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Ambient Lighting Control not working or not there?


Kelleytoons
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Just took delivery of our C-Max yesterday and driving it home last night I was a little nuts trying to get the ambient lighting turned down or off.  So I get home and crack open the manual and the controls I have don't seem to work or (more likely) it's a question of user error.

 

First of all, I DO seem to have ambient lighting (but I need to ask here to be sure).  There is this glow around the footwells of the driver and passenger sides, as well as lights where the door handles and cup holders are.  This glow is quite bright and right now is bluish and appears to be on whenever the car is on and the lights are on or turned on auto mode.

 

On the overhead (I have no sun roof) there is a lit control panel as described in the manual with two buttons and a knob.  The manual says the right hand button turns things on and off and the left one cycles through color choices, while the middle knob controls brightness.  Well and good, except that only one button seems to have any effect and it's not the one they say.  The right hand button will cycle through two choices -- green or blue.  But neither the knob nor the other button appear to do anything, no matter what state the engine and lights are in (which is to say, even with the engine on and lights on I can't get these to function).

 

So does anyone here have an understanding of what I'm doing wrong?  Or is this something I need to discuss with our dealer?

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on the console on mine

 

I have two buttons, and a dial.

 

the button on the passenger side controls the interior lights  Ie  overhead and footwell.  on or off independent of everything else.

 

the button on the driver side  which has a painter pallette on it.  controls the color of the ambient/footwell lights.    half a dozen different colors,  and the dial in the center control the brightness of these lights.

 

When you open a door the door light turns red...

 

you must have the headlights on  to activate the ambient lights.  when its dark  its much easier to see the lights as well.

 

 

post-2136-0-46455400-1405513207_thumb.jpg

post-2136-0-04463500-1405513209_thumb.jpg

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Yeah, well that's not how mine work.  As I said, the button on the right cycles through two choices, and the other two do nothing.  But I sure seem to have ambient lights (unless I don't understand what ambient lights are).  Perhaps I have them but they can't be controlled in any way?  (That seems pretty weird, though, considering how bright they are).

 

I guess this is something I need to ask the dealership.

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does your switch panel look the same?

 

not sure if the SEL is different form the SE

 

http://owner.ford.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Owner/Page/OwnerVideoPage&year=2013&make=Ford&model=C-MAX%20Hybrid

 

the button on the right all it does is turn on/off the dome lights..  and the center is a dimmer...

 

the ambient lights  is the footwell, door handle, cupholders, ect.  not the gauge lights..

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The ambient lighting option is included on SE's with Equipment Group 201A and 203A, but not 200A (base SE model) or 202A (adds MyFordTouch and Sirius)

Ambient llghting is standard on all SEL's and all Energi models (which are all SEL trim level). 

 

You need to be in a pretty dark area. Your own headlights in the garage are bright enough to overcome most of the effect, even at full ambient brightness.

 

I think the car 'remembers' the last Ambient color setting, but I'm not positive, because I rarely drive it at night.

 

Here are some pics. You select one color for all the ambient LED's at a time, so these are three different settings:

 

Red in the cupholders:

post-1940-0-41873900-1405530710_thumb.jpg

 

Purple in the footwell reflected by my son's mostly-white shoes:

post-1940-0-78002700-1405530771_thumb.jpg

 

Green behind the door handles:

post-1940-0-28955300-1405530831_thumb.jpg

(The lock/unlock buttons to the left are backlit in blue. The blue of the dash displays reflects on the door handle underneath and to the right.)

Edited by kostby
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I think the ambient lighting color setting follows the key. I have mine set to red, so when I use my key the lights are red. My wife has blue.

 

Haven't 100% tested this yet, but it seems to be the case.

 

It always irritated me how the intensity knob FEELS reversed. I would assume that based on the swoosh painted on it that if you turn it right it would be dim and if you turn it left it would be bright. It is the opposite.

 

I understand their logic, but it bothers me anyways :P

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I have the 203A package and, as I say, I do see the ambient light but just can't control it (much).  The passenger side button switches it from green to blue but I can't turn it up/down or on/off.

 

So perhaps it is broken -- I'll call the dealership tonight to see (if so, bummer since they are 40 miles away).

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Kellytoons- What is going on is that you have the interior lights off when you enter or exit the vehicle.

If you didn't have that feature off, the passenger button would turn all interior lights on and off.

I had the same problem figuring it out when I first got my baby.

Edited by xanotos
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Maybe I'm being especially slow this evening but I'm not quite sure what you mean.

 

I get into the car and turn it on and make sure the headlights are on (the two requirements for the ambient lights to work).  They are also on, but I cannot adjust the brightness nor turn them off again (trust me, I drove for an hour with them on late last night and it was fairly annoying).  I *can* change them from green to blue, but by using a button which isn't supposed to do that.

 

I think they are broken but I'm going to a Ford dealer tomorrow to be either enlightened or get it repaired.

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I also wish I could choose a color theme for my HUD display and radio.

 

How about some custom firmware?  :rockon:

HUD display?  I've never heard of that being available on CMax?  HUD in my world means the dashboard gauges i.e. the speedometer is displayed in front of you on the windshield.  Is that what you are referring to?

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does your switch panel look the same?

 

not sure if the SEL is different form the SE

 

http://owner.ford.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Owner/Page/OwnerVideoPage&year=2013&make=Ford&model=C-MAX%20Hybrid

 

the button on the right all it does is turn on/off the dome lights..  and the center is a dimmer...

 

the ambient lights  is the footwell, door handle, cupholders, ect.  not the gauge lights..

thats the same as my SEL :thumbsup:

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Kellytoons, what I meant is if you open your car door and the interior lights do not turn on, that button on the passenger side will not do anything if you press it other than change the colors from whatever you have them at to a lighter blue. 

If you have your interior lights to turn on when you enter the car, the right button will turn on all the lights in your interior.

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HUD display?  I've never heard of that being available on CMax?  HUD in my world means the dashboard gauges i.e. the speedometer is displayed in front of you on the windshield.  Is that what you are referring to?

 

Yeah... I am a gamer so anything in front of me is pretty much a HUD. I am used to having an excessive amount of information being thrown at me at all times, so having pretty little leaves growing or just a compass feels inefficient. And since my ambient lighting is set to Red, I would like red gauges too :P

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Kellytoons, what I meant is if you open your car door and the interior lights do not turn on, that button on the passenger side will not do anything if you press it other than change the colors from whatever you have them at to a lighter blue. 

If you have your interior lights to turn on when you enter the car, the right button will turn on all the lights in your interior.

 

Hmmm -- okay, so where, exactly, is THAT setting?  (To turn on or not the interior lights when the door is opened).

 

As for the other -- as I suspected, it was user error (exactly *what* user error I'm still not sure).  I was driving tonight and as I was driving I tried the controls and they all worked as the manual said.  Why last night I couldn't get to happen I'll blame on being an old man (it's a good excuse for nearly any situation :>).  But to me driving around with the ambient lights on isn't very useful.  However, I would like it if they would come on when I opened the door and then stopped when I started up (I just can't find this in the manual anyway, but I'll look again).

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I checked on the site and the videos for the 2013 and 2014 models are the exact same link for the ambient lighting system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj4oQ2CvALU&fwid=1251735368779

 

does your switch panel look the same?

 

not sure if the SEL is different form the SE

 

http://owner.ford.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Owner/Page/OwnerVideoPage&year=2013&make=Ford&model=C-MAX%20Hybrid

 

the button on the right all it does is turn on/off the dome lights..  and the center is a dimmer...

 

the ambient lights  is the footwell, door handle, cupholders, ect.  not the gauge lights..

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Never seen etis before. Just put up my vin and I see:

 

14S04 - REPROGRAM RESTRAINTS CONTROL MODULE

14B03 - FUEL ECONOMY CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

 

Where did 14B03 come from? My vehicle health report only showed 14S04??

 

edit: oh man, does that mean I should be getting a check? rock on!

I was going off of the 45/40/43 when I bought the car.

Edited by banditb17
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