There's an outfit called autoenginuity.com that sells a CAN bus software/hardware pacakge but their pricing is a bit out of my range at the moment. It looks very complete however...I exchanged email with them some time ago and they do have support for FEH with their enhanced Ford bundle.

 

Hi Stevewa:

___The scan gauge will not have nearly the metrics that the CAN Bus scan package will but it has what I would be looking for to maximize FE

___This is what I was talking about. Scan Gauge w/ the ability to display 4 different parameters at any given time through the smallish LCD.

• Fuel Economy
• Fuel Rate
• Battery Voltage
• Coolant Temperature
• Intake Air Temperature
• Engine Speed (RPM)
• Vehicle speed (MPH)
• Manifold Pressure (not available on some vehicles)
• Engine Load
• Throttle Position
• Ignition Timing
• Open/Closed Loop

___I could see having Fuel Economy, Coolant temp, Intake Air Temp (AIT), and Engine Load showing most of the time myself. I believe AZCivic owns one for his non-hybrid Civic but both the Escape HEV and Prius II may have problems because it doesn’t know what to do with EV modes. EricBecky posted this tidbit in the following: ScanGuage on Honda Accord Hybrid.

___Gary G, again thank you for your own method of going ICE-Off with the minimum of transient. I cannot wait to try your technique in an Escape HEV again sometime

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

The biggest problem with something like that is going to be finding a safe place in the cockpit to locate it. There just are not any good places to mount stuff like that in today's vehicles. I've run into the same problem with my amateur radio gear.

 

Hi Stevewa:

___I skimmed the most recent E-manual from scan gauge and it appears that they have not yet fixed the EV mode data recording. Kind of useless except for an outside air temp gauge actually If only we had access to some of the SW the Ford engineers were using in the Escape HEV test mules last weekend? That SW package was the whole enchilada

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

I would assume they were using the WDS, which is the tool the dealers use as well.

The stuff from autoenginuity.com appears to be very complete, and it actually has the ability to do both read and write operations to the system. They sent me a screenshot of their software connected to an FEH but I'm not sure how to post it here...

 

Hi Stevewa:

___Go to the Ford Escape Hybrid Share and click on upload as linked. Fill in the appropriate details and click on Submit. Once the screenshot is uploaded, you can use the img tag to have it shown in this thread. The img tag will be displayed at the bottom of the just uploaded pic and will look something like this: img]https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/files/ … .JPG[/img with brackets surrounding the img. I removed the outermost bracket(s) so this would post properly. Afterwards, just copy and paste this img tagged link into this thread and the pic will show up here just as it looks on your PC.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Stevewa, those are bad numbers as your average there on your mileage average. What do you think is your problem? The FEH? Even most of the beginners here can post much better results. I have never got a bad number of 28.3, much less than an average. Even my wife can't get that low mileage and she runs on max A/C in the winter.

Why don't you answer wayne? Tell us what you realy think.

Gary

 

Hi Gary G:

___He may be located in a state with a lot of rain (Washington maybe?) or possibly has an almost all highway - high speed commute? If any of us were to run the Escape HEV down the highway at 70 + naked, we would all be so lucky to receive 28 mpg’s from one? MAX A/C in stop and go traffic if he is from the desert SW would kill it I did read that one of his tanks included towing a trailer and if he has done that more then a few times, that has got to hurt?

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

I believe the following factors are having an impact on my results...

1. 4wd. Most of the higher MPG folks are driving FWD FEHs.

2. This represents over 8000 miles of driving, so even if I started having stellar tanks now it'd take a long time for the average to reflect it.

3. Climate/altitude. Portland is near sea-level and frequently damp. This means defroster use...no getting away from it. FEH seems to also perform better at higher altitudes for some reason.

4. Terrain. If I drive to FEH to work and back I have to climb a 1000' pass with a 6.5 percent grade. The commute takes about 20-25 minutes, or just enough to warm up the engine and not enough to take advantage of it. I get my best MPG on drives longer than 1 hour in duration, even if they are highway miles.

5. Traffic. Many of the tricks being used by the so-called hypermilers aren't advisable in anything but light traffic. I don't often get to enjoy that condition :-(

My numbers are just a bit under the average (and the mean) according to the info in the database. How is that "bad"? It means that about half the 4wd Escapes get better than me, and about half get worse. Furthermore, they are doing so by the same margin on either side (mean and average are nearly equal).

I'm not at all disappointed with the performance of the FEH based on these factors. I know I can routinely exceed EPA highway on longer trips, which is consistent with what I've observed in my Prius. The fact is the kind of driving I have to do is not conducive to hypermiler status...and the practices required to achieve it would be dangerous in the environment I have to deal with.

 

OK, here goes nothing...