PowerBoost Brake\Charging Coach

[scott011422]

This is about the "Eco Coach" on the IPC. When you are coasting or braking this going into a green "Charging" bar graph. If you brake hard enough the word "Charging" turns to white and the portion of the bar that moves out of the green zone also turns white. I've always been told that this white area is when the mechanical brake is starting to be applied because you are requesting more braking than the regen can provide. Makes total sense.

Recently I've developed an odd click on the front drivers brake every time the mechanical brake is engaged. Sounds like a solenoid hitting sheetmetal. So now I have an audible feedback everything the mechanical brakes are used., And it doesn't follow that charging graph AT ALL. I've had whole braking events that didn't go much past halve of the green charging zone and had the mechanical brake engage. I've almost never had the brakes engage when crossing into the white zone. I've had brake events well into the white zone that didn't engage the mechanical brakes.

So then what exactly is the white zone? If it is displaying the regen capacity, What is it doing with the extra power its generating? If it cant store it, and isn't using the mechanical brakes, where is the power going? Is there a heating element somewhere?

Even if it was break efficiency, again, where is all the extra power going? To electrically brake you need a load, They need to do SOMETHING with the power.

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[Oxford_Powerboost]

I’m not sure the click you’re hearing is related. I think I have the same click occasionally, but I’ve not paid much attention to it. What I did do was test with an IR temperature gun to compare full stops from 50-60mph using only the green zone with stops that are both slightly and heavily into white. When stopping only in green, the brake disks were only marginally over ambient temp (I’m sure they got used a bit on the way to where I tested it even though I tried to be careful). When using a bit of “white,” they were +30-40F over ambient. And when doing a hard stop they were hot as expected.

The electric motor can only regen as much power as it can produce forward, which we know isn’t a lot. There’s no way it’s only regen that hard when you’re in the white zone.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

From what I understand during the regen cycle there's a limit to how much current the motor will send to the hybrid battery pack based on its size. Using an OBDII monitor I have seen the hybrid battery briefly spike to 260-270v at about 80 amps during max regen. From what I have seen when the regen voltage and amps hit this limit (graph switches to white) the mechanical brakes are deployed as well as utilizing the electric motor when braking force demanded by driver input exceeds the regenerative system's ability to slow the vehicle to match that braking force demand. All heat generated by the battery is managed by the secondary cooling system exclusive to the PB's.

Ford also has a charge limit on the hybrid battery at 50-60% but it usually is more in the 45-55% area. I assume this is to increase the life of the battery pack by reducing the charge cycles on the system.

As for the clicking, it's likely one of the numerous solenoids clicking as the system is operating. IT may also be a sticking caliper pin or rattle clip being misaligned. Ypu may want to have someone drive the truck while you're outside to locate the area where this clicking is coming from. That would help identify the source. Mine also emits three loud clicks when first applying the brakes in regen mode, but these are from the middle of the truck as far as I can tell. Yo can't hear this from inside with the windows up and nothing appears to be wrong so I have not given it much more thought than it making this noise.

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