CMax-Traveler

What's this "service park" thing you mention? I've been looking for that... tired of getting chunks of ice rattling around under the hood from having the wipers down during a snow.

I took my car to the dealer today for regular service, they looked up and saw 13B12 was needed for my car. I had my car in previously for 13-7-10, about a month before 13B12 came out. The dealer advised me there *is* a new version of the software since they applied 13-7-10, which they loaded onto my car today. So, there's at least one data point -- while 13B12 and 13-7-10 are similar actions, based on my experience there does appear to be a newer version of the FCDIM software released with 13B12. Then again, I don't really put much faith in what my service manager says, for a variety of reasons.

I'll jump in here, since I happened to discover this recently: You can thumbs up / down using the right steering wheel controls: Thumbs up = Press and hold Seek Forward >>| Thumbs down = Press and hold Seek Back |<< Source: http://support.ford.com/sync-technology/pandora-for-sync-applink-sync

Very interesting... I was wondering about doing something like that myself since I noticed engine heat bleeding off so quickly. Only question: Is there any concern with having the engine compartment sealed off like this during the hotter/summer months?

Any idea why they replaced the shock rather than follow this TSB procedure?

It was about a month ago now, and no signs of the problem returning.

This isn't new?? TSB 13-7-10 - 12-VOLT BATTERY DISCHARGED - WILL NOT HOLD CHARGE - RADIO WITH 4.2-INCH DISPLAY ONLY - BUILT ON OR BEFORE 6/21/2013 Looks like they may have updated it to include 6/22 as the build date?

I had that problem with the left front strut.... odd rattling/clunking noise from the left front when going slowly over bumps. This isn't a new TSB, but apparently was updated to include the rear as well. Took my car in for service and this TSB procedure did fix my problem. Hooray. As for whether the fix lasts, who knows.

Why didn't I have to reset everything after my battery died and I had to have it jumped, then?

I've always taken my magnetic ones off. Not willing to take a chance.

Got my car back from the dealer, they replaced the 12V battery and did a bunch of reprogramming (not exactly sure of what). But I lost my EV+ locations and my MyView settings again. At any rate, crossing my fingers that solves my dead battery problem.

After I put mine on, I went down a fairly dusty dirt road at ~30mph, and I had piles of dirt on the back bumper and under the liftgate afterward. It was a little ridiculous how much accumulated. No clue how it would've compared to beforehand, though, since I hadn't tortured the car with a dirt road like that one. Then again, maybe that was too slow for the pods to make a difference. But I'm still skeptical on that one.

Welcome to the forum! :) I just posted this to another thread... but I've discovered having the heater on when you first get in will automatically kick on the ICE. Which is not necessarily ideal, given it doesn't heat much for a while anyway. So I just leave it off for a little bit, until the ICE would normally kick on anyway during my drive. Saved me a bunch of MPGs early on in the drive. For displays... the Empower display is the best for really maximizing your MPGs because it gives you the most feedback on when you'll switch between ICE / EV mode. The only other displays I use are the trip displays, and then I have My View set to the power consumption on the left and the engine temp on the right, just because I like info. But I rarely flip from Empower. On the Fuel History display: yes, the left column is the most recent time period. It's not instantaneous MPGs, though -- if you have it set for 1m intervals, it would be the previous clock minute, not the previous 60-seconds. It only changes once per minute. For learning the car, I like to reset the Empower MPG display daily when I get into the car -- that gives me immediate feedback on how I'm doing. Then I use Trip 1 for each gas tank and then Trip 2 for any trips I want to measure. Make sure your dealer reset your lifetime average (or reset it yourself) so you don't have all of the test drive stuff in there. As for other suggestions... there are a lot of posts in the Hybrid Driving Tips & Tricks forum, I'd try reading some of those (ex: here and here), learn your car by driving for a while, then if you have any specific questions, stop on by and ask! It took me quite a while to figure it out, but once I did, I started getting really great gas mileage. And as fotomoto said, yes, an engine block heater should improve your MPGs because it will leave you with a shorter warm-up period when the ICE is forced on. But it sounded like getting one installed is a bit pricey -- if you go that route, let us know! Again, welcome, and have fun!

Hmm, that wasn't it ... it was in an article somewhere... but good to see my memory wasn't too far off! Awesome, thanks for the link! Always love learning more! :)

Adair - the CA blend switch date was mentioned in this article that I had seen back from the refinery outages last year. Not sure about Michigan, but it's entirely possible. If having the heater on forces the ICE to run, the ICE is running all the time -- even when it would normally be in EV mode (like when you're coasting, or sitting at a stop light / stop sign). So, having the ICE on, burning fuel to warm the engine, dramatically lowers the MPGs in the early part of a trip. Especially if you're sitting still or would otherwise be in EV. Typically, after the initial warm-up cycle (which 13B07 shortened), the ICE is allowed to shut off, so the vehicle goes into EV mode as needed, like normal. But the heater apparently prevents (or delays?) that until the engine is warmed. Once the engine is warmed up, I don't think it makes much of a difference. Does that make sense? I'm not sure if that clarified things or made it worse... I'm also talking anecdotally here, I don't know what the car is actually doing, only what I've observed so far.

I read somewhere that switching from 5W-20 to 0W-20 gives roughly a 1-2% FE improvement in colder temperatures. I wish I knew where I read that though. Either way, it's probably not enough to be noticeable, esp. with the difference in cost since 0W-20 only comes in full-synthetic (except for the Honda OEM 0W-20 blend -- which is why I always had to get my Civic serviced at the dealer or spend $70/oil change). Be careful though, b/c dealers have been known to test the oil if there's any question on a warranty claim, and if it's the wrong grade, void the warranty. Also, probably just a typo, but make sure it's 5W-20, not 5W-30. I just learned this today... (Thanks Wikipedia!) The difference between 5W-20 and 0W-20 is only on the "winter" grade portion (motor oils are multi-grade, the xxW part is the "winter" grade, the other part is the non-winter grade). So you'd only really see a difference in colder temperatures. jmckinley - I believe the recommendation for the C-Max is at least every 10000 miles (b/c the hybrid engine runs less often) or every year. But I'm planning on going with whatever the oil monitor tells me.

I just looked it up, supposedly CA doesn't switch to the winter blend until Oct 31st, except for last year due to the refinery outages when they switched mid-October... But the switch to winter blend does usually cause a 5% drop in mpg in all cars. Anyone have any more recent info from CA? I don't think a 95% versus 97% brake score would make that much of a difference. I wouldn't imagine you'd start noticing a sizable MPG hit unless you're sub-90% on the brake score. Without knowing more specifics, my guess would be the change is due to the warm-up cycle for the engine. Is your engine staying on longer? My MPGs have dropped a little bit too, but I've been able to mostly counteract them by changing my habits a little bit. I've noticed two things: 1) The engine warm-up time (when the ICE is forced to be on) gets longer as it gets colder outside. If the outside temp is <60, I've noticed a minute or two longer in the first warm-up cycle. Since there's a stop light just down the street, I just do my best to get to the light on battery (which meant turning off EV+ so I have a higher battery level in the morning), so my ICE warm-up cycle is while I'm driving rather than sitting at a light. 2) I also noticed that if I have my heater on when I start the car and it's set >10 degrees higher than the outside temperature, the ICE turns on almost right away and doesn't shut off until the engine is fully warmed up. So I've just started turning off the heat when I first get in the car (and always wearing gloves!), then turning it back on during the second ICE cycle -- the heater doesn't do much anyway for the first few minutes anyway... Doing those two things has effectively gotten me back to close to my summer MPGs. Adair - I'm with you on the coat and gloves thing, grrrrrrrr... I'm definitely not looking forward to the drop below freezing that's forecast later this week!

Adair, Yeah, thanks... I'm still planning on trying to stick around. The C-Max is actually my second hybrid, and I'm doing some pretty amazing things with this car... much of which is thanks to what I've learned on this forum from :worship: Jus, Matt, ptjones, and others. I'm at the point where I get disappointed at any sub-50mpg trip. :happy feet: It's fun to share successes and great to help new owners learn about their new cars. But... when you have a legitimate question / problem, and there's someone who :airquote: knows everything and you know nothing and they're not even willing to listen to an alternative point of view, it saps your motivation to post, because you run the risk of being given a half-answer and being told (directly or indirectly) how dumb you are for even needing to ask in the first place. No thanks. :banghead: I'm only posting this because I really did enjoy my first several months around here, most everyone here is awesome, and you guys have done a great job of building this forum. But I don't want the whole atmosphere here to be spoiled by a few (or by one).

This is very unfortunate... I hate to see this kind of thing happen. But I have to agree, a couple of things happened here over the past several days that have made me feel not especially welcome here or interested in continuing to be active on this forum either. I hope it can be resolved to everyone's satisfaction soon, because I think this should be a great forum for owners of a great car.

Ok, I decided to jump in and try out the Gas Pods since I'm going to start doing a lot more highway driving, and my highway mileage is not what i'd like it to be. I figure there can't be a placebo effect for me, since any placebo effect would already be in effect because of just having a C-Max in the first place and already trying to maximize MPGs. So far, I have results from two real-life tests: First, right after getting them, I did a 21.5-mile round-trip 65mph highway test using the Eco Cruise, once without, and once with the Gas Pods. Same day so same conditions, and I started the first test after the full warm up. Without: 43.5mpg / With: 44.8mpg So there was an improvement, but not a massive improvement. Then, two weekends in a row, I took the same 250mi round-trip from Boston to NH. The first was before I had the gas pods, the second was with them installed. Both were on a fresh tank of gas. Highway speeds ranged between 65 and 72, and while I don't usually use the cruise on long trips, I also don't have the patience to P&G. Without: 41.6mpg / With: 44.7mpg The only differences between the two trips were: I had the headlights on the entire first trip, but the exterior temperature was around 60 on the second trip vs 65 on the first (we used no climate controls on either trip). Based on my experience so far, it seems like there may be an improvement, maybe somewhere around 5%, but it's difficult to tell. But if the trend holds, it would take about 10,000 highway miles to recoup the investment. I can't tell if there's any difference in my city driving -- I haven't done enough of it lately, and my mileage has suffered a bit due to colder temps.

I don't suppose you can power this quick charger off of the 120VAC outlet in the car when the 12V battery is dead? I don't have an outlet near my car, besides the one that's inside it. If not, I may be better off getting a battery-operated jump starter. What's the minimum amperage I should go for on a jump starter - I can't imagine it's much.

I've enjoyed joining all of the "clubs" on the forum. But the "Dead 12v Battery" club is one I didn't want to join. Unfortunately, I had to have the Ford roadside assistance come and jump my car. So, the car is going into the dealer on Tuesday for a slew of repairs that I've been holding off on. Anyone have a suggestion on an inexpensive portable jump starter? I feel like I should have one on-hand just in case -- if the jump starter is inexpensive, it's worth it for the peace of mind.

Hi, I'm assuming i'm doing something stupid. I have the setting to auto-update my contact list from my phone turned on. But it's not updating -- contacts added to my phone since I first downloaded them to the car are not available. I've also tried to find a manual re-download function but couldn't find it. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Ditto for me, Adair, unless the math was just too much to be eligible. BTW, I edited my post to add the EV miles.

Congrats MTB! Knew you could do it, and I'm sure you can do 650. (BTW, I use Flickr for photos because I've always had this type of issue with Photobucket)