dmk2000
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Posts posted by dmk2000
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In case this helps, I was looking into changing over to HID. I can remember if it was DrDiesel or somebody else that said this, but he or she said that the Focus HID kit will work.
Interesting.
Thank you for this info. Let me see into it.
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As the driver of an oncoming vehicle, I'm extremely glad that the HID conversion did not work, and you retained the warmer, low-scatter, less-blinding OEM lights. Please consider that your retrofit does little more than shift your discomfort to oncoming traffic.
You will also find that in marginal light situations, like fog or snow, when visibility really matters, HID lights will reduce your ability to see the road. The C-Max has excellent visibility, as designed, but you can fix that...
The reasons involve color temperature, light scatter and human visual response, plus looking at night diving as a system, rather than individual components.
Have fun,
Frank
Frank.
I am agree with you when it comes to a poorly done conversions. The HID kit I am trying to install is 3000K light, which is what OEM has and it is on a yellow side. From experience, right HID's with proper beam do improve driving visibility. Personally, I am blinded more by drivers with a high beams on due to bad performance of their low beam headlights rather then HID equipped cars.
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Intriguing. I'd be inclined to go with golfer's suggestion: a 10 gauge wire from the HID to the battery with a standard 12v relay which is energized by the existing headlight wire.
That is what I am thinking as well. The problem I am afraid would be trying to explain Ford technician, why this car has an additional wire harness. Also due to my car been having 3 dead battery issues, I am afraid they will void warranty. At this point I am not changing light bulbs, and will keep OEM setup as is. That said, I will make an appointment with a dealer ( time permitted) to let them check this issue. The reason I want to go with HID, is not to be cool, but to actually improve low beam headlights performance. OEM's are too dull for me to feel comfortable.
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Is your car equipped with the DRL (Daytime Running Lamp) option?
If it is, it should be listed as a separate item on the Monroney window sticker.
(Paste in your VIN in place of the one shown) http://services.forddirect.fordvehicles.com/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=1FADP5BU3DL538695
On my other car with DRL (2003 Pontiac Vibe), it uses a lower voltage to the low-beam headlights when the DRL is active, then switches to the 'full nighttime' voltage when the DRL module on the dash detects sufficient darkness (including garages, tunnels, and very dark clouds!)
Thanks for a reply. It does not have DRL as an option.
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To these good questions, I would add one that is easy to answer:
What is the voltage in the present configuration when "ready to drive" with the headlights off?
With lights switch in off position voltage would be 0 on low beam lights.
System voltage is 13.6 V.
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So, are you saying that you get 8.6 V in ready to drive mode with the OEM bulb and everything is fine? Or do you get a higher voltage? The BCM controls the voltage to the low beam bulb but not the high beam bulb. The BCM may be detecting a high start up current with the HID and cutting voltage. You may need an interposing relay that supplies the HID 12 V directly from the battery and not through the Body Control Module.
Interesting theory.
I can tell you when I had one bulb OEM and other bulb HID, OEM worked but HID did not. HID voltage was 8.6. I could not test voltage on OEM bulb at the same time as it was connected and on. That said, does BCM also controls low beam lights voltage when car in ACC mode because in ACC mode, HID works perfectly.
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I did that. OEM light is on and HID is off. It is a voltage thing. For HID to work, ballast must have minimal voltage supplied to it. If voltage is too low, no arch will be produced to create plasma in HID light to work. I wonder if someone had a reading on operating voltage of headlights during ready to drive mode of the car.
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Hello everyone.
This Thanksgiving weekend I was trying to improve 2013 Cmax SEL headlights output power.
I got HID kit and was installing it. What I noticed is a very strange thing. After installing these lights ( low beam H11) when car in Accessories (ACC) state they work beautifully. However when car in a drive ready state, these lights do not work. After trouble shooting this issue I have noticed interesting thing. When car in ACC mode, the voltage on lights is 12.5 V. However, when car in Drive mode, I only getting 8.6 V. Is it normal?
Can anyone confirm this.
Thank you.
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Maxy if you don't want to have 12v batt. problems just connect a 12v Batt. Charger every nite set on low amp charge,only takes about a minute to do, problem solved. Then the only time you're going to have a dead 12v batt. is when it fails or when you are away from home for a extended period of time and jumper battery will solve those problems. Only down side to this is that the real problem isn't being solved. I guess you could update the CMAX every-time FORD comes up with a new solution. I'm charging up my jumper battery as I write this so I'm ready if I need it. I have had a few incidents where other people needed a jump and I didn't have it with me. :)
Paul
Paul.
That is what I do every week. I do it because of desperation, and not from a joy of owning trouble free brand new car.
In my mind this is not how new car experience should be, and I do not recall it been that bad with my other new car purchases.
Maxy, good luck with your buy back. Please keep us informed on how this process going.
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There is a Battery Fuse Assembly near the 12 V battery that contains a 150 A fuse but I can't tell exactly where the assembly is without accessing the battery and whether the fuse is a serviceable component of the assembly. IIRC from looking at the 12 V battery prior, there is an assembly attached to the battery cable which I believe it was on the +terminal. So, it may be just as easy to remove the + cable from the battery.
Also, from the wiring diagrams, I can't readily determine whether the positive post under the hood is connected before or after the fuse assembly. But the positive post is connected to a bus with multiple positive feeds which leads me to believe the positive post is after the 150 A fuse. So, if the 150 A fuse can be easily located and pulled, one could pull the fuse, clamp a jump start on the posts under the hood and perhaps be able to start the car with the 12 V battery not connected.
The problem though with either disconnecting the positive lead or pulling the fuse may be that if the car starts, the DC/DC converter is operating and there will likely be a significant arc and perhaps power surge from the converter as a dead battery will have a high draw. There is a 175 A fuse in the battery box under the hood to protect the DC/DC converter from excessive loads / shorts and this could blow. Also, there is a 12 V battery ground current flow sensor / algorithm that initially sees zero current flowing through the dead 12 V battery. So, we don't know how this might affect the issue when putting the fuse back in / connecting the positive cable with the car now on.
Very good point.
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What is happening is you end up charging dead battery with jumper battery and the drop in voltage is great enough to drop below what the minimum voltage for the computers need to boot up. Taking the dead battery out of the circuit allows voltage to stay high enough to start the car and then you can reconnect dead battery and allow it to recharge. :)
Paul
+1.
The problem is it is a pain in the butt to disconnect + terminal from the battery. I hope there is a easy accessible fuse somewhere to achieve this.
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They are a national chain and you can get any kind of battery there.
Until FORD can find all the problems causing dead 12v batteries , this could be a interim fix. I would do this if I was having continuing 12v battery problems ( Batteries+ could actually do this for you) plus jumper battery, that way I would have all the bases covered. IMO :)
Paul
In my case, mid size jumper battery was not able to revive CMAX. Prolonged charging of 12 V battery at 8A (40 min) did a trick. After this incident, I view jumper battery not as reliable solution as I was hopping it to be.
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Rotating might not be helpful if mechanism is fully enclosed. It could have dislodged it, but it would still be inside housing and might do more damage bouncing in there.
I guess visual inspection is a better approach.
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It's a manufactured product with thousands of parts/retainers and susceptible to dropped retainers. They have a TSB for "BONUS"
bolts making noise in the front suspension over bumps. I'm sure it's related and the problem has most likely been corrected
during production. These things are just part of the build and get corrected after they find out about it on the line. NOTHING IS PERFECT.
Not sure "Bonus Bolt" inside gear shifting mechanism is part of "growing Pains" of a new car model. There was no place for bolt of this size to be used in that area.
I personally think it is a sloppy workmanship or "do not Care" attitude. One glance at that area could reviled rouge bolt. Mechanic spotted it right away.
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Well.
Here is an update to ongoing transmission problem.
two weeks ago, I had same transmission problem when trying to place transmission into park, it gets lucked up.
This time battery was good and fully charged. Ford towed car to the dealer, and they where able to diagnose this problem to a faulty range finder sensor.
In order to replace it, engine and transmission must be removed from the car as a single unit, and only then decoupled from each other in order to replace this sensor.
Today I picked up car fro the shop. Here is a final story.
After gaining access to the back of the transmission, technician found a bolt that was wedged inside gear shifting mechanism. Dealer called ford engineering hot line to get an idea where this bolt come from, since they could not fined a place for it.
Ford could not answer. So technician proceeded with a replacement of the sensor, even thou now it looks like a rouge bolt was a reason for transmission getting stuck near parking gear.
So far it shfts well.
How the heck rouge bolt could endup there, and does assembly line have Quality Control?
Also, I was able to verify that this car was assembled on Monday morning. I guess it does makes a difference what day of the week car is assembled.
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I seriously doubt it, it could mean that they would have to replace about 60K batteries. That would workout to around $6,000,000 and they would have to put up with the bad press on yet another recall. There will probably be a battery out by the time I replace my battery. :)
Paul
If bigger battery is a solution, I think it cost Ford a lot less to replace them, then keep paying dealerships for warranty repairs and rentals. Also by unable to fix 12 V battery root cause, Ford reputation is continually suffering at least in hybrid market. So from marketing and Brand prospective, if larger 12 V battery was a final fix for our 12 v problems, they would done it by now. Also, as Adrian_L said, 2014 models would already had this fixed implemented. Then again, big corporations sometimes live in different universe, who knows.
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It would make sense to use the biggest 12V battery you can fit in there, you can't have to many Amp Hours. Now that you have brought that up I'm wondering if that couldn't be a solution for battery problem. Just thinking. :)
Paul
Paul.
If it was, I almost positive that ford would recommend this change to cure 12 v battery issues.
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You only have had one battery problem? I wonder if the Jumper Battery was to small. :)
Paul
I wish. 3 problems on 2600 miles new car withing one and a half month.
You see, I could have used electric liftfork battery, if trunk was a size of pickup truck bed :)
Tomorrow I am dropping car to the dealer and told him he has one week to do what needs to be done.
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At this point I think it's safe to say that there are a number problems causing the issue (Dead 12v Battery) . Some of these problems have been fixed, but apparently not yours. Jumper Battery seems to be the simplest short term solution until FORD can figure out your problem. IMO :)
Paul
Ptjones.
I wish jumper battery was a solution. In my case mid size jumper battery was not able to resurrect my CMAX battery to the point when car would start. Only thing that helped was 20A charging for one hour. And I have 2013 SEL made on May 13 2013. (13 is actually my lucky #).
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To me it sounds like a bad ground to the 12v Battery not allowing the car to charge it. But putting the battery charger on the terminals would work. Quiet often is see voltages below 12v at front power point before starting the car. IMO :)
Paul
You could be right. However, when I plug charger to the front power points it does indeed charges battery. Test battery on the next day shows 12.5 V with car in off position.
Puzzle.
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I have recommended this one. I use it on all my customers cars, my cars and trucks and motorcycles too.
Best 55 bucks you can spend: http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SSC-1500A-CA-SpeedCharge-Charger-Battery/dp/B000H961YI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409805341&sr=8-2&keywords=1500+battery+charger
Hi Drdiesel1.
I do have it, and use it on weekly bases. I just do not want to do it, I want Ford to fix it once and for all....
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If the battery is "dead", charging at a regulated 13.7 V will take a very long time to recharge the battery. I don't recall what the "maintenance charge" voltage is for a 12 V battery but it is likely around 13.2 V or maybe higher. Older car alternators used to regulate the voltage around 13.8 +V. But in modern cars, the alternator usually regulates around 14.2 V and higher. I've heard as high as 14.6 V.
TSB 13-6-23 supposedly did raise the voltage on the DC/DC converter. But I don't believe it was a mandatory update. I don't believe it ever showed up on my C-Max ETIS unless it was included in other updates But in my infrequent monitoring of my voltage, I've never seen 14 V or higher.
Perhaps it would take a long time to charge 12 V dead battery, but in my case car was able to start on its own without any observable issues, and then been driven for 40 minutes. But from looks of it, the condition of battery got worst after 40 minutes of charging. Very odd.
Strange, long wooooo sound at steady speeds, ICE on
in 2013 Ford C-MAX Hybrid
Posted
I have a similar issue with noise. Now I am thinking that if you taped microphones, but it did not fixed issue, than could it be that these mics picked resonance off head liner, or roof? Would better physical isolation of these mics from headliner would eliminate this noise?
Just a thought.