JohnTrigger

I agree, it is a good flow. Well, I was thinking maybe I had a clogged nozzle, but I guess it is normal. Thanks for the responses!

Thanks, just tried your suggestion. That answered most of the question; I hadn't tried lifting up the rubber mat (duh!), because I had put a few things in that compartment already. The method you describe certainly allows access to the terminals of the battery, but it only exposes about 1/3 of the battery, the other 2/3 remains covered by the cargo floor. I suspect you have to remove some more trim/bolts/etc if you want to physically remove the battery out of the vehicle. I find it "interesting" that the battery installed in mine is not even close to the one specified in our owner's manual, different (lower) CCA and different model number. Nice...

I am just curious at this point, but how do you actually put "hands on" the 12V battery if you had to remove it. I know it is in the back end of the vehicle, and from underneath the car, I can see a black rectangular box that it probably sits in. I know about the reprogramming that is required if it is disconncected. I know about the jumper ports under the hood, so I am not asking about that either. I know the manual says that a Ford technician has to remove it (yeah, right!). What I am asking is do you get to the 12V battery from underneath the car, or from the cargo area? If the cargo area, what interior trim do you have to "tear up" to get to it? Anyone done it yet?

This is minor, but I want to see if my rear window wash is normal. My rear window wash, when activiated, is more like a stream of fluid that narrowly flows onto the side of the window where the wiper is "parked". The first bit of stream flows down on the wiper and then the wiper smears it around, so it does work, but I'd expect more of a spray than a stream. Especially because when the wiper is wiping on the other side, the stream has no "dam" build-up effect since the wiper is not below the stream, and much of the fluid runs off the window before the wiper can smear it around, at least until the wiper returns. Does anyone's rear wash come out as a spray, or is this "stream" normal? Thanks.

Yeah, winter gas mix certainly has less BTUs per volume, hence you burn more per mile. So the summer mix will make a noticable increase in gas mileage, let alone the simple temperature difference similar to what you guys are seeing with your grill covers right now. Of course, none of us know yet with the late fall release of the CMAX Hybrid, but I bet there won't be as many complaints come late May/early June about as poor of gas mileage (when the summer gas comes back, and temps are moderate).

I haven't had any problems. I'll through out a few suggestions that you may or may not have tried. Make sure your key is not in same pocket as cell phone (interference). You have to grab the handle for a fraction of a second before you pull it to unlock, and make sure you are not grabbing the handle when pushing the little "fingerprint" lock area.

Above is what I see as well. I don't see ICE after engine start until I am out on the main road, and once it has engaged the first time, it stays engaged a little longer than normal til the vehicle is warmed up. Vehicle is garaged, and outside temps in the 25-35 deg range on AMs typically so far this winter. I don't use defrost unless I need to for a few seconds to clear the fog.

I think I answered your question, unless I am not understanding your question. From what I understand of your question, I've been doing exactly what you are asking. I haven't noticed any issues using the battery tender described above.

Found this article. Assuming it is true, an update to the hybrids will be in the "1st quarter of this year", whereas it says everyone else with Nav will be updated by this month (as has been reported elsewhere) http://www.usatoday.com/story/driveon/2012/11/29/ford-myford-touch-sync/1734133/

Mine looks the same as yours. Probably could have been cleaned up a little to help further dampen noise, but I guess it is what it is...

I've been using this a few times hooked up to the positive and negative posts underneath the hood to keep the 12V battery "topped off". So far, it hasn't "smoked" anything! So far, no dead battery either: http://batterytender.com/battery-tender-plus-12v-at-1-25a.html PS: you can find it cheaper on other websites

I like 303 Aerospace on car "leather" http://303products.com/media/pdfs/automotiveleather_edited.pdf

3.5.1 is out there for other Fords, not the CMax, not yet at least. Hopefully eventually we'll get it or another update (as 3.5.1 doesn't seem to be the most stable either from other forums on other Fords).

Speaking from experience, when removing the panel underneath, 2 of the 8 screw/fasteners are longer than the other 6, so pay attention to where they come from. I didn't realize this and just piled them in a pile, so upon reinstall, I just guessed the longer ones were for the holes in front of the tires, closest to the tires, but I am not sure 100%. Also, when putting the panel back up, it slides back about an inch or so and is held up by some tabs that are located on the car and engage the panel, about 6-8" infront of the back end of the panel on either side. If you get the tabs lined up right, the panel's holes will be lined up with the car's holes all around, and the back end of the panel will be held tighter to the bottom of the car, and the front end will sag a little until you put the screw fasteners back on, but it will hang there handsfree.

Those instructions unfortunately don't work, see my thread below http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/index.php?/topic/803-adding-a-third-intelligent-access-key-dealer-reprogramming/

I think (A) above using moderate accel

I think almost everywhere now adds 10% ethanol; there are websites that list pure gas stations. Ethanol, per gallon, has about significantly less BTU (British Thermal Units, a measure of energy) than a gallon of pure regular gasoline, thus you'll get significantly less gas mileage out of pure ethanol compared to pure dead dinosaurs in present engines (assuming you could run pure ethanol in todays engines-don't try it, and don't try E85 either). Since the mixture is 10% ethanol at most gas stations, your gas mileage will suffer about 1-2 MPG in a CMAX. Many states don't even require the pump be labeled with 10% ethanol, so you are probably getting it even if you think you are getting pure gas. Even 10% ethanol is hard on small engines due to its water retention (boats, weed eater, lawnmower, snow blower, etc), but supposedly doesn't hurt our cars (the ones made in the last 20 years), but it does "go stale" after a couple of months (why the Cmax Energi model has a special mode to use up its gas in its tank and why companies make products such as STA-BIL). I'd say get your 10% ethanol gas at a station that has lots of business, so it is getting used up and resupplied, and thus is as fresh as possible.

When I let off the gas pedal and truly glide in the CMAX, it does slow the car quite a bit. I suspect because the CMAX Hybrid battery has more capacity than the older ones, so it needs a more powerful regen capability which consumes more kinetic energy, thus slowing you more than previous versions. In my 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid, which BTW can only EV below 40 MPH, I can actually push on the gas a tiny bit after letting off the pedal and get a very good coast out of it and still charge the battery. In the FEH I can also put it into L gear when coming to a stop and get a stronger charge out of it when coming to a stop. However, in the CMAX when I try L gear, the ICE starts. In the FEH, the engine always starts initially when you start the car and runs until it gets warmed up, but the CMAX ICE rarely starts right away when I push the start button in the AM. So, there are definitely differences between the old and new Hybrids from Ford. I like the CMAXs version better than my FEH version, since you can go up to 62 MPH in EV--way more useful than only 40 MPH. But in the FEH, I still get about 35 MPG, so not bad. Either beats the gas milage in my '02 V-10 6.8L Excursion or my 03 Dodge Ram Hemi Pickup (I have all the gas mileage extremes covered!) When the CMAX ICE is running and the Hybrid battery is anything but full or nearly so (and thus being charged), I stay in the mid 30s MPG as well. On a few occasions when the battery gets "full", the MPG on ICE will get into the lower 40s MPG. I have not done a long highway trip at 65+ yet, where you can't EV since you are above the 62 MPH cutoff, and thus the Hybrid battery will get full and ICE will be on all the time--then I suspect the MPG will go into the lower 40s. I doubt you'll ever see 47 at true highway speeds, as the EPA test is different than 65-70 MPH driving.

kechair, I agree with the above post by Jus-A-Cmax. I also think it depends on the roadway in front of you to some extent. For example, if I am low on battery and have a hill coming up directly in front of me, I gently use the ICE to go up the hill and charge the battery at the same time, since the hill will eat up the battery quicker anyway. If, however, I am on a flat piece of road for a while or a slight decline, I try to stay in EV as long as possible. If a fairly steep decline, I let off the gas entirely and coast, allowing a gravity assist regen. It also depends a little on traffic and how close the guy is behind me. When I am charging the battery, I try to keep the white KW arc as low on the Empower display as I can, thus keeping the MPG arc as high as possible. That is what I'm doing so far, anyway.

Reference my post immediately above, today I couldn't even duplicate my own results, that I was able to duplicate last week. So maybe it is FLAKEY and having Gremlins. But the post above does seem a little repeatable if I use the passenger door in the scenario above. None of it is explained in the manual, all by trial and error....

While I agree that the later Focus and Escape perform well on the OTHER tests, they haven't tested the Focus nor Escape in the SMALL overlap frontal crash tests either, so we don't know how these two perform on that test, do we? Or am I reading something wrong?

Regarding the radio "staying on": Did you by chance first turn the car off while the radio was still playing, and then prior to opening the door you pushed the hard power off button (not the software one on the screen, but the hardware one near the INPUT bar)? If you did it in that exact sequence, you are actually turning the MFT screen back ON instead of turning the radio OFF (when the car is shut down and the MFT screen is on and you open the door, the MFT (and thus the radio) will go off, so by hitting the "hard" button after the car is off, you are telling the MFT to come back on). Put differently, if you are driving down the road and push the "hard" power button, it toggles the radio on and off, as you would expect. But, if the car is shut off, and you push the "hard" power button, you toggle the MFT system on (and if the radio was already on, it will be on again when the screen turns back on). In other words, the button behaves differently depending on whether the car is on or off. Sorry, can't help you with the remotes not working, unless you have it near your cell phone in your pocket, and then the cell phone will interfere with the remote's radio frequency.

Yes, as described in first post above, my new fob is ALMOST identical to the original two. The model number differs from EC on the new one, and ED on the orignals as the last two digits, but I had to pop it open and remove the metal key and use a magnifying glass to figure that out. The picture on the hatchback pushbutton is different on the new one, otherwise it LOOKS identical. But, it works fine now--I bet they didn't take 15 minutes for them to program it once they had the car in the garage. I suspect your key from EBAY is not compatable. You said they tried two more new ones, were they the same as your orignal CMAX fobs or the same as your EBAY fob? Either that, or your dealer doesn't know what they are doing. You can only add 4 total IA keys, just FYI. Model years that use the IA keys prior to 2013 CMAX were able to program yourself assuming two orginals were available, using the procedure I attached in the first quote. But, not ours for some aggrevating reason...

I went in to get the third key programmed at my local small town Ford Dealership this AM, and they used the computer to do so. About 30 minutes total time from checkin to done. Now, three keys work (original two and my third one I bought). I brought all 3 in, and I suspect they deleted two and added three keys back. Unfortunately, it has cost me about $140 for the keyfob with my specific precut emergency key, and $90 for the programming, as i said in the first post. So, it is possible to get a third Intelligent Access keyfob for the CMAX SEL, but you can't program it yourself.

Your Sirius often will not work in the garage, as it is satellite reception dependent. And yes, if you read my post above, I think the battery will certainly run down to some extent (read my accidental scenario above).