CAcreeks

Thanks Shaay, Raadsel, and Plus 3 Golfer. I'll be visiting the dealer soon for my 40K oil change. Inaccurate AM/FM display bothered me this month mostly because Howard Stern was on vacation.

AM FM frequency display incorrect after change by voice command. Is this still not fixed? MySync claims the last update was April 2013 and there is no newer version - hard to believe.

Interesting that my browser shows "Grand C-Max with spa" as the subject title. Room for hot tub! I will post pix of my car with rowing frame on top, eventually.

I don't need a 7 seater now that my kids are grown up (we had a Volvo 850 wagon). I need cargo space for camping gear! The current C-Max is large enough for 3 kayakers but it would be nice to have room for 4, and a spare tire for peace of mind. Thanks for the reminder that the UK uses Imperial(ist) gallons.

Thanks for the help! I will buy an ODB scanner, only $18 on Amazon. Going to Auto Zone or Pep Boys would waste a lot of gasoline, especially since Ford downgraded the EPA mileage estimates on the C-Max. ;)

The Grand C-Max is available in the UK and perhaps elsewhere in Europe. It is 14cm (5") longer than the regular C-Max. One option is a diesel motor that gets 60 MPG, on the highway presumably. The diesel would probably not meet California emission requirements. Oh well, I would rather have a gasoline hybrid, which is superior for mixed city/highway driving. Reviews here: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ford/grand-c-max http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/ford/grand-c-max-mpv/summary/25953-7 I think the regular C-Max engine is strong enough for more weight. I would love to have a Grand C-Max hybrid with full size spare tire! My wife could replace her old Prius with my C-Max, and I could take the Grand C-Max on road trips.

I am posting this in case it helps somebody else. There are similar problems posted, but not identical to this. A few days ago after power-on, a message appeared saying "See Owner's Manual" and I had to press OK before getting the ready to drive message. Several times before this, during power-on the Sync system said "shutting down to save power" and then "performing routine maintenance" or similar. So it seems there was some kind of battery problem, although the Alerts screen said nothing about it. Anyhow, I kept driving back and forth to work, until my key fob could no longer open the doors. It being Thanksgiving, the Ford dealer was closed, so I disconnected the auxiliary battery. This is the 2nd time I have done that in 24,000 miles. Battery disconnect solved the problem, but the Check Engine light (below) appeared until this morning, when everything went back to normal. I will start carrying a wrench from our old Volvo's repair kit in case this happens again when I'm on the road. Is there a way to get the code for the Check Engine error?

So without Gracenotes it just goes 1 2 3 4 (01 02 03 04) etc? Good advice. I wonder whether that will also make Shuffle more random.

We have iTunes on the PC, but I used Linux (Banshee) to convert CD audio to MP3. I did not know that MP3 files can contain album art! Seems wasteful of space because of repetition, but could explain why some songs show cover art and others do not. Thanks.

Sometimes album cover art appears with a song, and sometimes it does not. The music category appears instead. When I made the SD card, I simply copied folders of artists and albums onto the card. There is no album art on my SD card. Next time, where can I put the album art so it plays with every song in an album? Thanks.

Thanks, Rebecca. I'll try that if it ever happens again. That looks like the page I visited when renewing Sirius XM service. Probably Windows CE and the Entertainment applications have memory leaks. After disconnecting the battery, I noticed that radio stations would display their real frequency instead of "403" or the wrong frequency, as often happened previously.

Last week the radio screen said "Sirius update 0%" and nothing Entertainment related worked, including voice commands. I tried rebooting with Master Reset, but it did not help. So I called my Ford dealer and a helpful service guy advised me to temporarily disconnect the auxiliary battery. That solved the problem! In the attached photo, the disconnect point is the one nut to the left, not the two nuts down below. This battery is located under the tray in the back. Anybody else seen this? I could not find a post about it.

> Is there a voice command to get back to the main/home screen? "Main screen turn on." Joke! This is a reference to the parody video, All Your Base Are Belong to Us. Thanks for your suggestion, Rebecca. Since my Ford dealer upgraded Sync, the Entertainment screen is not as necessary as it was before. Now, all the important radio-station or song-track info appears on lower left. I still prefer red Entertainment colors, though.

QNX in Volkswagen? I looked at Passat diesel before buying the C-Max and was not impressed with console look and feel. However I bet QNX can tune radio stations and display the actual frequency instead of 404, or whatever HTTP(?) error Sync displays. My greatest disappointment with C-Max infotainment is the lack of a progress bar on songs, as in iTunes.

Is there a voice command to select the Entertainment screen? It would be equivalent to pressing the lower left corner of the SYNC screen. I am afraid to wear out the touchscreen, pressing it so often in that spot. If nobody knows, I will ask on the Sync forum. Thanks. BTW, after a recent firmware upgrade, I am much happer with AM/FM radio tuning!

Hopefully everybody has noticed that sound quality from the SD card, even with MP3 encoding, is vastly superior to Sirius/XM. You can put WAV files on the card for better high-frequency response. Hard to believe I got this sound system in a $23K car.

Thanks for the info and good joke. I can create an account and login to Ford.com to check if an update is available. Speaking of MS updates, here is a relevant cartoon that made me laugh. http://www.stickycomics.com/wp-content/uploads/update_for_your_computer.jpg

Is this forum run by Ford, or independently? If the former, hope my question does not get squelched. We can probably all tell that Microsoft Sync is full of bugs. Losing AM/FM presets, wrong station being identified, difficulty indexing an iPod, etc. Fortunately SiriusXM works well and Howard Stern is a hoot! Anyway, is there any hope that these bugs will eventually get fixed? Should I be asking this question on the Sync forum?

Regarding NTFS: I reformatted an old camera SD card with NTFS, but Ford Sync by Microsoft could not read it. Reformatted with FAT32 and it works now. I guess NTFS is not supported for USB. It is nice to use the SD card instead of an iPod, thus avoiding battery charging issues. (Added because this thread came up in Google search and misled me into thinking NTFS is supported.)

Recumpence: I agree, it is really easy to get > 50 mpg in town. Unlike the Prius, the C-Max does not waste gas warming up the engine. (Is this an advantage of the Atkinson cycle engine?) So short trips under 10 minutes do not have the Prius penalty that results in 25 mpg approximately. Now I am getting over 50 mpg commuting to work.

Glad to hear. Maybe the wind was always at your back? I really don't understand how Consumer Reports got only 37 mpg. Even with a lead foot it seems impossible. Seems like you are getting about 45 highway 48 city. What's your tire pressure?

After only 1200 miles, I think the proper EPA ratings should be around 44 highway 48 city. But I might change my mind! Is that better than the Prius V wagon? Yes it is. The Prius V is rated 40 highway 44 city. Maybe Toyota improved the cruise control in gen 4, but the Ford Eco cruise control does better than I can do, unlike Prius gen 3 cruise control. I find a big difference at 70 mph depending on headwind vs tailwind, but agree with 42-45 in calm conditions. Sometimes I think the car magazines have been bribed by Toyota etc.

Well, despite it being more fun to drive, I guess the C-max is never going to get 50 MPG average, like the Prius gen2 can, although I seem to be getting close to the EPA 47 rating, which is a good trade off for quietness and comfort. It is baffling why Consumer Reports only got 37. I should go back and read their road test report again.

Certainly the C-max is quieter and more comfortable, but I mean fuel mileage. (We also have a 2007 Prius.) The C-max EPA numbers are lower, but... On < 10 minute trips the Prius is terrible because it wants to warm up the engine, so 25 MPG is typical. The C-max seems happy in electric mode with very little engine use. Short trips on flat ground can easily get over 60 MPG. Coming downhill from work yesterday I got 85 MPG. The Prius is also quite poor when heavily loaded and going highway speeds into the wind. I remember one trip where I could not get 40 MPG unless I drove very close behind a big-rig (not always possible) so the trip averaged 35. Whereas on a recent trip into a stiff wind both ways (due to weather change), my new C-max averaged 41. I guess the Prius may win for freeway traffic jams, where it excels. Maybe the EPA city testing is similar to those conditions. But for suburban driving, my C-max seems to be doing better than 47, and better than our Prius, which is a surprise given all I had read.