John,
I purchased my parts from www.y2kford.com, and it took about 1 week.
All parts came in standard Ford Packaging, tagged with the appropriate Ford part numbers identified in the Block heater threads.

 

Are we sure about this? I can't find any such heaters in the wiring diagrams for the hybrid. I mean, they have to be there before, because they aren't a part of the parts one buys. Right?

 

Reading this thread leaves the question:

Does the block heater option also
a. charge the traction battery?
b. heat the traction battery?
c. both?

 

The Hybrid Block heater package does the following:
1) Supplies power to the included 120V/400 watt Block Heater
2) Supplies power to the included 120V to ~24V converter to the HV Battery Heaters (currently unknown wattage)

It does NOT charge the High Voltage Battery, it does NOT charge the 12V Battery. Note if you heat the HV battery (if it is less than 40 deg F) the available discharge current will be increased (although the SOC will not).

The heaters are inside the HV Battery assembly and are not field replaceable, so they typically will not show up in any diagrams.

The external wiring circuits should show up in the schematics somewhere (that I have not found YET!).

I'm thinking of wiring a thermostat/timer into the Block Heater Harness to enable the HV Battery Heater circuit when the temp drops below 40 deg F, and then enable the Engine Block heater ~2 hours before needed.

 

IIRC the wiring goes to the rear into the HV battery pack to the AC/DC converter where it goes from there only the engineers know, and they arent tell'n

 

I have an early edition of the FEH manual for 2005, that was printed in early 2004. In this manual, it states that the "jump start button" inside the driver's side footwell is used to heat the battery pack, in an effort to get a low ( but not totally dead ) HV battery to start the car.

I posted this info in 2005 and no-one believed me.
This line of text ( I guess ) was omitted from subseqent printings.

I hypothesized 2 years ago that the simple act of warming the battery would increase voltage and discharge current... just like if your camera or cell phone quits on a cold day, warming it with body heat will get a couple more minutes of use out of it in a pinch. Is your body heat "charging" the battery? No. It it has the apperance of doing so. A battery is a chemical reaction, and chemical reaction rate is relative to temperature.

Some people, and one in particular ( ) was adamant that my manual was wrong, and that line in future issues of the manual was removed because it was incorrect. Maybe it was removed by mistake, or it was an oversight in futute editions.
-John

 

We have came a long way in two years and I recently posted an article with a diagram of the internal HV battery. I noted for the first time that the HV battery did in fact have heaters. This was a big break though in understanding more about the HV battery.

My thoughts now are that if someone plugs in a block heater, it would also indicate a need to heat the battery cells. From everything I've read to date, I would think the "charger" portion of the block heater assembly is to provide the Traction Battery Control Module (TBCM) power to regulate the battery heaters. Without temperature control of the battery with the TBCM, the battery could be fried in no time. For this reason, I don't think power goes directly to the heaters or charging. In addition, I think the TBCM could take some of the energy from the block heater assembly (charger), to supply a low <40% SoC with some charging to assist starting the ICE if needed.

For those interested, here are a repost of documents I've posted in the past. The first is a Ford patent of HEV charger/generator unit. The second provides information and diagrams of the HV battery.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/672...00&stemming=on
http://www.nextenergy.org/cm/attach/...ns%20Panel.pdf

Back to what John said about the jump start system, I now think it is possible that the heaters could be employed if the TBCM detected heat would assist the starting procedure. I did not think a year or so ago or now that heating the HV battery was the sole purpose to provide the HV battery energy to jump start the vehicle. After all, the HV battery could already be hot (outside temp. 82F or higher) when you need a jump start.

GaryG

 

Thanks Gary for sharing your documents and thoughts. It helps many of us further understand our Hybrid vehicle and appreciate the engineering that has been designed into it.

 

So the "naive suggestion" I made in post #14 was right after all?

Stan

 

I talked to the HYbrid Tech regarding that heater within the pack and he agreed with me that the charger does in fact recharge the HV and the heater warms the battery if necessary.

It was about 88F when the Tech changed the last relay and needed to try to start my FEH. It appears when I thought my engine was running at ~785rpm's in my driveway, it wasn't. My wife limped back to my driveway prior to me restarting and checking for codes. When I checked the current trip OD, the Max RPM's was reading ~785 which meant spark and fuel was never given to start the engine. The HV battery was low when I Parked the day before, so I knew the SoC was at a minimum to begin with.

The Hybrid Tech said the engine had never started and that I was using the starter mode to read RPM and to scan and move the vehicle. This ran down the SoC so much the engine could not be started after the repairs were made. The Tech said he had to use the jump start procedure three times and recharge my 12V battery again before he got the engine to start. Heating the battery with three jump start procedures seems like it would only worsen the battery condition to start my FEH in 88F weather.

Stan, I don't think your #14 post was naive because the battery heater may be needed to jump start the FEH in cold weather.

As a side note, the Tech said I should consider replacing the 12V battery soon because of the heat in Florida and its toll it takes in three years. I think he was also saying it should not have taken three jump start procedures to get my FEH started. I sure those fast drains didn't help either. I'll be looking for Sears to put their best Die Hard on sale in Sundays newspaper this weekend. I've had good luck with their warranty in the past.

GaryG