ptjones

When you make your next trip 10+miles keep track of mileage on GPS and odometer to see the difference devide odometer into GPS mileage to get percentage. Everyone so far has been 1.5% or more.

Nothing unusual just stopped. Restarted and everything was normal, I didn't try to start ICE figuring that was a bad idea if I didn't need to. I'm thinking 12.5gal is safe,12.7gal OK but anymore is in the error factor and wouldn't do it unless I had a can of gas.

Looks like you are doing a good job. What outside temps? Have you filled up yet? Don't forget to check your odometer with GPS.

Actually I'm not a big fan of gas fumes (2gal gas container) in my CMAX. No sweat involved but I was really wondering if it was ever going to run out of gas(I went 20mi farther than I though I go) and there was no notice it just stopped. I intentionally drove around roads where there was plenty of room to get off the road to use my 2gal container in an emergency, which didn't happen. :)

Gee I live south west of Atlanta 30mi off I85 maybe our paths will cross someday you think. BTW I think your CMAX would look great with Grill Covers on it. :)

I meant to put it in my post, approximately 35mi pass ZERO Miles to empty.

I ran out off gas on purpose to find out how much the gas tank holds. I came up with 13.86gal on the first click filling slowly. Car was reasonally level and trip gauge read 590mi corrected to 599mi, 13.09gal. 13.86gal actual, 320.4mi EV, 45mpg, actual 43.2mpg (40's rainy cold weather). I was prepared for the worst with 2gal can in trunk but ran out couple hundred yards from gas station. I EVed it to station. When you run out you get message in RED that states STOP SAFELY then ICE dies and your on EV. What next happens I'm not sure about because I had to turn right into parking lot to turn around to go across the street to gas station. When I stopped to backup the car acted dead. I didn't floor it but instead I put it in park and turned it off and back on. At that point everything acted normal and I EVed it across the street to gas pumps. I would say I got lucky on that one and could have turned out to more of a problem. Now we know pretty close to what the tank holds. :)

Sounds like the 12v battery is low, did they check the battery voltage when it was dead? Could use volt meter and see how many Milliamps the car is drawing with everything off. Did the car sit for a day or two when the battery was dead? Maybe the battery fan stayed on or something.

Which model Saris?Picture?Thanks BONES 3-Bike, I'll work on picture later. Top pads at top of window and bottom pads license plate area.

Did they mention anything about the possibility of charging our battery at home or work with 110VAC? I'm amazed that they haven't thought about using this forum as an resource instead of spending all that money on get together. Great Job!

I use a SARIS and the trunk can go up and down with out the bike on it.

Jus-A-CMax great Job it looks like you covered a lot of ground. And it sounds like you were prepared for them. Did you happen to show them my graph on how MPG's change with outside temps?

I have a SARIS , three bike rack on the back of my CMAX and it works fine.

It would appear that FORD has stupid covered, they just turn the engine off. :)

I have 14k mi on my CMAX now, made trip to SF and back (5.5k mi.) and averaged 42.6MPG. I bought mine in Oct.

I meant to say inaccurate. I would hate to put the engine into that situation just to find out if it is true.

I think it is safe to say that some of the info we get from FORD tech people is totally inaccurate. He said we should get a message on Smart gauge with water temp symbol. When FORD Tech people give miss info on shutters you don't know what to believe without testing everything.

I still have only seen one in 14k miles, 4 months and one at Dealer being worked on.

I just got this from my FORD Service Mgr.: Fail Safe Cooling A strategy called Fail Sage Cooling is Built into the PCM that will control the engine if it starts to overheat. Stage 1 of the strategy commences if the engine starts to overheat. The CHT sensor transmits a signal to the PCM, which moves the temperature gauge pointer into the red one. I the engine is not switched off and the temperature continues to rise, the Powetrain Check Lamp is illuminated. This indicates to the driver that the engine is approaching critical limits and should be stopped. At this point DTC P1285 is set in the PCM which can be retrieved using a scan tool. Stage 2 of the strategy commences if the lamp and temperature gauge are ignored by the driver NOTE:. The PCM will start to control the engine be cutting out 2 cylinder and restricting the RPM to below 3,000 RPM. Simultaneously the MIL illuminates. This indicates that long term engine damage can occur and vehicle emissions will be affected. At this point DTC P1299 is set in the PCM which can be retrieved using a scan tool. Air is drawn into the deactivated cylinders. This helps to control the temperature of the engine internal components. The deactivated cylinders are alternated to allow even cooling of all the cylinders. NOTE: If the driver is using a high percentage of throttle travel (for example, an overtaking maneuver) when the PCM starts engine deactivation (Stage 2), the deactivation will be delayed for 10 seconds. NOTE: After 2-cylinder operation has begun, the engine will not revert to 4-cylinder operation, ever if the temperature should fall, until the ignition is switched off and then on again. NOTE: The MIL can only be extinguished by using a scan tool after the fault has been rectified and the DTC cleared. Stage 3 of the strategy will commence if the engine temperature continues to rise. This results in the engine being totally disabled before major engine damage or seizure occurs. The Power train Check Lamp will begin to flash, indication to the driver that the engine will be switched off after 30 seconds. This allows the driver time to choose a suitable parking place. So I don't see that Grill Covers restrict any of these Stages from happening.

In my case the speedometer reads 70mph when actual is 69mph yet odometer is 1.5% less than actually traveled.

The covers don't keep CMAX safety operations from working, that's the main thing.

The only way to accurately compare trip/odometer to actual distance is with a portable GPS. Set both to Zero and go at least 20-30mi or a hundred would be easy to see the difference.

You didn't say what temps have been, if 30-40's that's about right without covers. You would gain 2-4mpg with covers and do you have a ScanGauge? It would be helpful in seeing what the ICE temps are. Also have you checked you odometer with portable GPS, everyone so far have been off by 1.5% or more which is about .5mpg to the better. Here a funny thing but I get better MPG's with tennis shoes than hard sole shoes. :) Do you use Pulse and Glide? Just some ideas that work to improve MPG's.

Thanks Ken

BTW Grill Cover owners you probably should remover covers before going thru car wash, they use very high pressure water and air to clean and dry car which have blown covers off. No damage to covers so far, they very strong.