mrcooper

I'm new to this forum. I posted the following in the welcome area and now I think I found the proper area for the posting I bought a 2013 C-MAX SEL to tow behind my motor home. I was towing 2011 Ford Edge but my wife has turned into a gas mileage freak and we went with the C-MAX. Great car for RV towing, more aerodynamic, lighter, and almost as much interior room as the Edge. I had a problem with the Edge arriving with a dead battery after a 4 or 5 hour tow. The C-MAX has the same problem. Apparently Ford products have a heck of a battery drain when the car is left in neutral. That can be overcome. Here's another serious problem. The owners manual indicates that you tow the C-MAX in neutral with the ignition in accessory position. Great but they didn't realize that if you leave it in accessory the odometer will clock miles while you're towing it. Not only will it get you to the end of warranty faster, it also totally screws up the MPG history because the car thinks it's getting great mileage, mine was showing 59 mpg. The C-MAX support folks said the engineers were looking into the problem. I took the car back to the dealer for some serious talk and the tech got on line with their tech support and the answer came back to shut everything down when you tow (I have a copy of that e-mail in case I need it for future discussions). With everything shut down the odometer doesn't record the towed miles, but, the car still arrives with a dead battery. Easy solution, I had to spend $75 for a new RV to car electrical cable. The connector on the car was a four pin from the 7 blade on the RV. New cable is a 6 pin with one pin a 12 volt from the RV that connects to the C-MAX battery (using specially designed fused via the jump start post under the hood because I haven't laid eyes on the 12 volt battery). Every one I ask says it's in a rear quarter panel or it's under the storage area. I'm too old to be sticking my fat head under a car with low ground clearance to find out where it is. I assume there really is one back there because the dash lights up and the car starts (hope it's a maintenance free battery).

Howdy folks, I'm new to this forum so forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place. The "DEAD BATTERY" caught my attention. I bought a 2013 C-MAX SEL to tow behind my motor home. I was towing 2011 Ford Edge but my wife has turned into a gas mileage freak and we went with the C_MAX. Great car for RV towing, more aerodynamic, lighter, and almost as much interior room as the Edge. I had a problem with the Edge arriving with a dead battery after a 4 or 5 hour tow. The C-MAX has the same problem. Apparently Ford products have a heck of a battery drain when the car is left in neutral. That can be overcome. Here's a serious problem. The owners manual indicates that you tow the C-MAX in neutral with the ignition in accessory position. Great but they didn't realize that if you leave it in accessory the odometer will clock miles while you're towing it. Not only will it get you to the end of warranty faster, it also totally screws up the MPG history because the car thinks it's getting great mileage, mine was showing 59 mpg. The C-MAX support folks said the engineers were looking into the problem. I took the car back to the dealer for some serious talk and the tech got on line with their tech support and the answer came back to shut everything down when you tow (I have a copy of that e-mail in case I need it for future discussions). With everything shut down the odometer doesn't record the towed miles, but, the car still arrives with a dead battery. Easy solution, I had to spend $75 for a new RV to car electrical cable. The connector on the car is a four pin from the 7 blade on the RV. New cable is a 6 pin with one pin a 12 volt from the rv that connects to the C-MAX battery (via the jump start post under the hood because I haven't laid eyes on the 12 volt battery). Every one I ask says it's in a rear quarter panel or it's under the storage area. I'm too old to be sticking my fat head under a car with low ground clearance to find out where it is. I assume there really is one back there because the dash lights up and the car starts (hope it's a maintenance free battery).