BWP

This week, the driver seat heater quit working. I've checked the fuses, even swapped fuses with the passenger seat heater, and nothing. I checked underneath the seat for a loose wire or fitting, still nothing. The passenger seat heater is fine. Has anyone experienced this or have any other troubleshooting ideas before I take it to the dealer? I'm an hour away from the nearest dealer, where I bought it is 2 hours, so taking it in is a pain. We bought in late November and have 6,200 miles. It's too soon for problems. BTW, the C-Max has fuse boxes under the hood, under the dash and behind the left wheelwell (which is where the seat heater fuses were). Not a big deal...I'm just used to having that one fuse box to go to. There's gotta be at least a couple of hundred fuses in the car. It was a bit humorous trying to find the correct fuse in the owners manual.

Welcome. I've found this forum to be very helpful in learning about the C-Max.

Good feedback. Looks like we're all experiencing the same thing to some degree. While it's a fun challenge to try to get those big mpg numbers, I'm not going to push quite so hard for it. Whether I'm getting 40 or 42 highway, it's a great car to drive. I use the quick cancel/resume trick also. I wish the instantaneous mpg gauge gave more clarity between the 20 to 50 range. I feel like I have to interprelate too much.

Can you try too hard to maximize the highway mileage at low highway speeds (55-60 mph) by pushing the car into EV mode too often? When I've pushed the battery charge down by doing that, I've noted when powered by ICE the mpgs are pretty low, a little above 20. I think this is because the engine is having to charge the batteries as well as power the car. When it kicks into ICE with a somewhat full battery charge (>50%), the mpgs are closer to 40, sometimes a bit above 40. Maybe I should relax a bit instead of trying to overmanage the system and let the computers do the work. One area I think I do some good at is scanning the road ahead and putting the car in EV or ICE based on upcoming road conditions (incline, decline, curves, etc...). Has anyone else noticed an mpg difference when on ICE with low vs high battery charge?

I used to top off my gas tank until I ruined the vapor recovery system by getting gas in the charcoal canister. The repair bill was pretty steep. BTW, I'm a big fan of the capless fuel system.

Good article. Thanks for sharing. It also sums up why I bought this car over other small SUVs or the Prius.

Thanks for the input. It's the truck and the Jeep for the dogs.

Thanks all. I wasn't clear in my question, but I was referring to locking it with the black button on the handle. No horn chirping with that method. We also have a rescue dog...a Labrador mix. What a great dog. No C-Max rides, though.

We would like to have the horn honk when you lock the car, as in other vehicles we've owned. I can't find anything on it in the owners manual. Can anyone weigh in on this?

This past Wednesday night, the wife had a flat in town. Turns out it was a sidewall puncture. I didn't find it until I put the can of fix a flat in it and it wouldn't hold air. She called the Ford roadside assistance, and when she told them she thought it was vandalism, they stated they would only respond to road hazard damaged tires. I used the plug kit I keep in my truck to plug the 3/8 inch slit in the driver rear tire, and fortunately it held enough air to limp the few miles home and later to the tire shop. Today (Friday), I'm good to go, but $246 poorer after replacing a tire with 4,100 miles on it. Ford said they would send a tow, but I would owe $135 for the service. I can understand their policy and don't have a problem with it, but that's not what you want to hear in the middle of the night broke down in a not so good neighborhood. Thankfully I had other options (plugging and private insurance). Thank God the sidewall plug worked in this case. We had to put about 10 miles on it, but we never had to add air. I only put enough air in it to limp around. I didn't want to put 30+ in it only to push the plug out. Of all the 100s of thousands (probably over 1 million) of miles in my family's driving, I've never had a sidewall puncture before. Just my luck to happen to the new car with the most expensive tires. I'm buying a donut spare to keep at the house. I think I'll take my chances on the road with the factory setup. I'm putting a plug kit in the C-Max.

The hot issues like mileage and driving tips are well covered here, but there are numerous smaller issues on here too, some of which I have found to be very helpful. For instance, I thought something was wrong with my foot activated liftgate, but it turns out if the doors are locked it takes 2 foot swipes to open it. Another is the discovery of the weather map available thru Sirius....its nice to find a great feature you didn't even know you had. Just say "weather map" and there it is. Both of those items I learned about on this forum.

I was concerned about the short seat cushion not providing enough thigh support, but it has not been an issue. I've taken a few 2 to 3.5 hour trips in it, and so far have been quite comfortable. I'm 6'1, and my son is 6'2. He can sit behind me with no legroom issues. He says he's comfortable in the back seats. I also like the seat entry/exit height.

From what I've experienced, I agree this 35/40 number is low. That would be my worst case. I've got a bit over 3,000 miles on mine and can get around 47 in town, 42 highway/freeway. However, I've got to add that with the colder weather we've been having, the car is spending a good bit more time with the engine running, which has put my latest city runs closer to my worst case 35mpg.

All I had to say was "weather map" and it came right up.

Thanks for bringing this to light. Had to go try it immediately upon reading. Worked great!

Thanks for the input. Here's what I found after trying the foot activation several times with the car locked and unlocked. If its locked, it took me two foot kicks...one to unlock and the next to lift the gate. If unlocked, just 1 foot kick was required. I didn't see this addressed in the owner's manual. I'll also be applying some silicone grease as mentioned above.

We're experiencing intermittent operation of the foot activated liftgate. We've tried it with both key fobs and have ruled that out as a source of the problem. Periodically it will either not activate at all, or it will unlatch the hatch but not raise it. Is there some sensor that needs cleaning off? With my luck, I'll take it to the dealer and they wont be able to replicate. Any input will be appreciated.

I also had to bring my C-Max back for the remote installation. Was told it was a 2-3 hour job. 8 hours later, I was driving home in a loaner car. The dealer said they encountered some particulars installing the system in the C-Max. This was their 1st one to do. I do like where they put the remote antenna, at the edge of the windshield just in front of the passenger visor. I never see it. Another owner showed his mounted at the bottom of the rear view mirror. That one you'll see all day long.

My remote antenna is on the windshield in front of the passenger visor. Didn't even notice it until about a week after, and that was looking from the outside. Concur with the comment about the car's real merits getting overshadowed by the mpg.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/healey/2012/12/08/test-drive-ford-c-max/1752359/ Sorry the link doesn't work directly from here. Nice article...he briefly addresses the ongoing MPG issue.

Sunday, about 4 miles mostly downhill to church I got 88.3, back to home I got 32.7. Avg 60.5. That's exceptional, though. Most times out and back from home I'll get around 47, usually a bit better.

Thanks. Haven't pulled the tach up yet. Will have to hit the manual on that one.

I'm new to the forum. We've had our SEL for 3 weeks now. It's our 1st hybrid. We're getting the 47+ mileage in hilly in-town driving, around 40 so far in a combination of interstate and rural highway driving. Before taking gas mileage into consideration, this was a great vehicle for us. We shopped it against the Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-5, and the Subaru Outback. We preferred the driving experience of the C-Max over them and were impressed with the quality of the car, especially the interior. Also, there's plenty of room in the rear seat for our 6'2" son. Our foot activated liftgate operation has been intermittent...we'll keep an eye on that and keep the forum posted. The vehicle had the remote start listed as a dealer installed option, but it had not yet been installed when I purchased it. No problem, it takes about 2-3 hours to install, bring it back and we'll take care of it. I drove the 1 hr 50 min back to the dealer to have it installed, but 8 hours later found myself in a loaner heading back home. Apparently there are some "gotchas" when installing a remote start in a hybrid vs a normal car. The dealer drove our car to our home when complete. I have to take a big part of the blame on that one...I shouldn't have purchased the vehicle until the remote start was installed and checked out. Any potential buyers out there please learn from my mistake. We love the car and look forward to a rewarding ownership experience.

I'm new to the forum...1st post. I read that using the hill assist during braking enhances the battery charging. Any input?