Recalibration Event?

[stevedebi]

I have a question for the longer time C-Max owners. I used to own a 2008 Escape Hybrid. About every 30K miles or so, the car would do a "recalibration" event, where it allowed the charge to go down to around 30% (normally it was around 54% minimum) up to around 90% (normally a max of 66%). This was to determine the capabilities of the battery pack, and adjust the charge useage. After this event, it went another 30K before it happened. It was most noticeable when the engine kept running to charge the battery, even at stop lights with the engine warm.

 

Has anyone seen this in the C-Max?

 

I personally own the Energi, and I believe we have decided over on that Forum that the Energi doesn't need this, because the car is plugged into the electric grid every night, so the system can perform analysis constantly. But the C-Max is more like my old FEH.

[techman05]

Havent seen it yet but I think it supposed to do it 10-15 minutes after you stop [and walk away]. Unless you try to take a nap in the car you won't notice it.

 

I got spooked cleaning a 2013-2014 prius plug-in and it made pops and poof noises that I leaned toward [this] what it was doing.

 

Only one I can say 100 percent is the chevy volt since a youtube video spoke of occuring it.

[stevedebi]

It cannot happen unless the car is in motion. You will notice the engine running longer if it happens, while it charges up - and it won't stop the ICE if you stop the vehicle (unless you power off the car). If you were driving on the highway it would not be that noticeable because the ICE is probably running a lot anyway.

 

I suspect they do it; this is the only way to make sure the electronics are calibrated to the current charge capability of the batteries. But who knows, maybe Ford decided it wasn't worth it on the C-Max? Or it could be that LiIon doesn't need as much recalibration, and it happens much more seldom.

 

On the Escape Hybrid it was about every 33K miles, but that had NiMh batteries instead of LiIon.

[SnowStorm]

Well, about a week ago The Enterprise did something that spooked me out and it sounds a bit like what you're talking about here.  I was driving with ECO Cruise at a slow speed (maybe 35 mph) and noticed that the battery was charging right to the top of the bar with ICE continuing to run.  Normally it would stop at about 85% indicated SOC maximum.  The EV "box" on the Empower screen stayed way down at about 1/4 bar with the car using about 1/3 bar at that low speed.  It just kept running the ICE and charging the battery even though there would normally be plenty of charge to drop into EV - but it didn't.  I finally kicked off CC and it went into EV and proceeded to discharge normally.  It was night, flat country, about 70F and I had gone through several spots with water over the road from recent flooding so was a bit worried.  I then managed to get it to do it again and, as before, it just went on charging with the EV box staying down at 1/4 bar and ICE running on.  Then suddenly I saw the EV box jump to 1.5 bars or so and the car went into EV as it should.  I had the computer along so fired up Forscan but didn't see anything abnormal (of course everything was functioning normally now).  So, was this event:

1. Some kind of recalibration as discussed above?
2. Some weird bug that only happens if you're driving with CC at slow speed / low power?
3. The result of driving through some shallow water several times? (I doubt it)
4. Something that happens after 100k miles to encourage you to get a new car?
5. A new EV- mode?
6. ????

An aside: the last water crossing had folks stopping traffic to explain the situation and let one direction go at a time.  While talking to the young man he asked if I had an electric car as he heard no engine running!

[stevedebi]

Well, about a week ago The Enterprise did something that spooked me out and it sounds a bit like what you're talking about here.  I was driving with ECO Cruise at a slow speed (maybe 35 mph) and noticed that the battery was charging right to the top of the bar with ICE continuing to run.  Normally it would stop at about 85% indicated SOC maximum.  The EV "box" on the Empower screen stayed way down at about 1/4 bar with the car using about 1/3 bar at that low speed.  It just kept running the ICE and charging the battery even though there would normally be plenty of charge to drop into EV - but it didn't.  I finally kicked off CC and it went into EV and proceeded to discharge normally.  It was night, flat country, about 70F and I had gone through several spots with water over the road from recent flooding so was a bit worried.  I then managed to get it to do it again and, as before, it just went on charging with the EV box staying down at 1/4 bar and ICE running on.  Then suddenly I saw the EV box jump to 1.5 bars or so and the car went into EV as it should.  I had the computer along so fired up Forscan but didn't see anything abnormal (of course everything was functioning normally now).  So, was this event:

1. Some kind of recalibration as discussed above?
2. Some weird bug that only happens if you're driving with CC at slow speed / low power?
3. The result of driving through some shallow water several times? (I doubt it)
4. Something that happens after 100k miles to encourage you to get a new car?
5. A new EV- mode?
6. ????

An aside: the last water crossing had folks stopping traffic to explain the situation and let one direction go at a time.  While talking to the young man he asked if I had an electric car as he heard no engine running!

Sounds exactly right. On the hybrid, Ford periodically needs to determine the actual capacity of the HVB, so it can adjust how much it can actually handle when driving. They use a % of maximum SOC, and maximum SOC will degrade over time with any battery.