how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

Is there a way to tell....i just bought a 2006 mariner with 127k on the clock....(havent driven it yet...i pick it up tuesday)....got it for 6800....(opinions on good deal or not...to me its a great deal....kbb value private party in FAIR condition was around 8600 or so....in good it was like 10100 and in excellent near 11 something....) anyhow....the person i bought it from says it still gets around 30 mpg and that the battery is fine....
what does that gauge in the left on dash mean....it has something like charge (battery ) etc....
just saw a nice article on these cars....http://www.autoblog.com/2007/04/04/f...new-york-stre/

thanks

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

If the 12v underhood battery is good, and the car won't start, then the 330v battery in the back might be bad. The 330v battery starts the car, but the 12v battery closes the contacts for the large battery. Thus you have some piece of mind. The 330v battery is "disconnected" when parked and the key is out or to "off".

If the car starts, then the Hybrid is at least OK.

When the car is warmed up on a mild day, the engine should turn off at a stop. Accelerate REALLY SLOWLY ( like an 18 wheeler would ) to about 25 MPH and keep the engine off. A "good" battery should drive at least 1 mile without gas. A "great" battery at a good charge at the start will get you 1.5 mile at 25 MPH on level ground.

The needle gauge on the dash is a waste of space IMHO. It tells you if juice is going into the battery (charge) or going out of the battery (assist) but there's no useful quantity to it. I've had the car 5.5 years and I never look at that. I have a scangauge which is much better because it gives you actual amps and voltage and state of charge. -John

www.scangauge.com

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

thanks for that info. to do this i need to have the car warmed up to operating temp...then go up to 25mph really slowly and keep it at 25? THEN WAIT TO SEE WHEN GAS ENGINE KICKS IN??? How did you find this out? thanks

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

5.5 years of practice. :shade:

I do this rough test about every 6 months to see if my battery is OK.

Basically, you have a 1800 watt-hour battery when new.
It is programmed to only use about 400 watt-hours on a day to day basis.
( Never fully drains, or never fully charges. )

When new, that is only ~20% of what the battery is capable of.
When the battery is 5 years old, this may be ~40% of what the battery can do.

At 10 years old, this 400 watt-hours may be ~80% of what the battery can do.

It is estimated the battery will last 15 years.
At that point, you will get less than 400 watt-hours no matter what you try.
Which in turn means you will be able to drive less than 1 mile on electric only.

Of course YMMV. :shade: -John

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

so can someone explain when the electric part works and when the gas part works....(i know that when you get on the gas pedal .....both are working in tandem...) so if im driving 45 mph ...which one is working? at 65 mph which one? does electric only work under 25?

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

In a hybrid car, gas and electric work in tandem 95% of the time.

There are rare cases when you can drive on electric only ( such as at low speeds and at low power demands such as around parking lots ) and there are even fewer cases when the car runs off gas only. Due to minor undulations in the road, and various power demands, it is always a give and take. Give a little to the battery pack, take a little from the battery pack.
It truly is a small amount of electricity used at any moment.

While every Ford/Mercury hybrid is capable to go 39.9 MPH with the gas engine off, the faster you go, the more difficult it is to keep the gas off.
Basically, you can go 39.9 MPH with electricity only, if you are going downhill.
You can go 25 to 30 MPH on flat, and about 12-20 MPH uphill ( typical ) before the gas engine starts up.

Keep in mind this is NOT meant to be an electric car, but rather, a gasoline car that is at least 25% more effieicent than gas only Escapes.

Most of your gas savings will come from near zero idle time... shutting off the gas at every stop. Stopping charges the battery (regeneration) and then electic power will launch you from a stop, to about 20-25 MPH before the gas comes back on. The best part (IMHO) of a hybrid is not wasting gas when you are standing still. Second best, is using electric only to move around parking lots and drive-thru windows.
:shade:

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

thanks for the reply gpsman1...that was really informative. would anyone here buy a used hybrid Mariner/escape with 126 k on the clock (06?) i am ....and am pretty convinced its ok since i saw that article on the new york taxi escapes....im just a little scared ill be replacing something that costs several hundred...

Re: how will i know when the battery is getting weak and near death???
 

Early in the life of my 06 FEH I did a test while waiting to pick up some one at Dulles Airport. I was able to do the circle around the pick up/drop off loop at very nearly a constant speed of 20 mph. Did this through 5 loops.

Mine went about 2.5 miles per cycle repeatably. Worth doing some kind of test every so often if you can find a place that will enable repeatable testing. Take note of ambient temps each time you do a test & do enough "loops" (or whatever) prior to "the test" to ensure that all is stabilized.

The same speed is important as resistance to movement is not linear and takes progressively greater energy per one mph increase in speed. For example air resistance is a cubic curve. The reality is that at battery powered speeds air resistance is quite small but the issue is repeatability from test to test so you can correlate the info you see.