John Sparks

Yeah. I just compared the the front seal and it is definitely longer. I don't think the rear seal has changed but I guess it wouldn't make much difference. I feel confident these mods can be applied to the 13 model. I would believe that the rear glass molding would be the easiest. I'm almost certain it's just stuck on. What I'm wondering is if the CVT can be reprogrammed to reach the better final drive ratio or if it's a physical change and the 13 isn't capable of it. I mean we are talking constant variable here so it could be possible. Okay so I got to looking and on the Escape it appear to be part of the glass. If any of you want to look around for yourself, you can pull up Fords parts catalogue at: http://www.fordparts.com/Default.aspx

I don't see any difference in the hood seals, granted I haven't put them side-by-side, maybe I should try that one day when I'm not doing anything here at work but I see no difference. I've looked through the parts catalogue here at work I have checked body>lift gate / hatch / rear glass. I see no reference to the rear glass molding. There's even detailed schematics and it's not there so, I don't know when it will be available. Has to be at some point soon because I'm sure someone's going to have to replace one sooner or later.

I'll get some more pictures. It has the same molding on the rear window as the Escape. I thought I got a picture of it yesterday but I guess not. Here ya go. You guys let me know if you want more.

First 14 Cmax dropped today. Won't be able to take it out for a drive till next week, don't know if I will be able to tell any difference. Anyway all of the wheel moldings are there, and the back hatch molding, like the Escape. Don't see an a-pillar molding and I see no change in the hood seal however they have made the oil cap smaller. I have to check with my techs and what not but I see no reason these could not be added to the 13 model. Granted you may have to either drill some holes or replace a larger panel.

Any of you guys that have myFord Touch, have you ever noticed on the Hybrid Information Screen, the following behavior? As you know it will show what the drive system of the car is doing and why. The other day I noticed, while in the midst of a 2 Bar Burn, that when the load indicator on the Empower screen reaches 2 bars, the status of the Hybrid Info Screen goes from "Charging HV Battery" to "Hybrid Drive" Now I know this doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary except, over on the left screen the battery meter continues to show a chevron above it, indicating that the vehicle is in a state of charge, furthermore if I switch to the Engage screen, it shows no assist by the battery. I have observed this on every occasion since first discovering it, so it doesn't seem to been an oddball occurrence. Could this just be a fluke in programming, or is the car actually giving assist and not reporting it in the standard information screens, and could this be why JUS and others feel that it will get better FE at 2.1 bars? Because the battery is actually taking some of the load off. Just my observation. Anyone feel free to chime in. :)

That's nothing. I had a customer order a Mustang GT on July 6 and it didn't come in until November 3rd. We even went as far as reordering the car cause Ford couldn't seem to tell us what happened to it and then 2 days after the reorder it shows up.

Sounds like perfect Cmax weather. I'm thinking when it warms up I'm gonna see 55-65 mpg averages. Hoping anyway. :D

Just curious what the winter is like where you are. Here, since I filled up last it's been low 30s to high 40s. I'm at 48 mpg for the tank.(I have a feeling that's going to go down tomorrow, my wife's going to the dentist. I'll be happy if she doesn't loose more than 1 mpg) I'm really curious as to how it's going to do in warmer temps. We did have one day around 65-70. Got 59.8 on my commute home. Best mileage I got for any decent length so far, 27 miles. We had snow and frigid temps last week and that hurt my mileage. Between the snow on the road causing friction, and paying more attention to what was going on around me. Driving for MPGs was not such a concern. BTW...to anyone reading. What Is the consensus on the mpg gauge? I know many have found it to over calculate, as have I but, I know I have seen where some people have used gps tracking and came out with slightly better mileage than the trip computer records.

Wait a minute. You're getting 40 miles pure EV out of your Energi? I was gonna get one but my dealership isn't EV certified yet so we don't sell them but, they're rated at 21 miles EV and I thought best average was around 26 miles. How are you driving / what speed etc. to get this type of range? Just curious. Thanks John

So I've been experimenting with incorporating a 2 bar burn into my daily driving. I find it good for acceleration / pulse & glide but, I live in East Tennessee and we've got a lot of hills around here. (putting it mildly) What I've found is while I get up a hill faster :shift: , my battery has no where close to the charge that it does with a 2000 RPM burn, and it definitely uses more fuel. That being said, On "more" :airquote: level ground my findings so far are that if I'm at a good speed, a 2000 RPM burn will generally keep my momentum, okay maybe 2100 RPM, while a 2 bar burn helps with accelerating. All in all I agree with JUS, knowing your roads is a large factor in increasing fuel economy. For the terrain I have around here I think that 2000 RPM with occasional 2 bar burn mixes up to the best fuel economy but, of course I've just reached 5600 miles on my Cmax so that may have something to do with it too and I'm still relatively new to driving it. This forum ROCKS :rockon: BTW. (This is just my observation. I have no app, or scan gauge for hard data)

Not if you have the hands-free lift gate. :D Love mine!

My whole intent is when you drop out of EV and need to accelerate or just need to accelerate in general, is not to go over 2000 RPM. I learned this technique with my Civic Hybrid, which doesn't even have a true EV mode. It's basically a power assist hybrid, ICE would shut off when I let off the gas but I could not accelerate in EV, just glide. Anyway it was a well know technique among HCH drivers and it made a major difference in reducing FE loss. When you guys are trying this out there, where are you letting the engine come on? My rule of thumb is to run the Empower threshold down to 1 bar. I feel like this gives a good combo of long EV mode while not allowing the battery to drop too much. I'll be honest. I haven't done any testing with a different threshold so am curious what others do.

LOL. No, I suppose not. For some reason I thought you would chime back in. :D

I'm glad to hear this is working for you. I would agree that the formula is constantly changing as load changes and battery level increases. Once battery level increases as well as speed, load decreases and your Instant FE goes up. You should also notice that if you have been holding the accelerator at a steady position, instead of 2000 rpm you will have dropped to 1700-1800. As a matter of fact if you apply more pressure to bring it back up to 2000 it will go into EV Assist mode. I'm glad that I was able to contribute. Look forward to seeing more of your posts and I hope others out there are having success as well. I wonder what ever happened to scuba dad

That's good to hear! I wonder if anyone else in the forum has tried it extensively? Around here the temperature has dropped, so has my mileage. Has anyone else ever noticed a drop in mileage when it's raining? I had some drop with my civic but on this thing it seems like I can barely get over 43 or 44 MPG when we're having a decent storm.

Thank you for your reply. I did buy my C-max new. (I'm actually a Ford Sales Rep) I have about 3300 miles on it at this point. I do believe I have noticed some difference in it in the last 500-600 miles. One thing that is so very different about this car vs my Civic Hybrid is the way it works and charges the battery. My initial reaction to the Cmax was a bit negative. With my Civic, if the ICE was running I was able to easily keep the instant mpg around 50....so naturally was concerned at first when the engine would come on with the Cmax and my instant FE would drop to 20 or below. Realizing that the Cmax is charging the battery and becoming more experienced with how it worked, I understand better, the Civic didn't charge the battery near as much and this is probably why the batteries in those cars fail so often. (I had 2 failures in mine). Anyway you can see why this was an adjustment. To get to your question about the bars vs RPM. The bars merely represent load on the engine. Sometimes I can be at 1 bar and be at 2000 RPM, or 1.5, 1.75, or 2. Generally when I drop out of EV the engine is right at or right below 2000 RPM, and in most cases I can tell when I'm at 2000 merely by the way the engine, sounds/feels, if that makes any sense. I can totally see where a 2 bar burn is practical up short steep hills however given that I have enough momentum I can make it up many hills pretty quick keeping it at 2000. Temperatures here are ranging from 50 (65-75) the last day or two, down to 17 degrees. I have noticed that when it's that cold the instant FE will get really high if the battery is charged and the heat is on. Anyway, I was wondering around what mileage would you consider the vehicle "broke in" the manual says not to bother worrying about FE until after 1000 miles and we generally tell everyone break in is 5000-6000 miles. I'm just curious what people are finding to be the most accurate, on average how much difference you noticed, and how much warmer climate temperatures affect FE, warmer as consistently over 70. I just got mine in November and it will be several months before I get to find out for myself. (I'm a little impatient) Thanks

Okay, so I used to drive a Civic Hybrid, and adjusting to this car has been a little bit of a challenge, (Operates completely different) however I love my Cmax! I've seen a lot of discussion about a 1 bar burn vs a 2 bar burn, and while charging and power is better on a 2 bar burn, I don't think it is the most efficient method. Something I learned with my Civic is that keeping the ICE at or below 2,000 RPM kept my efficiency up. Although the Cmax doesn't have a prominent tachometer, it can be selected in "My View". I'm finding that I have minimal FE loss when I do not allow it to go over 2000 RPM. Not great up hills, I sometimes get down to 25 mph and would never attempt it on a 2 lane highway or interstate, but gain great speed on the way down. On flat groud I find that the longer you burn at 2000 RPM the more speed you gain and often time will get up to 65-70 and a 90% battery and 55-65 instantaneous FE before dropping back in to EV mode. So this is basically how I roll. I use Empower and run EV until my threshold falls below one bar and then switch to my view and maintain a 2000 RPM burn until my battery is up and it switches to EV assist or I come to a "decent" downward run. As the battery charges the engine RPMs will slowly drop below 2000. After filling up the other day I ended my trip at 59.8 mpg for 27 miles, my tank is now at 49.3. It would be much higher if it wasn't for the short runs to the store over the weekend, short trips kill FE. Anyway, I would like to get other drivers input on this or if anyone else has tried it, what they think.