My 2005 seems to not want to go into EV mode again.

I was returning from my Reserve weekend which is 98 miles of wide open highway driving. Once off the highway (about 8 miles from home), the back roads are perfect EV driving conditions. When I got off the ramp I was still in ICE. Drove a mile, still in ICE. This mile long road is perfectly flat, straight and I always do the entire thing in EV.

At the end of the road I restarted, putting it into diagnostics. No DTC, engine temp was about 77. I drove another couple miles in ICE, still no EV. I was almost home so I detoured into a strange neighborhood and ended up on a dead end. I stopped, still with the ICE running.

As soon as I put in into reverse to turn around, it went into EV and performed normally on the rest of the ride home.

Any ideas? I talked to the service lady at the dealer about this a few months ago and she pretty much told me "no codes, no problem". It seemed to not be bad for the last couple months that I have been driving it exclusively but this last tank (record warmth for January in Boston) I only got 30.6. It is starting to p*ss me off again - this should have been a 35 mpg tank.

I've mentioned this issue in some other posts but now I am looking for ideas, opinions, anything.

Thanks in advance.

Ray

And no, I did not have the defroster or any other "red" setting on.

 

Ray, I know you know your '05 FEH like I do mine, but you must of had a lock up of ICE like I've had so many times it's not funny. Others have posted with the same problem so I thought everyone has it. Some days it continues over and over again and the only solution is to stop completely for 15 seconds or more in "D" to go EV again. Other days I can go without the problem completely. Its like a bad hair day I guess. Never had a code with this problem and think it is a software hangup.

Strange because I never had a RPM ramp up till I started using "L" if you remember. This may be a result of draining the battery in EV like I have done since the get go.

If this is not the same problem, let us know. You may have something else wrong we can help you with or others have.

GaryG

 

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Thanks Wayne,

I like to consider myself as savvy as the rest of the owners when it comes to these things and at least almost experienced with driving them as anyone else, having this one since last March and the '06 since last June. I have a total of about 18k miles on them combined with 95% or more of it driven by me. My wife runs them just enough to kill the mileage.

Anyway, like I said in the OP, I had just driven 98 miles on the MA Turnpike and I-95 non-stop at about 65-70 mph. Whenever I drive this route I always get off a couple exits early just to take this back road route - it's the same distance just a lot more scenic (okay, better mileage potential too). Whenever I get onto this road I always go into EV and since the battery has a good charge I try to do the whole road (exactly 1 mile) in EV. Tonight it wouldn't go into EV at all and after that highway run, everything had to be at full operating temp. The OAT was right around 40°F when I left Westover AFB and probably 35°F when I hit the exit in Reading. I have noticed that anything over freezing, EV is no problem. Even at sub-freezing temps, EV is very doable, just takes longer to warm up. Today's conditions were perfect. I've done this road EV in much colder temps.

When I did get aggravated enough I stopped, shut it down and restarted the ICE with the dash diagnostics. No problems showing. Maybe I didn't leave it off enough to do the reboot completely.

I think you are right Gary about the software hanging up. My '06 has never done this to the best of my memory. The '05 hasn't done it much (recently) until the last week or two. Maybe I will go back to the dealer. The service rep (who I like and trust) told me that there were no software updates that she knew about and she also said the '05 and'06 have the same program. Maybe I'll ask her to reprogram the computer anyway to try to solve this annoyance. I hate having to restart when it does this.

Hate to sound petty because I still got 33+ mpg on this trip today, even with the cheap *** gas they sell on base. In my '04 with the V6 I would get 15± mpg unless I crawled home.

Okay, back to work now.....thanks.

 

Cool temperatures have A LOT to do with it. What temp was it outside?

Today I went out with a frozen battery. ( Below 32'F outside )
Even though the SOC was very low, it would only charge 5 seconds at a time.
After use, and heat from the cabin warmed it up, it worked better.

Service Guide says 85'F is "optimal".
Service Guide also says the battery will be cut off completely above 135'F and below -40'F.

For 9 months now, with some consistency, I've noticed my '05 will not go into EV directly after a perlonged high speed, highway run.

Bugs me too when I come down a 1/2 mile offramp, with a nearly full HV battery, and drop below 40 on purpose, only to have the ICE stay on while coasting and at the first stop.

Ford claims the FEH is not "intelligent" and does not "learn"...

However, with repeated ICE off cycles, it is easy to cycle the ICE off.
With perlonged ICE on... it seems difficult to shut off.

"Almost" like the car gets used to being on the highway, and get's "lazy".
Also it seems like the car gets "used to" stop and go, and is much more willing to shut the ICE off then.

-John

 

Xcel, I've tried shutting off the ICE for a reboot many times also, but you make a good point (as always). When the ICE is shut down (for reboot or leaving the car) the restart causes the ICE to run for a few minutes before EV can happen again. Maybe standing on the brakes for a quick fix is not the answer. Sometimes it maybe for better for FE till a normal shut down and reboot in normal driving.

As far as the CAT sensors, I feel they play a bigger part in the EV mode than coolant temp. like GPSman has proposed. I think all of what you say play a part for CAN or the PCM to determine EV.

GaryG

 

Like I said, when I started on the ride it was around 40° F. Forgot to mention, the car was already warmed up from running around base.

Your Escape seems to do the same thing as mine is doing John. Maybe just an issue with the programming. The '06 does not do this. But the '05 and the '06 are the same Ford dealer says. BS.

Maybe this explains the difference in mileage that I get between the '05 and the '06 (or the red one and the gray one as they are known in this house). And all this time I was blaming the wife. Although I don't blame her for anything these days - she's 8 1/2 months along and has a rather short fuse.....

Going to bed now. Brain hurts......

Domani.....

 

I know, I'm supposed to be going to bed but I saw this....

Another diff 'tween the red one and the gray one is the amount of time before it will go EV after a quick restart. The '06 is much faster. If I shut down and restart the '06 immediately, it will go EV in just a few seconds....much much faster than the '05 will.

 

They do mention that the vehicle does self-maintenance/conditioning on the battery pack, and at these times the ICE stays on. It's happened to me a few times, and I always assumed it was one of those times. It always came back to performing like normal soon after so I never really questioned it.

 

Funny that you mentioned that self maint/reconditioning. I noticed that my 05 FEH did that once while I was on the interstate. It was operating rather doggish i.e. no electric assist just ICE and a 4 banger to boot. This happened at around 7500 miles. And just this past week I think it did it again at roughly 12,300 miles. This time I was just driving surface streets and stop lights. The symptom was no ICE cut-off at stop lights and upon pulling away from the stop light I did not notice any EV assist. this lasted pretty much for the entire 13 mile trip to work. That trip still averaged about 30mpg with an outdoor temp of 30 degrees. BTW the next day I made the same trip to work but had a fully warmed up vehicle and according to my scangauge the average was 37.1mpg. I can't wait until summer arrives and try my newly discovered tricks that I learned here. I had the car for 1 and 1/2 years and the first year I did not know about these techniques.