First week with my Powerboost

[Snakebitten]

Sorry that was in Canadian gallons. In US gallons it's 23 and 21 respectively.

With today's gas prices AND the Hybrid crowds mileage sensitivity you really gotta clarify. Lol

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[Oxford_Powerboost]

That’s great to hear. Certainly hope it ends up meeting your expectations. When was your truck built?
When I read your first post it sounds like my experience thus far. Mine may be more abrupt or harsh. Reminds me of a neutral drop / clutch pop. Interesting thing is its more of a light or trailing throttle event at < 5mph, making less sense. Taking off a bit on the heavy side it is pretty smooth.
My wife even asked me ‘what was that’ and if there was a problem from how violently the the ICE cut on was the couple times I hit the wind just right to get it to do that. Thankfully its not consistent. At the same time that could end up being a problem if it doesn’t just learn out as a dealer will give the ole ‘can’t reproduce, off you go’. Hasn’t changed or improved for me but it’s only been a couple hundred miles. So encouraging to hear yours improved and gives hope for the same luck.
For what it’s worth, I test drive two powerboosts last year at the dealer before ordering. Specifically to see how the ev / ice transition was. Both were seamless and impressive. That experience makes this a little disappointing, but for now I’ll focus on the specifics of the conditions when it occurs and making it reproduceable. I think it might be a case of the ICE coming in at the same time as a shift event and the two aren’t synchronized between throttle % and shift timing/pressure.

You nailed it. I have almost 19,000 miles on my Powerboost now. What’s happening is it revs up fairly high in first in order to do the 1-3 shift. You’re accelerating at the perfect rate to cause it to work on electric power up to 7-8mph. The 1-3 shift occurs at 9 or 10 under light throttle. So it’s kicking the gas engine on in first, which means it needs to rev up to 22-2300rpm from off. As soon as it stabilizes there and the ECU begins giving the engine fuel, you’re at 9mph and the TCU is commanding a 1-3 shift where the engine now has to come back down from 2300 to 1200. All of this happens really fast, but creates a bit of a jerky experience. Add onto that you’re instinctively trying to react to smooth the experience on the throttle pedal, but slightly behind the curve on everything the truck is doing. Like a wave compounding on itself to get bigger.

Since I figured this behavior out, I intentionally watch the EV coach to either A: ride it out in EV slightly longer to get into 3rd gear and then press harder to kick the gas engine in or B: jab the gas pedal in first by like 6mph to get the gas engine running and settled prior to the 1-3 shift. This has become instinct now, and the driving experience is completely smooth. Shifts and EV transition are not noticeable

This is why taking off more aggressively is smoother. It cranks the engine long before the 1-3 shift (or 1-2 if aggressive enough on throttle tip in)

 

[erixgix]

Very nice analysis @Oxford_Powerboost. Appreciate the rights on driving around it.

I’d expect the PCM changes in the TSB last year were playing with some of the behavior described. No doubt it’s work in progress for both owners and Ford to refine the tune going forward.

In the near term, makes me curious if there is an easy way to defeat the skip shift to allow a better transition, without having to get a full aftermarket tune.

 

[daemonic3]

Interesting that statistically I should have hit this acceleration clunk multiple times in my >1yr of ownership but I haven't noticed it or it is very mild.

I *HAVE* noticed 4 occasions (very rare!) a massive jerk/clunk when coming to a stop, somewhere in the 20-10mph range. 2 were with trailer and 2 without. It is almost like I pulsed the brakes hard for a brief millisecond and there's a deep vibrating "boom" throughout the chassis. I cannot point to anything specific that I did or what was happening at the times it occurred and cannot reproduce it intentionally. Very scary but no adverse side effects other that "What the f$*# was that?!?" from the wife.

 

[MJ Heat]

I am literally 1 week in with my Powerboost. It is an XLT 4x4 157". I have about 700 miles on it now. It currently shows 25.6mpg on the screen & I have not reset it since I picked up the truck. When I picked it up, it had 81 miles on it & showed 3.5mpg on the screen. I generally drive like I am old, because I am, so it has not been much of an adjustment to try to get the best fuel mileage out of this hybrid truck. It has been showing high 20's for in town trips mpg & low to mid 20's for expressway.

Between total miles driven on this tank of fuel so far, & miles to empty displayed on the screen, it projects slightly over 800 miles total for this tank of fuel. That is about what usually displayed on my similarly configured 2015 Ecoboost, with the 36 gallon tank. If that is how it actually works out, I will be very pleasantly surprised.

I have high hopes that my fuel mileage will improve slightly as this new Powerboost breaks in, & over the tire wear cycle. In my experience, my 2015 Ecoboost would always get better fuel mileage as tire weight went down from tread wear.

As for shifting back & forth between gas & electric, it is smooth as silk. The 1st time I took it out on the expressway, I was driving along & happened to scan my gauges, & noticed that I had NO oil pressure. While that shocked this old guy for just a second, I quickly realized it had shifted over to electric without me noticing. Since then, I have learned that I have to watch the screen so that I can tell when it changes back & forth. The transmission shifts so smooth most of the time that I have to watch the indicator to see when it is changing. I guess, all in all, this truck was designed for the way that old farts drive, or I got awful lucky getting a truck with a lot less of the kinks that came in many others.

 

[Mtnman1]

I've had my 2021 PB since April of 2021. I now have a bit over 18k miles on it. The transmission generally got smoother as time went by. I understand that it goes through a process of learning your driving habits. I did have the somewhat common rough shifting issue in the lower gears (1-3), but when I took it in for one of the recall issues the dealer also addressed the shifting issue by reprogramming, the PCM module (I think) and now it's smooth. Mine shifts very smoothly from electric to ICE and back.

It does NOT learn your driving habits.

This trans is used with multiple engines in multiple vehicles. The list of ford vehicles its not used in is pretty short.

Even in a given F150 trim, there are different rear gears, engines, GVWR, etc.

It adapts to the vehicle and engine it is mated too. Not your driving style.

 

[ZOSICK]

I should be getting my PB Lariat this week (crossing fingers, ordered it in Dec). I'm not excepting much better gas mileage than my 2018 EB or 2022 GMC Sierra 5.3L. I drive mostly interstate driving, 75-80 mph. I usually get 17-19 now with my GMC. That being said, when driving in the city, I'm sure I will get better overall mileage. Either way, I can't wait! Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

[jeepin95]

I'm about a month into my 22 PB and just passed 3,000 miles. That's due to it being driven from the dealership in Idaho to home north of Seattle, then camping for the next 3 weeks all over WA and OR So far I am happy with my first truck, coming from a Grand Cherokee. A couple of our campgrounds were non-hookup and the PB worked well to run things as needed like microwave, induction cooktop and instapot. We tested electric water heater and A/C but they weren't required.

I do agree with OP that for the most part they have done a good job with physical button and knob locations. My one complaint is the rear diff lock button being on the drive mode selection. I usually switch to tow/haul mode in order to engage the ICE full time while either backing up to the trailer, or backing the trailer up into the driveway. This seems to make it more predictable without a sudden yet small surge as the ICE kick in. Twice I have managed to bump the diff lock button without realizing it until I pull away and feel the binding. I'm worried that I won't notice one of these times and cause issues, or even worse that if I reach down to switch modes on the highway I will cause big problems. I do switch between tow/haul and normal on the highway, especially if we get to slow traffic to take advantage of electric mode. I wish they would have moved the diff lock button somewhere less used since it may have the potential to cause damage. I'm not sure if there is any logic that disables the diff lock at certain speeds, but it doesn't always required speed to cause damage.

I also had one situation where I was trying to turn right out of a driveway, not fast, but there were cars coming so I wasn't trying to roll out full EV. As I started to pull out in EV mode, it went to engage the ICE. At the same moment an oncoming car the other direction started to turn left directly in front of me so for a moment I let off the gas, but didn't press the brake. Letting off the gas right as the ICE was starting killed the ice and almost seemed like it put the brakes on. The oncoming car ended up yielding (as they should have) but there was a lot of hesitation in the truck before it wanted to accelerate pulling out. There were no warning signals so I don't think the truck was trying to prevent a collision, I think just the timing of applying throttle, ICE starting, reducing throttle, then trying to apply again confused the system.

 

[gadiedrick]

We. took delivery of our PB XLT 4x4 F-150 long bed early in '21. We have yet to do any serious towing but have experienced driving it in a midwest winter. We were disappointed with the overall average of MPG which slipped to 18 MPG in the winter. As spring led into summer this year we're obviously use'n the air conditioner. We keep our PB in the NORMAL mode & don't expect to be use'n any other mode unless the situation requires it. Even with use'n the A/C this summer our overall AVERAGE MPG is @ 21.1 MPG. As we use the vehicle daily & it is turned off the dash display will indicate the MPG for each usage. Use'n the NORMAL mode & the air conditioner we are getting as much as 24 - 25MPG for an individual usage. Not sure how this might stand up to other PB averages but we are generally pleased with our results.

 

[DAM5150]

Another week in.

Still loving it. A couple new questions.

Does anyone else get a slight vibration or grinding feeling in the gas pedal?

It happens in electric and ice mode. Does not change with rpms. I'm pretty sure it's road vibration. I don't get it in other pedals and it's more pronounced at 30-50mph.

I plan on asking a tech at my first oil change. But that's still a few thousand miles away.

 

[Coreytrevor]

Another week in.

Still loving it. A couple new questions.

Does anyone else get a slight vibration or grinding feeling in the gas pedal?

It happens in electric and ice mode. Does not change with rpms. I'm pretty sure it's road vibration. I don't get it in other pedals and it's more pronounced at 30-50mph.

I plan on asking a tech at my first oil change. But that's still a few thousand miles away.

I get this as well! Half the time it happens I have the music cranked driving on a smooth road and can’t figure out why there is road vibration going so slow. It goes away quickly and every time it happens I think I must be going crazy lol. Would love to hear if anyone else has any answers/input on this

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Another week in.

Still loving it. A couple new questions.

Does anyone else get a slight vibration or grinding feeling in the gas pedal?

It happens in electric and ice mode. Does not change with rpms. I'm pretty sure it's road vibration. I don't get it in other pedals and it's more pronounced at 30-50mph.

I plan on asking a tech at my first oil change. But that's still a few thousand miles away.

Hey there! I can look into your F-150’s vibration concerns on my end if you’d like. Will you send us a private message with your VIN and dealership info?

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