It Does What, Bubba?

[HOTLNC]

RE: It Does What, Bubba?

Well, today was pushing 101 in the shade. As soon as you turn off the motor, the blast of heat coming from that thingy we call a windshield in HOTLNC will take you down in less than 10 seconds. I have the darkest sun film allowed by law on the driver's side window and damn dark on all other windows. But the sun and the heat that comes in when the AC is shut down is a massive BTU load and totally normal for our weather.

Only about 10% of my daily driving is city. So we will not be getting all of the advantages of the Ford hybrid, which depends on regenerative braking for it's outstanding city MPG. Sill, I'll not want to sweat during that time either.

I'm willing the pay the 3 to 7 MPG that turning that AC will cost me.

So do you work for a hybrid dealer? Do you have any suggestions on what options to buy; to avoid; when to buy? How much does the battery pack cost to replace?

 

[Frankie X]

RE: It Does What, Bubba?

The Hybrid is too new for me to get any impression of what's going to be failure prone items; we aren't selling them yet. The ones I've worked on were for car shows. Ford hasn't given us retail parts prices on anything. The High Voltage Battery unit is warranted for ten years, though.

One thing you haven't considered in this A/C discussion. The HV battery pack gets very hot in use. It has a self contained cooling system that is fed by the belt driven A/C compressor and is thermostatically triggered on. Even if you could stand the heat you're describing, the HV battery can't. The gas engine will need to run in temperatures that high, so use the A/C--it's already on!