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Ford Fusion Energi Forum

The roads are littered with all sorts of objects


jeff_h
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Strange thing is, I drive my hybrid through 30 miles of work zone on I-95 every day and things are OK thus far (knock on wood), wife's Energi stays in the 'burbs 99% of the time and has run into a couple instances of freaky bad luck.

 

Incident #1 - Labor Day - Sep 2nd... heard thunk-thunk-thunk as we started to drive, knew something was definitely wrong, found a nice big screw in the tire:

Tire_Bolt_zps8fdfb86d.jpg

 

Incident #2 - just 23 days later... the MFM alert worked as my cell phone got a text message that her car had low tire pressure warning, she walked in and said "I hear a hissing sound and can feel something sticking out of the tire"... thankfully I bought a full size spare and keep it in the shed as it has now come in handy twice.  Take a look at this monster that she picked up, and it had to be only a few minutes before getting home since the tire was half flat by the time I got the floor jack under it and raised to put the spare on:

Yep there it is -

Tire_20130925a_zps0e48dfdd.jpg

 

Looks like a big nail doesn't it?

Tire_20130925b_zps8b0b2dd7.jpg

 

Nope, actually looks like re-bar to me:

Tire_20130925c_zpsbe5cc9cd.jpg

 

And a pretty big piece too!

Tire_20130925d_zpsc8f7134e.jpg

 

Since it was right in the center of the tire, hopefully a patch can take care of this and not need a new tire.

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I've bought so many tire plug kits that I may as well invest in that industry. :)  They say they're only temporary but I had close to a dozen in 1 tire of my truck and at least 6 in another, with 3 each in the other two.  Street sweepers don't go by too often so I've picked up everything from bolts, screws, nails, and other various pointy objects.  I have an air compressor in the truck (and of course have the one that came with the car) and both have new plug kits.  Far easier to yank the object, plug it, and put air back in it while still on the vehicle.  The Fusion... maybe not so much since it's so low to the ground.  Haven't had the luxury of plugging one of those tires yet.

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  • 2 months later...

I appreciate this thread having just plugged the right rear! My wife came and got me kind of worried because the car was making a 'sizzling' sound. Turns out it had snapped up a good-sized C ring and was losing air.

 

The toughest part of the whole ordeal was figuring out where to place the jack under the car.

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I appreciate this thread having just plugged the right rear! My wife came and got me kind of worried because the car was making a 'sizzling' sound. Turns out it had snapped up a good-sized C ring and was losing air.

 

The toughest part of the whole ordeal was figuring out where to place the jack under the car.

 

Maybe running on an inflated tire will help bump my stats on MFM! 

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  • 4 months later...

And sometime the tire issues are self-induced!

 

I am normally a bit OCD about things, but getting in a hurry well that sometimes goes out the window.

 

We had a couple trips planned for this past month, one up to PA (500 miles RT) and then one down to FL (1800 miles RT) -- took my car up to PA and figured we would take her car down to FL as I am trying to keep the odometer burn rate in line with the extended warranty expiration points.

 

So I had wanted to rotate the tires on her car (hit the one year mark last week, 16k miles) before leaving and didn't have time until 9pm the night before leaving and I hadn't packed and was in a rush.  So I loosened the lugs on all 4 wheels and swapped the back wheels, but then decided to blow off swapping front to back since it's tough to jack up the front sides with those fiberglass (I assume) aerodynamic/noise control panels there, so I said OK well that's good enough and no time to mess with it further.  I put the jack away and went and packed for the trip.

 

Next morning we packed the trunk and started down the road and thought "wow the steering is pretty shaky for some reason" as it's always been very smooth.  I got to a road where we went over 50mph and knew something was definitely wrong.

 

So after those few miles, I pulled over and checked the lugs and the back ones were fine, but the lugs on one of the front wheels were a few turns looser than finger-tight.  Luckily, we pulled over at a convenience store and there was a guy there with a tool box in his F-150 so we tightened the lugs then and there, but at that point we saw the damage had been done. That tire was not going to FL, so we turned around and went back home, and that failure to double-check my work the night before resulted in the purchase of a new tire since a belt(s) apparently busted due to all of the high-speed wobbling:

 

Tire_Sidewall2_20Apr14_zpsc9e23e5c.jpg
Tire_Sidewall_20Apr14_zps327222fc.jpg

 

 

So we moved everything into my car's trunk and off we went to FL, and so this month's tally on my car was over 4,600 miles!  So the trip went fine, and ordered a new tire from tirerack while away and it had been delivered and neighbor put into garage while we were gone, and got that mounted and now all is well on her car too (after $182 for the tire and $32 to mount and rotate the others, which I should have paid for to start!).

MFM_April2014_zpseea86f71.jpg

 

 

So moral of the story - always double-check your work, even/especially when in a hurry!

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