mikekoz

Here is a pic of the device which they removed. They did not do a good job of describing how this would affect the operation of the car however. My phone is working with the car as usual and everything else so far is working fine. We picked it up a few weeks ago and so far so good, but I am not going to trust the car until it works normally for several months. It apparently is the TCU as they said though. I have never used any of the functions this module controls so will not miss it! We were given paperwork on what was done to the vehicle, but I am at work and do not have access to it right now.

I have done that a few times since we have had the car and at the end of last year the 12V battery was replaced twice. Calibration was done by Ford and our local auto repair place various times. Ford did it a few times when the car was in warranty. I am going to start driving it again tomorrow and will see how it does. I will not be able to use my phone with the car though. I do not talk and drive but have sometimes played music via bluetooth using my phone or iPad.

Thanks, but they have already done the work and delivered the car to us. I am going to start driving it to work tomorrow so we will see how it goes! If it dies again within the next 30 days (I do not know what their guarantee is on their work) I will just try to get the repair cost refunded and we may have to put money into getting a used vehicle. I am really hoping this resolves the problem because I really do not want to buy another car! 😔

Well, we finally took the car to our Ford dealer and this is what they had to say: Just got done talking with the technician about it. We have found that the Telematic Control Unit is what is turning on and is killing the battery. The unfortunate part is the due to the age of the vehicle, this part is now obsolete and we are not able to get it. This specific part isn't something we can get as a used part either because the TCU uses an internal sim card to connect your mobile devices to the vehicle allowing data between the two. When the TCU is activated in a vehicle, the SIM card becomes activated and is then tied to the serial number of the TCU. The TCU is also associated and registered with the VIN of the vehicle so the TCU unfortunately is unable to be swapped from one vehicle to another. The only options we have currently is to plug the TCU back in and risk it continuing to kill the battery or we can leave the TCU unplugged which only disables the use of mobile devices with the vehicle. They explained it a bit further to me and apparently if they leave the TCU unplugged, we will just not be able to use our mobile phones with the car. I can live with this right now as I never use this feature and just do not talk on the phone while driving. On the other hand, it is a bit odd to me that the part is obsolete, but I am betting a lot of that problem is due to the electronics in this car are made overseas. I also think Ford stopped making the Cmax back in 2018. Have any of you out these had this happen, I am curious!?

Thanks, but that post does not describe the problem we are having. I will call Ford and see what they have to say then make a decision from there. I do appreciate the help!

I guess we will have to take it to Ford. After almost 4 weeks, the car just died again! ? I searched for a recall that would fix this problem, but did not find anything. Does anybody have an idea what Ford would charge for fixing this problem? Our car is long out of warranty and we really do not want to put much money into it.

Our Cmax Energi Has been pretty much dead since October of 2022. Our local repair shop replaced the 12V battery in it and it was OK until just after Christmas. I brought it back to them about a month and a half ago and they reprogrammed the modules, whatever they are! Worked fine for 10 days, then back to deadsville! This past Sunday I removed fuse 79 and charged the battery, and so far it has not died. I may try this workaround if just removing the fuse fixes the problem. If it does, and I cannot figure out how to install this relay, I could always get a bluetooth speaker and play music while I drive from my phone! Everything else on the touch screen seems to work. We really do not want to bring the car to the dealership. It has done this a few times during the 8-9 years we have had it and may just end of selling it if I cannot get it running.

That has been replaced twice since this problem started. Once back in October and again when the car was worked on this last time. I am not an expert, but maybe the main battery is going bad. It has lost about 60% of its capacity since it was new and maybe it quit.

We took the car a month or so ago to our local repair shop and they diagnosed the problem (or what they thought it was) and reprogrammed the system computer and the car worked fine for about 2 weeks. About a week or so ago, I was driving it to work and the audio system started malfunctioning in an odd way. The system would turn on, but the volume control would not work and I could not turn it off. Fortunately, the volume was not too high! It had done this before and normally this was a sign that the car was about to die again, and that is what it did. This past weekend I jumped it and it started up, but after about 5-10 minutes it was dead again. Normally when I jumped it the car would work for a few hours. I guess the only thing left for us to do is take it to Ford and see what they can do, but I think the fix may be more money than what we want to put into it. If we do not take it to Ford, it will turn into an expensive decoration for our driveway! ?

We have had this car for about 10 years and as the title states, the car is just completely dead. I can use a portable jumper to start it, and after that it will work for several hours, but once I park it, it dies again. It has done this randomly ever since we had it, but this is happening more frequently now. About two months ago we had the 12V battery replaced in it after it died, and it has worked great up until a few weeks ago. I was going to have it looked at to see what the problem is, but has this happened to any of you? If so, what was the problem if the battery was OK? If the problem is with the main battery, the car is probably pretty much totaled. The last time I spoke to somebody at Ford about that they told me the main batteries in these vehicles were about $13,000.00 dollars. The main battery capacity is maybe 1/3 of what it was when it was new, but still gives me about 7-10 miles of all battery driving. Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you. I think I need to actually ask them tomorrow or Thursday when they get the new battery if they reset the battery age parameter. I will ASSume they do that, but you never know! ;p). Looks like I also need to invest in a battery charger.

I actually looked at that one, and the Genius 10 and am considering one or the other. How long does the 5 take to fully charge your battery?

I put off buying a charger until I was able to take the car to Ford, which was this morn. We did get a new battery for it in July of 2019 and it is bad already. The guy at Ford said it went bad because the car sat in the driveway for three months without being driven. This does not sound right to me! Our Edge also sat for several months before being driven and it was fine. I have been driving since I was 18 and I have never had a battery go bad this quick, NEVER. I am 60 now! I know everybody says "they do not make things like they used to", but really!!?? They are replacing the battery under warranty so cost is not the issue here. I guess I should buy a charger, but now we are considering just selling the car and I do not want to put a lot of money into this thing. At the same time, I do not want this to happen again. Is the person at Ford correct? Can the 12V battery go bad because the car is not driven very often?

Thank you. I was actually looking at that one. The only thing it did not seem to have that I was looking for was a way to put a quick connect\disconnect attachment on it. It would be used outdoors as our garage is used for storage. I wanted a way of running a cable out to the car from the garage. Putting a quick disconnect on the terminals under the hood then running it out the front of the car with the hood down seemed like a good idea in case it rained.

I think getting a battery charger is a good idea, even if I need a new battery now. I have looked at a bunch on Amazon. Do you, or anybody out there, have any suggestions? Is one any better than the other?