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Strange noise when pressing the brake – vacuum pump issue? Hi everyone, I’m experiencing a strange noise when pressing the brake on my 2015 Ford C-Max Plug-in Hybrid. I suspect it might be the vacuum pump. Has anyone faced a similar issue? Is it possible to repair it instead of replacing the whole unit? Any recommendations on troubleshooting or finding the exact part? Thanks in advance for any advice

This advice was spot on. I had the exact same symptoms with my 2016 CMAX after 9 years but just 35,000 miles. I don't trust the local Ford dealer's repairs after recent experience. I found the pump online at another LA area dealer's online parts department saving $135 off the list. It took some calls to find a shop to install it for me. The first places I tried wanted nothing to do with what they thought was a transmission issue. Eventually I reached a guy that knew what I was talking about and told me it would take less than an hour to install. I considered his rate of $150 per hour to be a bargain. Left it for a few hours on a Saturday. He installed the pump and cleared the code and the car is running fine with no engine light and choice of EV mode back.

Good day everyone we had our 2013 C-max since we bought it new with only 54 miles on it has 206000 miles on it only service that has been done on it is 4 sets of tires one set of brakes and a lower control arm for the passenger side that was my bad cause I hit a curb with it and then a major pot hole on the same trip. I wish they still made these cars. very happy with and at 40-45 miles to a gallon not so bad.

Just installed Bridgestone run flats today. So far, I've noticed less tire noise. It was a wet day, traction was just as good as the tires that came off the car, and MUCH better than those crummy Michelin energy saver tires. Yes, I could still make the front wheels slip, but as always (other than with the crummy Michelins) I had to try. Steering response was still good in the limited testing I did today. So far so good. And if it keeps me from having to call AAA and wait hours on the side of the interstate for a tow truck ever again, I'm happy. And definitely happy I didn't read this thread before I installed them.

takingittothemax, where did you find the battery age located in FORScan lite? I am right now trying to change my battery and cannot locate this in the program at all.

Just a little info for everyone, Use it however you want. I spent 20yrs as an auditor for various gas stations/stores across the southeast USA. Part of that job was verifying the fuel level reporting of each station. Reports were used to track refill orders & to report to the EPA to verify tank & fuel pipes were not losing fuel [EPA does not care what leaks into tanks just what could leak out]. Despite appearances, gas stations are not sealed. Every time you put a gallon in your car, the same volume of air is drawn into the feed tank. Outside air with moisture & dust. I probably checked a thousand or more over the years & EVERYONE of them had some water/dirt in the bottom of the tanks. Depending on the size of tank & water level, equipment is used to remove excess. There is a reason for using fuel additives that should not ignored. THANKs for the read.

We shouldn't ever need that stuff with modern gas and well sealed fuel systems, It's been almost exactly 30+/- years ago since the last time I bought Heat, and that was to squeak my old '79 LTD thru emissions for the last year cars that old got a sniffer stuffed up it's tail pipe (ouch!). Two or three years later Illinoizzzz went to OBD2 only, '95 and earlier exempt. BUT...yeah, even though it's been running normally and starting fine in as cold as 5°, I bought a bottle last night and threw it in just in case somehow some moisture invaded my tank. The had a 2 for 1 sale on Lucas FI cleaner (I usually only use Techron), threw one in there too. Usually do that once or twice a year anyhow. FWIW, that trick worked. Quarter tank of gas, 3-4 bottles of Heat. Long since forgot the numbers but before the Heat, the car barely failed. With Heat she passed with flying colors, just a tad over half allowable NOX (I think that was the one I failed).

I am in Phoenix and there is at least one shop here that rebuilds HV batteries, cost around $3,000, installed exchange.

A can of dry gas might help. Cheers

Just as a fun little added tidbit. I ran across this post a while back and a cool video to watch to see how these things 'crank' the engine over: Per the OP it's a Nissan Altima hybrid which has an eCVT just like ours. Spark plugs are all disconnected there in the video.

HALLELUJA!!!!!!! Thank you Lord. She runs! First try, it was a tad rough and low rpm(5-600-ish) for a couple seconds and slowly starting picking up rpm to the normal 1500. I waited another 15 seconds and floored it, went up to 2100 (how its always done) and back to 1500 when I let off. Put it in gear and moved it backward and forward a few feet (wife's car is in front). A minute later the rpm fluctuated up and down then went up to 2100 roughly like it was randomly dropping a cylinder then smoothed out and went back to 1500 smoothly, that scenario was maybe 10 seconds. Sat there another 2 minutes, still smooth, HVB already up to 50%. Set the defrost on max but lowest fan speed, to keep the ICE running. Going to let i run a half hour or so, get good and warm. Tomorrow I'll get it scanned. Ate something that didn't agree with me last night, don't feel like doing squat today, almost didn't even go out to try the car but it's warmed up to a balmy 18° so I figured to out. I'm guessing the problem was fuel related, something iced up or froze and maybe had some air in the lines causing that fluctuating/rough running for a few seconds just now.

Just saw the video you posted (odd, I didn't see it te other day). Anyhow, mine didn't even "run" anywhere near that smooth. It was really rough, almost like only one cylinder was firing. And the rpm definitely was not steady. I also noticed at times the up/down arrow flicked from discharge to charge and I'm sure I saw the "EV" flick on once. Either way, fuel pump looks like a good place to start. Haven't done anything yet as it's still been sub freezing. Tomorrow supposed to be in the low 20s in the afternoon. I'll try again in case something was frozen.

Thats what I'm thinking and hoping, (the fact that it's spinning and starting the ICE that the HVB is not the problem). Maybe a bit of water contamination in the fuel icing up the or a few injectors, as I mentioned, going to leave it until Wednesday, supposed to hit mid 20's. Busy watching my granddaughter today, besides it being to danged cold to do anything but run from the house to the car (wifes car today!).

208K miles on my 2015 so far. Brake pads, rotors, tires, tie rod ends (Minnesota potholes) Still gets 40 MPG with cruise control set at 70MPH on 5 hour drives across Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota. Love this thing. Wish they woud make them again. I would buy one in an instant. G,

Maybe, but I'm doubtful. It'll know if it has enough charge in the HVB to start the engine successfully. If there wasn't, it wouldn't even get to the cranking stage. And these have enough oomph to get even a stone cold ICE started. You're talking a nominal ~300V battery pack with gobs of amps vs a ~12v lead acid battery starting an ICE only vehicle. Hopefully it is something simple on the ICE side like fuel/spark/throttle body. But getting codes read first is really the best first step. Without any kind of diagnostic tools available, you're merely guessing. And you can't afford to continue trying to start it and drain the HVB further.

Nope, no room in the garage, got my Galaxie in there with the carb off waiting for me to rebuild it. I'll check the 12v voltage tomorrow but I doubt thats a problem, all the lights popped on right away as normal. Unfortunately, I don't have a code scanner. I might be stuck towing to a dealer anyhow. I'm on the Illinois/Wisconsin state line, the stupid single digit and sub zero temps are going to last thru Tuesday night. Might wait until Wednesday and try again. Could be some moisture in the gas lines? Sorta doubt that, hasn't been an issue in any of my cars in decades. Could be with the HVB so low the drag from the generator combined with a really cold engine is keeping it from getting up in rpm? Thanks for the replies guys.

Based on the low RPM, I'd say it isn't able to successfully start the engine and is failing out for some reason. It may seem like the engine is running, but it's not. It's just with it being cranked by the hybrid system it feels a lot smoother than a traditional ICE vehicle. Being a hybrid vehicle, I'd IMMEDIATELY stop trying to start it as it'll continue to drain the HVB until it can't be used any further and you'll be stuck with a dealer having to bring in a charger to bring it back up which will cost $$$. No way to DIY it yourself at least safely. Get codes read and see what the vehicle is reporting. If you want to see a good example of what a 'no start' condition feels like, here's a good video. It's from an old Escape hybrid but the systems are nearly the same:

For starters, I would measure the 12v battery without the charger and see what it reads. Can you put the car in a garage and warm it up to see if the problem is temperature related? I've seen the hybrid battery that low a couple times but it didn't affect the operation.

HELPPPPPPP. 2013 C-Max SEL (non-plug in). Went to start her up this morning, about 0°. Engine started right away but RPM was really low, guessing 3-400 rpm (see pic, sometimes the indicator would be a bit lower then shown) and very rough. Stepped on the throttle no change. after 10-15 seconds it shut off and gave me the "STOP SAFELY NOW" error message. I've seen the batter charge bar pretty low before on low teen temp days and noticed she's a little rough for a minute or so before smoothing out to normal. I don't think I've ever seen it this low. My 12v battery is just a year and a half old, I know it only powers the lights/computer etc., just stating for background info. I tried starting a few times, and even put a charger to the 12v (just set on 2amp trickle just incase (I'm certain that doesn't do anything for the big battery) for maybe 20 minutes and tried again, same results.. What could the problem be? Low charge in big battery? I would think if there was enough to spin the engine, once it's running it would start generating and everything would operate back to normal. Is there anyway to put a charge to the big battery? TIA

My 2013 Energi which I recently purchased, doesn't complete charge or doesn't charge at all.... sometimes. I got a DIY Alldata subscription which got me in the right area, and connector C1824 was flagged for possible bad connection. It was easy to locate and access, but I can't figure out how to separate it. I asked Alldata support for help (I didn't want to break or deform the plug/jack), but they said: "Unfortunately, the information you requested is not available in our database. ALLDATAdiy.com gets our information directly from the OE Manufacturer. We do not add to, subtract from, or modify this data in anyway. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused." Anyone know how to safely disconnect the connector? Diagram Set 12 (Charging System) - ALLDATA diy.pdf

To be clear: The BMS only needs reset if changing out the battery. If you're just disconnecting the same battery for some reason and reconnecting it after, there should be no reason to reset the BMS. That's all retained in non-volatile memory that doesn't get affected with loss of power. Also the BMS reset can be DIY'd. The best solution is to use Forscan (either the mobile or PC version, both have the necessary service function) with your OBD adapter of choice. There's some method floating out there of doing a whole dance with the high beams or flashers or something but the issue with that is there's no clear confirmation that it succeeded. With Forscan you can check the battery age PID after the reset to confirm it took.

If the battery is disconnected or ungrounded the Battery Monitor requires a reset (typically by the dealer?). To avoid this, hook up a spare 12V battery with jumpers to the car's battery cables before removing the car's battery.

Hello everyone, I have a 2013 C-MAX Energi, and have started tracking down this issue in just the past week. Ford dealerships and Ford Parts and EV services don't seem to be particularly informed. I'm sure I've repeated a great deal of work outlined in this forum and perhaps others. It would be nice if someone could put together a comprehensive update of steps to go through to update a CMAX 3G TCU today. If such a post exists I'd appreciate a direction to it. In tracking things down, I learned about SSM 50914 that states that TCU HJ5Z-19K350-UM can be used to do the 4G upgrade. However, this part appears to be obsolete and not found anywhere. I note the post above, referring to UP, which I assume is the later TCU HJ5Z-19K350-UP. Part of the issue, of course, is that by using a TCU "off label" as it were, having Ford program it appears problematic. It appears that others have solved this issue. Besides confirmation of the above, I'd love to find out if any 5G TCU has been used for an upgrade. Among other things, (Samsung) Harman now has a "generic" TCU that can, supposedly, be programmed to a broad range of vehicles. See https://car.harman.com/solutions/connectivity/tcu-platform I also see that there has been a lot of work done on TCUs for the F150. I am currently working with a company to do several upgrades to my CMAX, but we are trying to find out where we can find a TCU that works, and how to program it. If anyone can summarize this, it would be most appreciated.

(English) Hello forum, I am having a problem regarding the screen of my C-Max 2013 Hybrid, I just bought it and first of all I could not activate the BT sound and then the options provided by the buttons stopped working except for the power button. "menu" with the option to adjust menu and screen. Please, someone who knows how to use it, I ask for your help. Greetings and thanks forum

This is an old thread as I now read thru this litany of C-Max trans issues. But I don't think issue is gone yet, or perhaps started anew? I had a 2013 C-Max Hybrid(91k miles no trans issue)CPO, in 2020, traded it for a 2017 C-Max hybrid(CPO) with 31k miles, since I knew they were going away and love(d) it. Funny sound started at 62k miles summer of 23. Replaced Rt CV ESP $100 deductible, 2 months later same sound required new bearings in trans, NC as part of ESP or Hybrid 100k/8yr warranty, not sure which. Now late Fall 2024, 71k miles, whirring sound again, took it to same dealer, replace rt front CV (again?), before they gave it to me they heard 'the sound' and kept it, bearings in the trans again. Fixed NC but I'm checking with FoMoCo to determine how long the warranty is, seems to only be a year. I'm checking to see if MI lemon law and/or Ford buyback will get me out of this car w/o $4-5k for repair on my dime. Both trans jobs were TSB 22-2396.