Departure times woes

[Ajax]

I can't seem to get the hang of departure times. First off, I ran in to the issue discussed in threads like this one with Detroit being Fordpass' time zone, so my Mach-e didn't precondition on Monday. Updated time zone in Fordpass and tried the next day for a 9am departure. We ended up getting in the car at 8:58 and I got a "Desired charge level will not be reached" message, even though the car was plugged in all net and at 90% well before 9am.

OK, so for today (Wednesday), I set departure time for 8:55 AM. Plugged in all night. Got the "desired charge level" message again even though the car was at 90% by 1am. Turns out we were able to get out the door extra early, and as we were getting one little one into daycare, we came back to a warm car. I got an "SRS Triggered due vehicle unplugged" alert in Fordpass.

So it sounds like I need to do a few things, but open to suggestions and tips:
1) Set an earlier departure time, say 8:30 AM
2) Disable the remote start ability when vehicle is unplugged in Departure Times

My only worry for 2) is that it will affect other remote starts I do, e.g. while checking out at the grocery store. Anyone know if disabling will affect those remote starts, too? I doubt it but since Fordpass is so wonky, I wanted to check first.

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[bshaw]

So it sounds like I need to do a few things, but open to suggestions and tips:
1) Set an earlier departure time, say 8:30 AM

I don't think setting an 8:30 departure time if you plan on leaving closer to 9am is the correct solution. If you plan on leaving at 9:00am, then that should be your departure time. The car should plan ahead accordingly, its not something you need to calculate yourself.

Having said that, I do not use departure times, and instead just use Remote Start from iPhone/watch about 10-mins before I plan to leave. Does not matter whether car is plugged in or not, it will warm and be ready to go when I head out the door.

Might be easier to do it this way rather than slog through the uncertainty of charge windows and departure times using an unreliable FordPass system.

 

[breeves002]

I set the departure times for when I want to leave and it works fine for me. The message about not reaching charge is erroneous and a bug. Ignore it. It's assuming your departure time of 9am and you're at like 89.9% and its 9am now so it can't make it to 90% by 9am. It's just a dumb software glitch.

Not sure on the remote start when vehicle is unplugged part. I have never tried but I imagine that is related to departure times since you manually ask for a remote start?

Having said that, I do not use departure times, and instead just use Remote Start from iPhone/watch about 10-mins before I plan to leave. Does not matter whether car is plugged in or not, it will warm and be ready to go when I head out the door.

The biggest advantage to departure times is battery conditioning. If you park outside in a cold climate it will warm the battery before the cabin so you get greater range. This can make a huge difference when it is really cold.

 

[bshaw]

The biggest advantage to departure times is battery conditioning. If you park outside in a cold climate it will warm the battery before the cabin so you get greater range. This can make a huge difference when it is really cold.

I believe remote start will precondition the battery in the same way as a departure time will? Although if you unplug and drive away too soon, your range will go down because now the battery has to warm itself. I would expect departure time to always get it right, but my guessing will have an error margin and I'm fine with that.

 

[dml105]

Is there any documentation about “preconditioning the BATTERY” outside this forum?

 

[BMT1071]

Is there any documentation about “preconditioning the BATTERY” outside this forum?

The owner's manual.

 

[Neil4Real]

Is there any documentation about “preconditioning the BATTERY” outside this forum?

I believe they also sent EVERYONE a Ford Pass message/bulletin and possibly an email IIRC, stating a few tips for cold weather and one of them was to make sure you precondition.

 

[RickMachE]

?

 

[dml105]

The owner's manual.

I believe they also sent EVERYONE a Ford Pass message/bulletin and possibly an email IIRC, stating a few tips for cold weather and one of them was to make sure you precondition.

Thanks. What I’m getting at is whether there is an actual difference between preconditioning by setting a departure time and preconditioning by remote starting the car, as far as the battery is concerned.

 

[Neil4Real]

Thanks. What I’m getting at is whether there is an actual difference between preconditioning by setting a departure time and preconditioning by remote starting the car, as far as the battery is concerned.

Yes, there are quite a few topics about this already. The battery needs way more time to get to the proper temperature due to its size, that 15 or even 30 minutes of remote start is not enough to get it there. I guess it is helpful, but no where near as efficient or meaningful as departure times preconditioning.

 

[BMT1071]

Thanks. What I’m getting at is whether there is an actual difference between preconditioning by setting a departure time and preconditioning by remote starting the car, as far as the battery is concerned.

I can tell you that in the heat of summer my car would start preconditioning ~35 minutes prior to the departure time. I live in the Valley of the Sun, so I can't tell you what it will do to heat the battery/cabin when it is really cold out.

 

[HuntingPudel]

<snip>
The message about not reaching charge is erroneous and a bug. Ignore it. It's assuming your departure time of 9am and you're at like 89.9% and its 9am now so it can't make it to 90% by 9am. It's just a dumb software glitch.
<snip>

Yup. As soon as my car starts preconditioning I get the message that it won’t reach the desired charge level, regardless of the fact that I received a message that the desired charge level was reached the night before. Ignore that notification. ?‍?

 

[dml105]

Yes, there are quite a few topics about this already. The battery needs way more time to get to the proper temperature due to its size, that 15 or even 30 minutes of remote start is not enough to get it there. I guess it is helpful, but no where near as efficient or meaningful as departure times preconditioning.

I know there are lots of topics on some Internet forum. I’m trying to get at what FORD has actually said about the difference between departure times and remote starting. Because as knowledgeable as people around macheforum.com are (and it’s quite!) it’s still an awful lot of educated conjecture, and borrowing from what they knew about Tesla.

 

[Neil4Real]

I know there are lots of topics on some Internet forum. I’m trying to get at what FORD has actually said about the difference between departure times and remote starting. Because as knowledgeable as people around macheforum.com are (and it’s quite!) it’s still an awful lot of educated conjecture, and borrowing from what they knew about Tesla.

And yet there are a bunch of people that work from Ford and prefer to not say or know people at Ford, so I think you'd find a lot of what you find from certain people is entirely accurate to what FORD wants you to do.

But, here you go. This is the Ford Pass message that FORD sent out to ALL MME owners. They clearly state you should use departure times and don't even say that remote start is an option to precondition:
Precondition your vehicle by scheduling departure times to warm the cabin and the battery while plugged-in (using the FordPass™ App or the SYNC® 4A touchscreen)

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...h-e’s-winter-range-per-fordpass-notice.11575/

 

[coolshades]

Dumb q. Does preconditioning work if the car is not plugged in?

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