StoBro2

I'm using the Ford rubber mats but I also made my own cover for the dead pedal area. I just carved out a section of a rubber stair tread that I bought at Menards (a regional big box home improvement chain here in the upper midwest). The tread has a lip that wraps around the side of the dead pedal platform and a non-skid texture on the surface. It extends all of the way up to where the dead pedal meets the wall. I'm holding it in place with some double stick carpet tape. So far, so good.

I seem to recall an issue with dead batteries in the 5-series BMWs and one of the theories was that if you parked your car in the your garage and left it unlocked the keyless entry system was always in "standby" or "ready" mode or something like that as long as the fob was within range of the proximity sensor in the car. It was proposed that owners should always lock their cars to prevent draining down the battery. I could be remembering that wrong and it's quite possible Ford's system doesn't work the same way. Still, food for thought...

I'm pretty sure one of the reasons why you should vary your speed during the engine break-in period is to allow the piston rings to seat properly. Working the accelerator pedal will vary the load on the engine, even while the CVT is adjusting ratios. It's not so much the speed that needs to change, it's the load on the engine. An internal combustion engine with properly seated rings will have better compression, with better performance and better fuel economy as a result.

I don't have automatic wipers, but every one of the last 5 cars I've owned have had rear wipers that operate whenever the front windshield wipers are on and the car is in reverse. The VWs and Audis I had would also automatically switch the front windshield wipers from continuous wiping to intermittent when you stopped and then back to continuous when you started moving again. I had a BMW with automatic wipers and I didn't like them at all. I could never get them adjusted to the right sensitivity. They were always either wiping a nearly dry windshield or they would let the windshield get dangerously obscured by raindrops before they would kick in.

And there's no combustion that happens at the electric co. power plant if it runs on hydro, geothermal, wind, solar or nuclear power!

Mine will sometimes remember the different settings for the dual zones, and sometimes not. From what I can tell, it doesn't matter is the climate is shut off with the touchscreen, the on/off button on the climate control panel or just left on when the car is shut down. When I start the car up again I never know what I'll get. There are also times when I don't have the climate system on at all, shut the car for a few minutes while out running errands, and when I start the car again the climate system will come on all by itself. This sometimes happens with the audio system as well. I've said it before- The Ford works in mysterious ways.

Another possible variable may be whether the seats had heaters. I'm not sure anyone could feel the difference, but it's possible the heated seats have a different cushioning material under the fabric.

Since my car is black, they already are the same color (well, almost). One of the reasons I chose black was to have all of the contrasting doo-dads blend in a little better.

That'll buff right out!

I had a very brief low speed black ice experience the other night. I was pulling out of the parking lot at my local Piggly Wiggly (Shop the Pig!) and I had to stop at the sign where the driveway meets the street. Little did I know that what I thought was a puddle of water was actually a sheet of ice. I slid through it for several feet with the anti-lock brakes going through their gymnastics trying to cope with the lack of traction. Fortunately there was no traffic on the street because I didn't stop completely until I was a couple of feet into the street. And this was with a set of Michelin X-Ice XI3 winter tires on the car. Does anyone else think "Black Ice Experience" would be a good name for a band?

The marking on the inside of my OEM wheel says 17" X 7" and +55mm, which I assume is the offset. I believe the bolt pattern is 5 X 108mm. The wheel also says "Made in China", which is a little unsettling to me. I've had too many bad experiences with defective aluminum die castings that our penny-pinching purchasing department tried to save a few bucks on by sourcing them from China. I don't work for Ford or any automotive company, but I do work for an American manufacturer and I hate to see my product designs compromised by the whims of these fly-by-night suppliers thousands of miles away.

I performed a master reset on my MFT last weekend to correct the calendar that lost track of the correct date at the same time the clock randomly reset itself. A master reset will erase any wallpapers you have loaded and the system reverts to the factory default.

The passenger seat in my SE will heat with the seat unoccupied, I tested it a few weeks ago. That's how I learned that the seat backs and bottoms are both heated, I felt them with my hand. Before I did that, I couldn't stand to have the heat on long enough for the seat back heater to be felt through my coat, so I assumed only the bottom cushion was heated. Even on 1 the seat bottom gets too hot for me.

It's possible that the grille shutters in the C-Max are controlled differently than they are in a Focus, but according to this collision repair training website: "The shutters are regulated by the powertrain control module (PCM), and can be set into 16 different positions, from fully closed (see Figure 2), to fully open (see Figure 3), depending on the amount of cooling air required. The grille shutter actuator receives the position commands from the PCM. The PCM determines the required positions based on inputs such as vehicle speed, coolant temperature, ambient air temperature, and air conditioning system pressure." http://pdmdev.i-car.com/html_pages/technical_information/advantage/advantage_online_archives/2011/062911.shtml

I've found with the last 3 or 4 hatchback and wagon-style cars I've owned that I get a nice refreshing breeze when I have the front and rear passenger side windows opened an inch or two. The low pressure area near the leading edge of the front window and the high pressure area at the back window work together to create a nice swirl through the cabin. The wind is at my back when I'm driving, and the wind noise is on the far side of the car. It hasn't been warm enough (It hasn't been warm AT ALL, actually.) since I got my C-Max, so I haven't had a reason to try this window opening arrangement yet, but I'm sure It'll work.

My front plate is in what I've always assumed to be the factory standard location:

The worst culprits for blinding oncoming drivers are the inexpensive HID retrofit headlamps. Unless the HID lamps are properly engineered to place the arc tube in the exact focal point of the OEM reflector/refractor system, the result is the light distribution pattern is completely destroyed. These low-budget glare bombs end up spraying light in all directions, illuminating the road, the trees and everything in between.

I just completed the same survey from RDA. I did my best to spell out all of the issues I've had with the fender re-alignment, the "incomplete" sunglass holder assembly that was replaced and all of the Sync/MFT stuff. I tried to be as honest as I could about which aspects of the car exceeded/met/didn't meet my expectations. Nothing got a perfect score from me, but nothing got a zero either. I didn't want to come off as either a fanboy or someone with an axe to grind.

In the rain you're more likely to have the windshield wipers, defroster and headlights on, so there will be an extra load on the system. And I have to think that propelling a car down the road has to be easier through dry air than through a heavy downpour, especially at highway speed. If the road is rutted, you could be pushing a lot of water out ahead of or to the sides of the tires, too.

Who sells 91 RON? In North America it is more common to use Anti-Knock Index (AKI), which is the average of the Research Octane Number (RON- the octane rating used in most of the rest of the world) and the Motor Octane Number (MON). 91 RON = about 87 AKI, which is the normal octane rating for regular unleaded gas here in the midwest. Are there retailers marking their gas pumps with RON octane ratings?

Spudnuts?

Some of us have named our cars. How about a name for C-Max enthusiasts? What should we call ourselves? C-Maxer? C-Maxiphile? C-Maximist? C-Maxican? Fred? I have more, but let's hear from you. Fun with words!

A 15" wheel actually fits on the C-Max? I have 16s with winter tires mounted now, and I see very little clearance available between the wheel and the brake caliper. I've looked at 2012-2013 Focus spare tires and jack kits on ebay. They are usually salvaged from wrecks and sold by "auto recyclers". That could be another source for the needed parts. The BMW crowd can get pre-packaged spare tire kits for those who want to ditch their run-flats and want something more than an inflator. Maybe someone will offer something similar for C-Max owners eventually.

My C-Max is a marshmallow compared to the cars I've owned recently. The only time I've noticed any harshness is when the temperature dips below zero. Then everything stiffens up- the fluid in the dampers, the rubber in the tires, the foam in the seat cushions, you name it.

Some of us are old enough to remember when a couple of bucks worth of gas was 5 gallons or more...