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Thanks, Jaz!

How to replace engine air filter? I could not find it under the hood easily, anyone can point me to a youtube video on that? I think Ford should make a lot of videos and send to youtube, so that DIYers can keep up the car easier.

I could not find this topic and there is no easy way for me to search the forum. I want to change the air filter, but it seems that is not an easy job. There is no youtube video showing how to do that, either.

The sensor I am buying saying also support ISO-15765-4. Waiting it to be shipped over. Hybridbear, if that is a command behavior, what is the reason behind it? Does Ford plan to get rid of that behavior? In my opinion, that's just wasting energy. To keep shifting gear is not the best way to drive this fun car. To save one drop oil here, save little bit of EV battery there, that will result a great fuel efficient car. In my narrow minded opinion, if user sets EV+ mode to on, this car firmware should only use the max fuel efficiency way to handle ICE and EV.

I ordered one of those with Bluetooth, hope to use it with my Android tablet. I almost ordered one with highest review, after digging its reviews I noticed that does not work for Ford vehicles. Ford only uses J1850-PWM protocol. I noticed same thing again this morning. I was driving little slower this time, about 25MPH speed, both ICE and EV motor were on. When stepped on gas, EV motor increased output, gas motor did not. Then when EV battery indicator running low, ICE increased its output and took over, EV motor stopped.

+3, thanks. Which ELM327 to buy? I noticed there is a with Bluetooth claimed version 1.5, another is non-Bluetooth version 1.4 on Amazon, Another one is wifi based. All says ELM327.

+3, thanks for your detailed explanation. One thing I said was 5 minutes into driving, not 5 miles into driving. I don't know if that making any differences in analysis. I did notice this kind of behavior many times. My wife and my son both want to drive my C-MAX instead of Lexus SUV we have. That might cause the adoptive FE algorithm to confuse? My wife wants to get 60MPG or higher when she driving, my son does not care about MPG only wanting save seconds when he driving.

Thanks, +3

I have a ramp that I can drive C-MAX on it for the front wheels. Then I want to jack up the rear side, so that car can be leveled. Where is the safe spot that I can jack this car up from rear end? Since C-MAX has no spare wheel and no jack, there is no jack spot I can find.

Scuba, thanks. I tried that, but not sharp enough I guess, it still in mixed mode. I don't understand the software logic behind this behavior. I am sure Ford software engineers put in this code for some reason. If Ford let us know the reason, we can figure out how to avoid enter this mix mode. To me, if the ICE started, it should run by itself till some other reason caused it to switch to battery. Does this mean Ford engineers purposely want to discharge the battery low enough sometimes? If so, I think that is a waste, because during normal driving, if they force EV mode will use up battery to low enough anyway, that could be counted as battery drain to low.

I heard that there are new models with solar panel for plug-in C-max this year. I would suggest also have that as an option for hybrid C-MAx. For plug-in cars, roof solar panel would not provide enough charge for fully charging EV battery. However, for hybrid, that may be enough for a full charge on EV battery. After parking outside for a day, car is fully charged, so that user can drive couple miles on EV only, that would be a great plus.

Craze, I am not sure Ford would exclude 2nd owner from any warranty services. In my experience, car warranty is car warranty, it is not fixed on owner. However, where it was originally sold may affect its EV warranty length from state to state. In California, EV warranty that including battery, motor, and transmission is 80,000 miles or 8 years (I think, not sure), some states only have six year and 60,000 miles EV warranty. Engine and other body parts have 3 year 36,000 miles warranty. Because the engine is not always running in warm states like CA, FL, etc, gasoline engine could last much longer in those warm states than in cold states.

Great measurement result. This may help isolate where the problem is. If possible, get the wire harness layout, then measure a few places at the same time, to see where this current going to.

I think you will have a great experience with C-MAX. I have 2013 model, and my friends with long legs are also driving 2013 C-MAX after seeing mine. One of my friend had battery problem once. I never had any. My purchase was earlier than that friend had one problem. My son loves this C-MAX better than our Lexus SUV for its responsiveness and driving a long time without worry running out gas. My friend told me their family love C-MAX better than their Acura sedan because the leg room in front and back row. I am getting average 45.7MPG for last year and half. My friend got 48MPG for his last 25,000 miles.

Yesterday when I drove out from home, outside was 75F degrees, 5 minutes out from home, road was relatively flat, battery showed 30%, speed was about 40 mph, suddenly both gas engine and electrical motor engaged. I tried to step on gas paddle hoping gas engine to take over stop wasting EV battery. However, it only increased electrical motor output. I released gas paddle and re-apply, it did the same. This continued till my EV battery ran low, then switched to gas engine only. I saw this happen many times. I don't understand why. To me, this is a waste for EV battery.

I added a 5W solar charger to the car, so that whenever the car is parked under the sun, the battery is charged by the sun. I noticed HV battery charging 12V much less frequently. That actually helps getting better MPG. For the cost less than a tank gasoline, also keep battery strong, I think that is worth to be added.

My Ford dealer service people are very nice, I don't want to get them in trouble by sending their information to Ford directly. So I decided to send car in my dealer for another check yesterday. They told me the side having level lower is the EV side, not engine side. They filled up that coolant for me again, and asked if I could let them have the cars for few days, they would send a person non-stop keep driving the car to see if they can duplicate the problem. I refused that request. From my past experience, coolant level from above max goes down to below min, it will takes about 5000 miles. That is like drive from Los Angeles to NY and back. I don't want them add that many miles to my car. Is there a way to check EV coolant leak other than keep driving my car by service person? The dealer also explained to me that they can not just replacing parts on the door for the wind whistle problem. They have to drive on the freeway with windy days to checkout. Any other way to test this kind of problem? Do you have something like pressure paper to find out which part not making good contact? In general, I like Ford C-MAX very much, also highly recommend the car and the dealership people. Just those little things that I would like to see them perfect.

Non -hybrid car charges its battery as long as engine running. C-MAX only charge its 12V battery when software decided to do so when car is on. Lead Acid battery needs "top-off" charge often to have a long life. I don't think hybrid car can afford that constant current drain to the EV battery. Toyota in its later model hybrid cars have a solar panel to "help cool the cabin", I suspect that solar panel is also to help maintaining the 12V battery. Also, please notice Toyota uses much smaller 12V battery, so that it will not take much to top-off charge it. The bigger capacity battery, the more charge current required to top-off charge. Unless you found the battery being drained a lot after key is removed, change to a smaller battery maybe a better choice than a larger one. If you car has chance park outside with some sun, adding a little solar charger will greatly help your battery last longer.

To monitor the current flow, you will need an op-amp to amplify the voltage, and log it somehow. One chip to recommend is DS2438, that chip has a function to log in and out current, store it in an accumulator, backed by EEPROM. After driving few days, you can read to see if IN current is at least 15% more than OUT current, because the battery charging only about 85% efficiency. From what your voltage measurement, I think the problem is this battery is constantly under charged, so that battery is sulfation due to low charge too long. Each cell fully charged should be 2.1V and fully discharged should be 1.95V. Your 11.97V is almost fully discharged. Lead acid battery like to be charged little more than discharged. I think adding a little charger will help battery life for a long way.

DrDiesel1, did you changed your transmission fluid? I want to do the same, hope someone can show me some pictures.

Maybe the speed is a factor. Our town speed limit is 50 mph, many people already hate me when I driving 35 mph. I noticed driving 35 mph got better MPG than 50. Since I don't have much chance to drive below 25mph, that is probably I don't see EV+. I am happy my current accumulated 45.5MPG average from my past 17000 miles. I think if Ford change its logic little bit, it will help improve MPG. When car just started moving, a lot of times, gasoline engine kicked in immediately in the morning. I think that is no-no. At low temperature and low speed, engine runs at low RPM. Gasoline engine is different from electrical motor. At low RPM, gasoline engine's efficiency is very low. Unless battery is very low, software should let battery drive the car to 5mph, then start gasoline engine. Electrical motor does much better at low speed. Also, when EV+ is set on, Ford should avoid using both gasoline engine and electrical motor at the same time. In a lot of my driving around speed 45mph, both engine and motor running. I got to have some way to control to let motor run only or gas engine run only by paddle the accelerator differently. I think the accelerator paddle can detect not just the position, but also the rate of change, so that software can make proper decision based on user step how hard to decide which to run.

Thanks for that information. I had a Chrysler before, that transmission totaled after 40,000 miles. In my Toyota and Lexus, they all have drain plug underneath and fill hole on top. From what I saw, transmission fluid start changing color after 50,000 miles. From what I heard from transmission shop, whenever fluid color changed, it should be replaced. 50,000 miles is beyond most factory warranty, so that people probably go to transmission shops to fix them, instead of dealer--where they charge more in most cases. Toyota sold a lot more cars. One reason is they know people want to keep their cars for long time, so that they designed easy maintenance in their cars. Most American cars don't design the transmission drain plug on them. If you talk to transmission shop owners, you will find out that most cars fixed there are American cars. Everything will break. The one lasting is the one easy to maintain.

I can not paste, can not quote. Please don't blame me for not able to paste or quote, I did nothing special on Windows 7 with IE browser.

I am thinking to go to a different dealer. My right window blows whistles in even 10MPH wind. Send to this same dealer, they told me they could not duplicate the problem, so no fix. I think the manager is good, but the person who taking the car in does not really care.

What about someone lives on a hill, so that when he get home, it is always uphill, when he leaves home, there are 3 miles downhill, but ICE still kicks in. Only half smart person write program enforcing everyone to follow his logic the same way.