BobJustBob

No one has ever said anything like this to me. My commute to work is only 8.6 miles, so almost all my driving is short distances. I wonder if the C-Max owners who are experiencing the battery problems are those whose typical driving patterns involve short trips. I have a trickle-charger for the battery. I've been thinking of hooking it up, say, every Friday evening in an attempt to prevent any more dead batteries.

I am happy for you owners who have had positive experiences so far. I, unfortunately, am one of the many owners who has experienced the 12v battery going dead multiple times. This is such a serious problem that Ford really has to come up with an answer. I love my C-Max but have to face reality: a car that won't start reliably is worthless.

That is my impression, as well. Ford really doesn't know what is causing this problem. They have tried software updates, blamed electrical connectors, and now they have replaced jchaddpete's wiring harness. I truly hope they can figure this out and get it fixed. I love my C-Max, but this is such a serious problem that it is ruining the way I feel about the car.

I received my check today.

I know exactly how you feel. In a few minutes I am going to call Ford Roadside Assistance to come jump my battery, which has gone dead for the fourth time (twice in March, once in August, and now today's incident). Like you, I thought the application of TSB 13-5-1 in May fixed the problem. However, it resurfaced in August, about 10 days after I had the "Customer Service" 13B07 applied (the one which supposedly leads to better gas mileage). So, I am left wondering if 13B07 somehow negated the fix which 13-5-1 accomplished. All I can say is, it is tremendously frustrating. Like you, I really like my C-Max, but I have to face reality: a car that won't start reliably is worthless. I, too, am thinking of invoking my state's (Pennsylvania) lemon law.

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression" Thousands of potential Ford customers will never consider Ford because the news is out that Ford lied about the gas mileage of the C-Max. Period. Those are lost sales that Ford will never win back. There is nothing more valuable to a company than its reputation. Ford should have considered this very seriously before deciding to "stretch the truth" about the gas mileage of the C-Max.

Wow, what a wonderful tool! Off course, I knew that the reason my gas mileage on my commute home was so poor was because it is an uphill climb, but seeing it in graphical form really hit home. It looks like I am climbing straight up a cliff!

On this forum, at least one other C-Max owner has reported such an incident. I consider this an extremely serious bug, since having one's car die in traffic puts the occupants in extreme danger. Ford has to get this problem fixed!

Sorry to hear that, Cowspotdog. I, too, have had three dead batteries. It is very frustrating. The really frustrating thing about it is that I haven't been able to spot any kind of pattern leading up to the dead batteries, so I don't have any inkling as to what is causing the problem. Some have suggested a problem with electrical connections, but I don't think that is the cause in my case. We had the wettest summer on record here in southeastern Pennsylvania, and the one dead battery I suffered then was during a relatively dry period. The other two dead batteries occurred in late March, before the wet weather of the the summer.

Because I do so little highway driving, I had not seen any noticeable improvement in FE after the upgrade--until this week. We've been experiencing an early autumn cold spell in Pennsylvania, and the temperature has been in the mid-40's the last two days as I departed for work in the morning. My unscientific impression is that I am getting slightly better gas mileage than I would have had I not gotten the upgrade. Both days I got in the mid 50's mpg range going to work (my drive is primarily downhill going to work). Since the upgrade, I've been keeping track of my mileage going to work on a spreadsheet. I'll have to post that soon. Unfortunately, I started keeping track only after getting the upgrade, so I don't have hard numbers to back up my impression.

My goodness, that is terrible! Ford is going to have to re-badge the C-Max and call it the Edsel II.

Cowspotdog and ThenaMac, Sorry to hear that both of you have joined the club no C-Max owner wants to be a part of--the "Dead Battery Club." I feel your pain--I've experienced three so far, two within the same week late in March. Then, I got the 13-5-1 TSB applied, and that seemed to fix the problem. However, 10 days after getting the 13B07 "Customer Satisfaction" upgrade applied during the first week in August, I suffered my third dead battery. ** Ouch **. I wish Ford would finally fix this problem once and for all.

You lose your EV+ settings after the update. If you want to quickly establish a location for EV+, you can start, and then stop, your engine 11 times at that location (while sitting in your driveway, for instance). I did this following the update in my driveway at home and in the parking lot at work. Works like a charm. As for the upgrade, it has not made a noticeable difference in my gas mileage. Only about 40% of my daily commute to the office is on the highway, so I guess I could not expect to see much of an improvement there. I am keeping my fingers crossed that when the cold winter weather arrives, the changes for the grille shutters will make a noticeable change. The cold temperatures really killed my gas mileage last winter (I live in Pennsylvania).

salman, I believe you may be onto something. My brother, who is a mechanical engineer, said something similar. It's as if the C-Max is hypersensitive to just the slightest deviation from full charge.

I don't understand the reasoning behind attacking Consumer Reports. They honestly reported the mileage they achieved during their review of the vehicle. I believe their goal was to describe the mileage they achieved without using any special hypermileing techniques. For instance, many of the posters in this thread have only recently purchased their C-Max's. Thus, they have been driving them only during the warm weather. What they are going to find out is that the C-Max--like most hybrids--is extremely sensitive to the ambient air temperature. For instance, I am now routinely getting 60+ mpg during my 9 mi commute to work in the morning. However, during the coldest part of last winter, there was about a 10-day period in late January when I was getting in the very low 30 mpg range for the same commute, and this was even with intentionally not running the heater and nearly freezing to death during the morning ride. Hopefully the recent 13B07 upgrade will help with this. The bottom line: I believe the Fuelly reporting on the C-Max's gas mileage is probably pretty accurate. It currently lists the C-Max's gas mileage as around 40 mpg, with a pretty large distribution. My own Fuelly mpg has only recently got into the 38 mpg range, and I consider myself to be fairly skilled at driving the C-Max. However, I live in a very hilly area, and one that has a fairly long, fairly cold winter. Not everyone is going to achieve 47 mpg--that's just reality. And it's not because we have some sort of vendetta against the C-Max.

rickyu, Sorry to hear that you are now a member of "the club." I suffered my third dead battery last Monday (8/12). The whole situation is terribly frustrating. I suffered two dead batteries within one week in late March. Then, I had the 13-5-1 TSB applied the first week in May, and that seemed to fix the problem. Then, the first week in August, I had the 13B07 upgrade installed, and 10 days later suffered the third dead battery. This has left me wondering if somehow the 13B07 upgrade "reversed" the effect of the 13-5-1 TSB. All I know is, I like the C-Max overall, but this battery problem is killing my enjoyment of the vehicle. I hope Ford solves this once and for all soon.

Wow, nsteblay, thank you for the highly informative post! I feel as though I just received a "graduate level course" in the C-Max for free. I think I am going to be able to use some of the information in this post to boost my gas mileage a bit.

I live in southeastern Pennsylvania. I bought my C-Max in late November of last year, so I drove it throughout the winter. We had a pretty mild winter, with only three or four snowfalls that amounted to much, 3" - 4" each. My C-Max performed fine in those conditions. My previous vehicle had AWD (a Hyundai Santa Fe), so I was very conservative the first couple of times I took the C-Max out in the snow. If I lived in an area that normally gets a lot of snow in the winter, I would get snow tires for the winter.

I had my third dead battery today. The other two were in March. I had TSB 13-5-1 installed the first week in May. That seemed to fix the problem. I had the 13B07 upgrade installed on 8/1--now, the dead battery problem has reemerged. This has left me wondering if the 13B07 upgrade is somehow responsible for the reemergence of the battery problem. This is terribly frustrating.

**Sigh**. Well, I had my third dead battery today (8/12). My previous two were in March (3/20 and 3/25). I had hoped that the application of TSB 13-5-1 had solved this problem for good. I had the 13B07 upgrade installed on 8/1; now, I am left wondering if that somehow caused the battery problem to reemerge. Here's the really strange part. I got my brother to jump-start my car this morning when I discovered the dead battery. I was then able to drive to work and to drive home at the end of the workday. When I got home, I hitched up a battery "trickle-charger" (a DelTran "Battery Tender Plus") to ensure my battery got fully charged. Well, it took only 40 minutes for the light on the charger to turn steady green, indicating the battery was completely charged. My brother, who is an engineer, states that it is unlikely my 9 mi commute and a 40-minute charge would fully charge a completely discharged battery. So, what the heck is really going on? What a mess!

What I am observing is that, before the upgrade, I absolutely could never experience EV above 62 mph. Now, after the upgrade, I can get it into EV mode at highway speeds if I am not accelerating at all. If I am going downhill, it will remain in EV longer. If the road is flat, it will get into EV but not stay there for long--I have to continually "pulse and glide". Since my commute is mostly city driving, I am not sure how much this aspect of the upgrade will help my overall gas mileage. I am hoping that the part of the upgrade which changes the behavior of the grille shutters with regard to temperature has a big impact, since the cold winter weather here in Pennsylvania really took a toll on my gas mileage this past winter.

Man, I am fuming--I got my first parking lot ding this week. What makes it worse is that I probably could have avoided it. I had just parked in the parking lot of a strip shopping center. The space to my left was open. As I was shutting-off my engine and unclipping my seat belt, a large, white van came down the next aisle over, turned, and drove through the parking space in his row and pulled into the space to my left. I am sure he did this so that he would not have to back up when he left--he could just pull forward out of his spot. As he pulled into that spot I thought, "Boy, that van is huge. There isn't much space between his vehicle and mine. If I were smart, I would move right now." However, the driver of the van exited his vehicle very quickly, and he seemed to take care as he opened his door, so I didn't move my vehicle and instead went about my business. When I came out, the van was gone. I didn't think anything more of it, I loaded my purchase into the rear cargo area, and I drove home. The next morning, when I came out to drive to work, I noticed some white material on my left, rear, wheel well. I didn't think too much of it at the time, since there is a large maple tree right next to the driveway, and during the spring and summer months I occasionally get bird droppings on my vehicle. This material on my car looked exactly like some bird droppings, so I did not think any more about it. I got in my car and drove to work. (This was two days ago.) Yesterday, while at work, we got a couple of brief, fairly intense, thunderstorms. When I got home from work I happened to glance at the rear of my car as I was getting my computer bag out of the back of the car, and I noticed that the white material was still there. "That's odd, I thought--it rained hard enough to have washed away any bird droppings." My driveway points to the west, and the sun was low enough in the sky so that the sunlight was hitting the rear of my car at a narrow angle. As I took a closer look at the wheel well, I could now see that it was dimpled. That's when I realized that I had got a "parking lot ding", and the white material near it was vehicle paint. I flashed-back to the parking lot of a couple of days ago and realized that the van driver must have hit me with his driver's side door when he got back in his vehicle. Aaaaarg! Oh well, my C-Max is almost nine months old--I realize it was not going to stay pristine forever. It is irritating, though, especially when I realize that by taking an extra minute or so I could have avoided it. The dimple is slightly larger than nickel-sized. Fortunately, the wheel well is lower on the vehicle, so it is not as noticeable as if it were near the "beltline" of the vehicle near a door. However, the white paint around it does make it a bit more noticeable (my C-Max's color is Silver Ingot). There is a well-regarded body shop about four miles from where I live. I may take my vehicle over there some time and get an estimate on how much it would cost to get this removed. (At the very least, I am curious if they could remove the white paint. This would make the dimple almost unnoticeable under most lighting conditions.)

Every C-Max owner has to do what he feels is right for him. Although I've been a little disappointed in the numerous issues which have cropped-up with the C-Max, it was not enough to make me consider getting rid of it. For instance, my battery went dead twice within a week this past March. I made sure I was first in line at my dealership to get the TSB installed (130501) which supposedly addresses this, and I haven't had a dead battery since. I've been a little disappointed in the gas mileage (my current lifetime mpg is 38.4 according to the display), so I made sure to get the 13B07 upgrade installed as soon as it became available. I also got the 13C02 recall (headliner fix) done at the same time. I think Ford has been very proactive in addressing these issues. I also don't think that the number of issues is excessive given the highly technical design of the car and the fact that it is in the first year of production. So far the pluses outweigh the drawbacks, at least for me. Every owner has to make these kind of decisions for himself based upon his own experience.

I got the two updates (13B07 and 13C02) installed this past Thursday. Unfortunately, we were experiencing torrential rains that day in my area, so I was not able to test the 13B07 upgrade at highway speeds. I was able to conduct a couple of short (6 mi) tests at highway speeds last evening. I was able to get into EV mode at 70 mph. As others have noted, the C-Max is just as sensitive to acceleration as it ever was. However, once I got up to 70 mph, if I hit a flat section or one with a downhill pitch, all I had to do was let up on the gas pedal a little and it went right into EV mode and stayed there until I had to accelerate again. So, basically we can now do our favorite "pulse and glide" routine at highway speeds! :happy feet: Over the long term, I bet this adds at least two-to-three mpg to my lifetime gas mileage. Perhaps it will add even more, since I won't be able to see how the changes to the grille shutter behavior affect the mileage until the cold weather hits in late autumn.

Well, I got the 13B07 and 13C02 updates installed today. It took two hours. I was lucky--the service adviser told me that they received a new shipment of the components for the 13C02 (headliner fix) recall just last night, so they were able to proceed with that. He told me it involved installing some more sound-deadening material in the headliner which will provide extra cushioning should one ever experience a rollover. Unfortunately, it is raining cats-and-dogs today, so I won't be able to test the 13B07 upgrade to see if I can stay in EV mode at much higher highway speeds. I am keeping my fingers crossed--my lifetime mpg is currently at 38.4. I really, really, want to get into at least the low 40's in order to feel that my faith in buying the C-Max was justified.