weekend. One thing I noticed that concerns me, In drive, it will spin the tires when you lose traction, in reverse, it just stops if you lose traction. Sucks when trying to rock. Anyone else notice this?

Only times I had traction issues was when the snow was higher than my clearance. I was plowing snow instead of going over it. Very impressed in 20 inches of snowfall.

Thanks.

Robert

 

I drove my 2006 FEH around yesterday in Gaithersburg Maryland before the roads had been plowed. Traction was excellent and as good as the Ford Explorer we had with 4wd. I am so pleased with everything about this vehicle. My wife has a Subaru Forester with AWD and we wanted to take it out as well for comparison, but did not get to do it.

 

Kshaw, your just up the street. I am in Kensington. I have been all over from BWI to Walter Reed. When you have a 4wd, all your friends want a ride.

 

Hi Robert

You should have a 15 gallon tank but the '10 comes with a new HV battery design and Ford could have put in the same gas tank (larger) as the gas Escape. The only other possibility is you were on a slope where the front drivers side was lower than the rest of the FEH. This allows gas to fill into the vapor space at the top of the tank. I've gotten 17 gallons in my '05 FEH but only 15.4 gallons in my '09 FEH. I'm pretty sure the tank in my '09 is smaller than my '05 FEH.

With regards to the rear wheels not spinning, the electric traction motor rotates backwards in reverse because there is no reverse gear. The engine can't spin in reverse so all power comes from the battery or generator (MG1) to power the traction motor (MG2) in reverse. Also, did you disable the traction control system when you tried to rock and spin the tires? The button at the bottom of the center stack is to disable traction control for this very reason. Power is limited when the tires begin to spin by the traction control system so I think this was your problem. Read about the traction control button in your owners manual for more details.

GaryG

 

Thanks Gary, I did play with the traction control button. But when in reverse, if I had any real resistance, it would just sit there and not spin the wheels. Odd. I noticed another post on here similar with a GM product I think. I guess if it draws a certain # of amps in reverse, it stops.

I fueled on level ground where I normally fill up. I am guessing it was the pump, it was real slow. It took about 20 min to fill up. I think I just paid for gas I didn't get. I didn't realize it took so long until the pump stopped. I was watching all the plow trucks in the shopping center next door. I think I was in a trance. LOL...

 

Fuel (gas) is very temp sensitive. it shrinks and expands with temp.
In the winter you get a little more fuel and the summer you get less.
They have try-ed to get the stations to put in temp. compensating pumps the all the oil companies say no. I think they make more money this way.

 

Lets do the math on your 15.7 gallon fill at 50 miles to empty. I don't know what amount of gas is left in the '10 FEH at zero MTE but assuming it is the same as my '09 FEH, that would be .8 gallons. My '05 FEH has 1.3 gallons at zero MTE and the reason I know both these amounts is because I've ran out of gas while noting the mileage at zero MTE and my average MPG from that point. Based on knowing my average MPG in both my FEH's I've never seen a gas pump off that much even if the filters are causing gas to pump that slowly. The top hypermilers know you can get more gas in the tank if you pump it slowly causing less air to be mixed with the gas in the tank. This air also increases the vapor space pressure shuting the nozzle off early. Many here are also familar with bumping the side of the FEH to allow gas to move over in the vapor space to add more gas to the tank.

With 15.7 gallons added at the pump, lets say you are averaging 27mpg with your AWD FEH, this means you had 1.85 gallons till zero MTE. With a .8 gallon reserve at zero MTE you have a total of 18.35 gallons in your tank after the fill-up. Even if you were averaging 50mpg at 50 MTE in snowy weather you would have 17.5 gallons in your tank.

Now, lets work this backwards and say you had 1.8 gallons at 50 MTE and an additional .8 gallons in reserve at zero MTE. This means you had 2.6 gallons already in your 15 gallon tank before you filled your tank. The most gas I've put in my '09 was from empty twice on level ground was my 2nd and 4th tank fill. With these two tank fills from empty I put 15.185 gallons in my 2nd tank and 15.195 gallons in my 4th tank. When I ran out of gas on 2nd tank I thought I had 1.3 gallons left for reserve like my '05 FEH at zero MTE. So running out of gas the first time in my '09 FEH was a mistake on my part. The second time I ran out of gas was planned to verify a reserve of only .8 gallons after zero MTE in my '09 FEH. I also wanted to verify the limp home mode programming change from '05 FEH. I made it to a gas pump in electric both times BTW. On my first tank I went to a gas pump where the ground slopes for a high fill on my '05 FEH. Based on a .8 gallon reserve, I was near running out of gas at fill-up on my first tank. On this slope I was only able to add 15.405 gallons and I was well past zero MTE.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/index.php?page=garage&displayunits=MPG(US)&viewcar =2612

So if you still had 2.6 gallons of gas in your tank and added 15.7 gallons on level ground, I estimate you should have only got the most gas total of 15.4 gallons on a slope. If you add 2.6 gallons to 12.8 gallons this would give you the 15.4 slope fill like I would get in my '09. This means you added 2.9 gallons more than my '09 FEH could hold. This is a 23% increase in the amount of gallons you pumped in your '10 FEH over what I could get in my '09 FEH on a slope. Your tank must be 23% larger or that gas pump is 23% Off.

GaryG

 

Wow Gary. You are one hell of a thinker. I think you were right about the filling slowing gets more in and not trigger the nozzle to stop. Tiger had some great points also.

I normally get about 40 miles before my needle starts to move off of the Full mark. Today, I had just over 100 miles before it budged. Since the pump was so slow, it must have filled all of the airgap in the tank and filled up most/all of the fill hose. I will say, I did smell gas for a while after filling, so that must be it.

So far my tanks are 28-32mpg but this one is avg 23. Many neighborhoods in my area are still not plowed after the big snow this weekend. I am so glad I got the 4x4, I can work and not worry about getting stuck.

I am SOOOOO happy with the FEH. Wife loves her FFH also. Ford did a great job on these two.

Thanks again Gary and Tiger.

Robert

 

I was going to comment on how far you can go when you fill the vapor space before the needle falls just leaving the the F mark. The most I've gone was 120 miles but me and my '05 FEH got much better mileage on straight gas back then. Even slowly pumping the gas will not fill the vapor space alone so you had to be on a good slope that was just right. The slope I pump my first fill in my '09 is not the best I've used but gas is cheaper at SAMS Club where I get 95% of my gas. As you can see, when you make a high fill, that mileage of the prior fill takes a dive. Your high fill tank will look great because chances are you will not fill the next tank that high. That 23mpg tank was caused by that high fill. I've seen this time and time again and you will notice in my gas log my fills are between 13.5 and 14.0 gallons because it's not good to fill the vapor space and can cause a trouble light during the time that gas is burned.

I really don't have to think hard about this stuff because I calculate the gas in the tanks in my FEH's throughout the tank and know the before, during and after of a fill what the level is. When your getting over 50mpg tanks in an FEH your constantly thinking what your mileage will be at the next fill-up long before you get to the pump. For instance, I'm at 160 miles on my present tank and I'm estimating a 56mpg tank at my next fill and will have gone 760 miles on this tank. No guesswork about this estimate because I know how much gas I started with just by the needle dropping off the full mark at 40 miles. I never fill-up at zero miles to empty because most of the time I would only get around 13.3 gallons in the tank. If I divided 785 miles by 15 gallons I would only be getting 52.3mpg. If I multiply 15 gallons X 56mpg I would go 840 miles on a single tank on E10. If I did a full vapor space fill at 17 gallons X 56mpg I could go 952 miles on a single tank. As you can see, playing with high fills and low fills does not help your EPA numbers with a Lifetime MPG average in the long run. The '09 FEH get much better mileage on E10 than my '05 did on straight gas. Lets hope Ford continues to improve the '09 FEH non plug-in model because I'm hearing the Prius plug-in will be $59,000 which is out of my price range.

GaryG

 

I would be happy with a plug in that would have the engine and battery warm when I start out and have the batteries fully charged. Poor mans plug in. I thought about getting the engine warmer, but not sure if its worth the trouble.

Thanks again Gary.