Also forgot to mention make sure you have a battery source cigarette lighter not a key power to use the tool. The one in front of the shifter is battery the one next to the a/c controls is key power.

 

After my 12V battery was disconnected and I lost my KAM, I just started getting close to the mileage I was getting before. It has taken over 1,000 miles to just get within 2mpg on my normal commute average. My MTE hasn't come near what I was seeing at fill-up either. This may be because I lost over 5mpg because of this KAM reset.

I can't stress how important it is to use a Setting Keeper when you disconnect the 12V battery like Mark has suggested. For you new owners, starting out with the default settings in KAM is another reason your mileage will improve after the third tank or so. It must take that long because of being a hybrid, but I really don't know for sure.

GaryG

 

Nope ANY Ford may take that long, its just the way ford does it. BTW a Ford will run better with a bad sensor or 2 because of the KAM system that Ford uses. The sensors adjust the KAM but the car actually runs off the KAM not the sensors.

 

Man, it was like I forgot how to drive my FEH and I can't believe how much of a difference KAM makes. Today, I punched out some great numbers and I now feel I got my MOJO back.

GaryG

 

Good, some people don't believe me when I say it takes a long time to get the Fords to fine tune the KAM. I have been noticing this since 89 model year. Its part of what Ford calls Failure Effects Management. We used to get cars towed into the shop because they would not start after a battery change. We would find a bad coolant temp sensor or one of the major cold start sensors bad. We learned the battery was changed and they took their sweet time and cleared the KAM. Then with no KAM and NO working CTS no starty. I think Ford fixed this later because its been a while since I've run into this. And its been a LOOOONG time since I've been to a Ford class as the last few I knew more than the instructor. It would be like me teaching you how to get better fe out of you FEH and speending $150 for the insult.

 

It's very good that we all learn from each other. You help me, and we both help others. No cost to anyone but big oil. I like that for a change.

GaryG

 

Has anyone tried this battery yet?

 

I have one that uses the OBD-II port which is always hot and the other end has a cigartte lighter adapter. It's made for use with a Jump Start Pack.

I assume one thing to watch is that your battery cables are now hot when you pull them off. Either way, 9V or 12V. You could short the 9V out without knowing but the 12V will throw sparks.

 

There are two issues of interest here: ambient operating temperature & typical discharge cycle.

I spent two years on the Island of Guam and batteries there are notorious for failing early, really, really early. Apparently the temperature just fries the battery. Had it happen to a battery on my Suburban. I had been back on the mainland less than three months and the battery failed. It was a belly up kind of failure, at 15 months on a 60 month NAPA battery. Never had that happen before or since.

The second item is that a battery used on a typical non-hybrid engine has to be able to produce a large current of a short time to start the engine. It is designed to do this by having a lot of plates closely spaced.

Since deep cycling a battery causes a significant physical change in active material size (which a deep cycle is built to handle) a starting battery is not very tolerant of more than a few deep cycles in its life.

The type of usage on our FEHs doesn't come close to calling for the large starting current and we really don't need such a battery. But similarly the 12V battery doesn't ever do a deep cycle either.

The typical failure mode on a lead acid type battery is spalling off of active material until it builds up underneath plates and shorts out a cell.

In the end I see the reserve current rating as more important. This is measured in minutes with a given specified current. This rating will only come into play if you have to do a jump start procedure or for some reason deeply discharge the 12v battery without discharging the HV battery.

Whether you use a deep cycle type or not I see as of lesser importance, but pay attention to that reserve capacity rating.

 

I finally installed the Odyssey. It fits fine in the stock battery tray but the Ford OEM hold-downs won't work because the Odyssey has straight walls. I got the Odyssey metal hold down that fits in the Ford tray, but the installation of that was not too clean as I ended up getting a self-tapping metal screw to secure it.
If I was going to do it over I would have just got a new tray made for the Odyssey, of which there are several available.
The battery works great, and it should not need to be replaced again as long as I own the FEH. I've been pleased with the performance of AGM batteries before and I think it's good not to have the corrosion from flooded batteries. The distributor told me that the metal jacket models are for engine bay installations like ours.
If you don't live by one of the distributors to pick one up, they will ship and their prices are about the same as their retailers.