So I figure I will post about my experiences, thus far, this week driving home from work. I don't see many other LAS or PHX posters so I'll post this for everyones reference. Monday was pretty hot (the onboard temp read 113) and Tuesday was a little hotter (116 degree reading). Let me preface this by saying I have a SolarGaurd HP Platinum tint on the car that is susposed to block 85% of the heat of the sun (I think it does block that much and is very worth the money paid) - it does a great job.

My car is parked all day at work outside with the windows cracked and the sunroof cracked. In the past (105ish degrees) it has taken about 6 minutes for the ICE to be able to turn off and let me go all-electric - which seems to be fine becuase I drain the battery completly on the morning drive in... However on Monday it took 11 minutes and yesterday it took almost 14 minutes.

I was wondering what other owners in PHX or LAS are experiencing?

I was wondering if the $900 tint on the car is actually making this much better and if we didn't have this tint if it would run much, much longer. This tint is very good - it only takes about 6 minutes to cool down the car to a very comfortable temperature and it makes the useage of ECON on the A/C bearable for stops under 1 minute at lights.

Just an observation: I was suprised that the FE hasn't been impacted more. As a background, I run about 14-15 miles to work, on all city streets, speed limit 45 (mostly) for a drive of about 30 minutes. I run the last 2 miles to work (and first 2 from work) at 25 on the Air Force base. Since I started tracking each trip to and from work (this week) - I have gotten 43, 42.5 and 44.9 mpg to work and on the two drives home (where the ICE is running at stop lights for the first 33% and 50% of the drive) I have gotten 38 and 37 mpg. So there is a clear drop-off with the A/C, however I am still getting over the EPA estimated MPG.

Just wanted to throw this out there...

 

Have you tried...:

When the interior is that hot from setting in the sun all day:

Initially, first few miles or minute or so, FORCE the system into FRESH airflow mode, turn the blower up to MAX, lower the rear windows slightly to quickly move the SUPERHEATED interior air OUT and in the process cool the interior surfaces slightly.

Then force the system into recirculate, MAXIMUM cooling (lowest temperature setpoint) and set the blower speed as low as you can (the slower the air moves through the evaporator the cooler it will become) while remaining reasonably comfortable.

You might want to consider a bypass hose or shutoff valve in the heater core coolant flow loop to prevent the engine heat from heating the A/C plenum area under the dash.

 

I don't know why Ford recommands 5W20 oil. Does not the bigger the number after W the better? I mean 5W30 is better than 5W20, and 0W50 is the best oil which has best performance in extreme low and high temperature.

 

You are all lucky you have a cooling coil with your battery on the FEH. My Altima hybrid doesn't have one and relies on the cabin to cool it, which makes summer driving hard. Summer seems to be as hard on hybrids as winter.

As far as oil is concerned, you should always use the recommended oil. The numbers on the oil do not indicate weather they are better or not, just different weights and viscosity and such. Many hybrids recommend 0W-20 for normal operation because this light-weight oil helps the engine start and stop on the fly. However if you read a bottle of 0W-20 it may warn that it is not recommended for use in outside temperatures greater then 100 degrees. This is one reason why 5W-20 and even 5W-30 has been cleared for occasional use. I don't know what is recommended for the FEH, but this is how it is for the NAH.

 

Interesting. Here in LA it has hit 110 a couple of times this past month. When it is hot my "Econ" mode begins working within 3-5 minutes, every time. I have always assumed it is due to the external heat keeping the engine warm.

I have noticed that the A/C will cause the engine to speed up by 500 rpms when the temp is near or over 100F.

 

At 105-112 I noticed the same thing, by the time I get off base (about 4-5 minutes) the A/C Econ works fine - however it has been even hotter the last two days - yesterday was over 115.

I will report what happens today on the way home - I do have my A/C set on 72-74 most of the time and Auto. I think it will not cut out of the engine running even with the A/C blowing "hard". However, as a test yesterday I turned the A/C off before slowing up to a light and the ICE didn't turn off...

I am thinking on the opposite end - in the winter the battery needs to heat up and in the summer it might need to cool down a bit?

 

I'm going to bump this on up with my observations of the last week worth of driving. I drove the car Monday-Thursday to and from work. Below the table will be date/miles driving/temp/ICE running time/MPG:

7/7 - 14.1/90/5/43.1 (to work)
7/7 - 14.1/111/8/37.0 (home)
7/8 - 14.1/90/5/42.0 (to work)
7/8 - 14.1/116/12/37.9 (home)
7/9 - 14.1/88/5/44.9 (to work)
7/9 - 14.1/114/11/36.6 (home)
7/10 - 14.1/91/6/41.5 (to work)
7/10 - 14.1/109/11/39.5 (home)

So as you can see I get worse gas mileage home vs. going to work (42.9 vs. 37.8) and this has to be due to temperature. On the drive home, at times I have even tried to turn off the A/C while braking to a light to try to get the ICE to turn off but it will not (presumably becuase it is still needed to cool the battery).

I guess this is almost like the way the FEH might react in cold weather (which I won't think I will ever really expereince in Vegas). Also, most of the time when the A/C is running instead of acclerating at 1800ish RPMs I've got to acclerate between 2200-2400 RPMs and even when I release the gas petal the engine runs around 2000 RPMs...

I don't think there is anyway around it, but I will keep recording my observations and post the results. I wouldn't expect a update this week, we have a "cold front" moving through with monsunal flow resulting in temps only being 100

 

slight grades(hills) make a BIG difference, I'll bet you are going up when you return home.

 

Mark, I don't know if thats the case. My drive from home to work, elevations go like this:

House: 1804
1: 1811
2: 1676
3: 1673
4: 1729
5: 1761
6: 1860
Work: 1880

So the elevations are pretty close with a trough in the middle with work actually being slightly higher than my house.

 

Food for thought here. It was only 98 on the way home yesterday. My ICE was able to cut off after just 3.5 minutes on the drive home and I got a total of 44.5 mpg on the 14.1 mile drive home.

As you can see this is much higher than anything I got when it was obnoxiously hot (115, 113, etc). I think the extreme heat really does effect the gas mileage - it seems to me as long as it is under 100 (or so) you can get normal gas mileage.