I've had my 2006 FEH about 2 1/2 weeks now and noticed something that I consider quirky but also perhaps cause for more serious concern. When driving with the radio or CD player on the volume will suddenly surge louder right before coming to a complete stop or hard braking to near zero speed. This only happens occasionally, not at every stop, and it lasts for only a split second and then the volume returns to normal. It's also very intermittent, it didn't happen at all on my last two trips.

Has anyone else noticed this in their Escapes? Does it sound like an electrical power surge problem? Only the volume surges, the lights on the dash don't get suddenly brighter or anything like that. Is it typical for something like this happen in a hybrid vehicle?

 

Hey Mtn. Dog-
Sounds like your automatic volume control is going wacky. Try shutting it off. Go to the main menu on the Nav panel, and under audio options hit AVC...take the level down to nothing. I hated the automatic volume control, it would lower my music level to nothing when I got off the freeway, so I got rid of it. If that doesn't work, I'm stumped.
Best,
Joan

 

I believe I noticed something similar when we first got our FEH in November. Now we don't have the NAV system, and I was pretty certain that we don't have the automatic volume control, so I was a little baffled.

I eventually chalked this up to a crappy factory deck (had the basic 6 disc changer in the '05), and put in the deck I'd had in my civic, and have never had the problem again.

Maybe it was a surge in power, and maybe the factory deck just doesn't handle the surge effectively. All I know is the problem is gone, and I've traded 6 discs with some annoying 'features' for a single disc mp3 head unit that I'm used to.

 

I have had the same problem with the Automatic Volume Control. I have no idea why it happens. I'm even going to try to talk to the people at my dealership. It is really annoying though.

 

It definately happens, but only with the automatic volume control turned on. You can definately turn this feature off if you want. That would resolve it.

Why is it happening? I believe it is because wheel speed is actually determined by a number of pulses as the wheel rotates. As you go fast, you get a lot of pulses over a short period of time. As you are going very slowly, you get a small number of pulses.

In a typical system the speed would be determined by a number of pulses over some fixed time. Let's say that this time is 1 second (in practice it's probably more like 100 ms, or 1/10th of a second. So let's also say that we are getting one pulse every 0.9 seconds. Most of the time you would get one pulse per time period, but every 9th and 10th time you would get two pulses per time period. This can appear as doubling the speed.

The automatic volume control would see that the speed doubled, and crank the volume.

I don't know if this is the cause, but the symptoms would match the theory.

I don't think it is a cause for concern, and is definately quirky. I don't think it has anything to do with our hybrids, other than the radio is probably the same.

 

Jeff from Ottawa-
The Escape 6CD changer comes with AVC-so you had it, even though you didn't know it. When you took the changer out, you resolved the problem. Looks like AVC isn't working for alot of folks...hope Ford takes a look at it. In the Nav models, it's easy to disable auto volume control from the audio menu. Not sure how the non-Nav folks will disable it.

 

I have this ever now and then on my winstar turn a corner and the volume turns down or hit the brakes the it cranks up , stock am/fm radio....

 

Strange. I don't seem to have this problem.

 

Joan - I don't have my manual handy, but I'll check it out tonight.

We had the basic 6 disc in dash changer with the 4 speaker system. I would have thought that if the automatic volume control was enabled and causing this problem then I would have also noticed it performing normally and adjusting the volume when I accelerate or brake.

I'm 99% sure that this wasn't happening, but I'm not going to bother putting the unit back in to test it out, there were other reasons to get rid of it as well

 

Well, now it hasn't done it in a few days. I did have the Automatic Volume Control (AVC) up over halfway on the sensitivity scale. I haven't turned it off yet, but then I like not having to turn the volume up every time I get on the freeway and down again upon exiting. I drive I-90 to and from work. I guess I have to decide which annoys me more.

Thanks for all the help, everyone. The pattern under which it does occur is consistent with what you describe, salsbr; sudden changes in speed through braking for example.