I wasn't completely serious before - if someone is really gaining on me (especially if they are on their phone), I'll give them a little tap of the brakes to wake them up. To me this is no different than when I used to have a standard shift pickup and would run down through the gears to stop instead of braking.

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"GaryG - From what can tell so far, taking it out of low for coasting and keeping up mommentum with no presure on the gas pedal (there is no battery drain showing on the computer at this point) in EV and putting it in "D" is better for MPG. Keeping it in low seems to require pressing the gas pedal and cause a battery drain flow on the computer.

I can't expect my wife and many others to be messing with doing this. She could care less about EV mode and she turns the A/C on max and forgets about it till she is cold. At that point she turns the fan down or adjust the temp. dial while still on max A/C. Someone (me) has to make up the loss."
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I agree with you on the coasting. With traffic here there is little opportunity to do much coasting over any distance. If I am coasting it is usually to slow down for a light or a stop sign or something.

If you ever want to see the effect of regen braking, try this at on offramp or something. With the FEH in D, use the brakes to decelerate at a normal rate. At any point, shift to L and watch how much the charge/assist gauge drops toward charge. It can be pretty agressive. If your battery is fully charged, there will be little or no change.

I hear you on the wife thing too Gary - I am kinda looking forward to taking the '05 back so I can rehab the mileage in that. Only drawback is she is going to kill the mileage in the '06.....What I need to do is get her on these forums......

Later.

 

Ray, I'm totally impressed with this trick and it didn't take an off ramp for me to see the high rate low gear will charge the battery. Remember, I have the nav. computer and use it. The arrow on the display gets thicker as the charge gets stronger. I can watch the battery fill up and its much faster than the ICE doing it. I did not know about this and relied very little on braking to charge the battery. As much as I use EV mode to save fuel, this will have a big impack on my mileage. I would estimate a 20% increase in using EV mode but I'll have to compare it at fill up.

On my routes along the ocean which I can get 40mpg with the A/C off, I'm watching the numbers and the gas guage now and it looks like I will get at least 40mpg with the A/C on nomal recir. on this route. Normally, I drain the battery till the ICE starts and run it till the battery is near full. Now I can take advantage of the route like down bridges and stops I make in normal driving to build the battery for another part of the route that I used to the ICE to charge the battery before. At any rate I don't need the ICE near as much for charging.

For those of us that have FWD and use EV mode on their normal routes, this is like having a bigger battery that charges quicker.

 

OK, color me dense, but I am just not getting this. I tried it today on my way home, and it didn't seem to help (and maybe hindered). I guess I just don't know when to shift down; if I do it when I'm going down a big hill, the engine revs up to about 4K (ooh, nasty). It's no good for coasting at a set speed of 35-40, because it slows the car down (unless I hit the gas, which often turns on the ICE), almost to a crawl. Is the only point to use it when you're slowing down anyway, like for a stop or turn? If so, I find that I can usually do that by just taking my foot off the gas, without too much braking at all.

I don't have the NAV system, but I rarely seem to get into a situation where my battery is very low (i.e., the engine won't shut down because it needs to charge). When that does happen it seems to take only a couple of seconds to charge up then shut down the ICE.

My biggest problem is the warm-up period, particularly coming home from work, because I work in a small city, and I often have "stop and go" traffic right after starting out. I just turn off the engine at the stop lights and turn it back on when they turn green - does that put excessive wear on the engine or anything? How about the starter? It really helps my mileage on this part of the drive.

Most of my commute is at fairly "optimum" speeds of 35-50, over rolling hills, with few stops. I mostly use DWL (I have gleaned that that's when you pick up a lot of speed going down a hill and use it avoid high RPMs on the way back up), trying to anticipate stops and slows, and basically keeping the RPMs as low as possible. {BTW, I'm doing a solid 36 mpg on this tank, with 200 miles down (and 300 to go, at this rate - BEST tank ever... knock wood...).} So when and how should I use the Low Gear? Exactly WHEN should I shift down, and back up?

TIA!

 

Hope I can explain this so it makes any kind of sense. I use low gear almost anytime I am on the road except when I am on empty highways and don't have to worry about braking at all. What low gear does is uses the regenerative braking to slow the vehicle, simulating a regular automatic in low gear or how a standard shift feels when downshifted. Don't know how the topography is in your area but I go down some pretty good hills and have never had the engine rev much over 2500. In fact, in may cases it keeps the speed of the car down below 40 so the ICE doesn't run at all whereas in D it would have accelerated above 40 and forced the ICE to start up. I have just found that I like the way the car performs when using L and it seems to recharge the battery better and reduces the amount the ICE runs therefore increasing my mpg.

I don't think you have a problem manually stopping the ICE at lights. The FEH doesn't have a starter so whether you shut it off and restart it or the computer does, it works the same. The only thing you may be doing is delaying the time until it wants to go EV on it's own. Not sure what impact that has on mileage or pollutants.....

If you are working on a 36 mpg tank with an AWD, you are doing somethings right so unless you like to experiment and tinker, keep doing what you are doing. I'm one of those people who is never satisfied - I feel I can always do better so I will keep on playing......guess that is the engineer in me.



Ray

 

Light/medium braking should deliver the same effect as the L gear setting, the hydraulic brakes only get used when the electric generator can't produce enough drag, such as at very low speeds or very hard /sudden braking, or if the battery is totally full. L gear will give you some advantage if you go down some long hills and you don't want the brake lights on, but still want your battery charged up, other than that, you will probably not really gain all that much, remember all the energy that comes from slowing down still comes from the ICE, so your efficiency will go up if you use that kinetic energy directly, rather than converting it back into electrical energy for the battery to store.

 

I have been playing around with L for about a month. When slowing down from 55 MPH the engine will stop below 40 MPH. If I do not shift out of low when I get to about 20 the ICE will start and go to high RPM (4000+). I believe that if I don't touch the brake during the deceleration this happens. It does not do this all the time but I find myself shifting between D and L when coming up on a stop sign.

On another subject has anyone ever been slowing down with brakes, let up on brake a little bit and have the FEH power surge. I have had that happen about 5 times in 20k miles. The surge is small enough applying more brake pressure stops the surge.

 

First of all, let me say that this low gear thing is not for everyone. It will benefit those that need to keep the battery charged who use the EV mode to improve gas mileage.

It seems the AWD doesn't benifit much in EV except at slowing down and at a stop but I don't have a AWD so this is my guess.

Sweetbeet, I've read some of your post and I think your on top of things with keeping the ICE at a low RPM. I think your smarter than most here. ARE you married? Working on 36 miles to a gallon and not having a dead battery? Stay in "D" girl.

As far as the other comments on braking.... All I can say is I've done that also but this is a method of control over the computer. The computer can't see conditions ahead of you. It can't determine you need to get that battery ready for the next mile or so.

The last thing I think is important to say is... Stay in control. If you are in a rush to get there, EV mode is out! and mileage is down.

For those who don't think this is a big deal for them, its not for them. For me, its great!

Gary

 

I have AWD, and I'm not sure if it was a 3800 boost or this which improved my milage, so it's a tough call. As I said, I think it's a bit more aggressive at not using the engine, but other than that, it's tough to say anything other than the blatently obvious between the two.

C, if you leave some pressure on the pedal, it won't slow down, and instead go into a coast, which means you can let off the pedal for a few moments, the engine turns off, and then apply a bit of pressure to roll, or press down a bit more to get some EV going. At higher speeds, at least for me, in D, it's a bit harder to EV at higher speeds without a bump or somesuch getting the engine on. It's also good for getting the charge into the battery right away. It would seem with your topography, you're probably not in a prime environment to benefit from a lot of L gear.

 

I think for the most part you are correct about that although I read somewhere that in the FWD version, the rear brakes will wear faster because they are applied lightly anytime when braking (?).

What this technique (driving in L) does is allows deceleration without any use of the friction brakes. It also allows me to keep my right foot where it belongs - on the "go" pedal. Maybe I am just lazy...

 

Scott, you loss me on the 4,000 RPM comment. The surge thing doesn't sound right either. I would have Ford check it out. If it doesn't do it all the time and Ford can't get it to do it either, At least your on record. The FEH should not have a ICE rev unless to give it gas. My RPM stays the same when I down shift to low till below 40mph and the ICE shuts off. It shouldn't start back up while the generator is putting a charge to the batteries. Now if the big battery is getting to hot, the ICE may start for the A/C. You may have a problem there also.