HotPotato

Just traded my C-Max for a 2018 Chevy Volt. Wanted a Bolt EV but couldn't stand the seats, and my wife wasn't thrilled with the idea of me driving another "dorky rolling potato," so... now I'm driving an oops-proof electric car that drives like a sport sedan. Not sure if it was the right choice---goodbye to thigh support, airy interior, room to put your left foot somewhere other than under the brake pedal (the real reason for that regen-on-demand steering wheel paddle!), and frankly the ability to see out of the damn car at all---but I cherished those 30-60 second stretches of electric-powered silence in the C-Max, and now they can go on for miles and miles. And I've missed sporty: with a tire-smoking 0-30 time, low center of gravity and 50-50 weight distribution, the Volt is certainly sporty. We'll see how it goes.

BUMP -- has anyone figured this out? It's literally driven me to where I'm fixing to trade an otherwise perfectly good car. AFAIK my car HAS had the door latch recall; no improvement. I HAVE tried silicone spray, no lasting improvement. I have no idea what dude is talking about regarding pulling fuzzy stuff down from inside the window channel, so haven't tried that and hence no improvement. I HAVE had my transmission and windshield both replaced (not for this reason), no improvement. Unless Ford can tell me how to fix this, I'm going to assume it's happening because the car has poor torsional rigidity and is twisting itself apart with every creaky corner or creaky driveway curb cut. And that's going to make me think trading it is a good idea. And then I'll feel like sucker of the year for buying a vehicle with such low resale value---value that drops another thousand bucks once the used car manager drives it around the block and hears it creaking like a pirate ship.

Most people use their cars to commute. Plug it in when you get home, and you have a full tank every morning without ever going to a nasty gas station. That's a time saving, not a time suck. But sure, sometimes you take a road trip. So have a different car for road trips. Or buy a PHEV, with gas still on board. Or buy a Tesla, which has a giant battery and can charge twice as fast as others; unless you have a trucker-level bladder you're gonna have to stop to pee and eat periodically anyway. It's true that there aren't as many charging stations as gas stations, and charging times for all but Teslas are a bit pokey. But that will change.

I hope you are enjoying the car! For anyone else reading this thread for similar reasons, I have a 2013. If the car has had all the many recalls and applicable TSBs performed, it should be a pleasant and reliable car. If it hasn't, you can schedule a nice visit with the service department for them to ID and plow through them all (except the trans). No idea what the deal is with folks having tire and brake problems; my tires have had long life and normal wear and the brakes have minimal wear, no replacements yet. The only annoyances in mine: 1. I did have my transmission replaced. At this point it's a known issue with at least some 2013s. Do you live in California? If so, I wouldn't worry about that as much, because I'm told it's considered part of the hybrid system which under California law is under warranty for 10 years or 150,000 miles. 2. Creaking from the door seals when cornering, which is probably not a deal-killer to someone who drives with the radio on; it just happens to annoy me more than most. 3. Possible sensor failure in the AC leading to iced-up coils on long road trips in very hot climates...I should probably replace it, but a) it becomes an issue maybe once a year, and b) it happens around the time I'd stop for a burger anyway, and the hot sun has melted off the ice by the time I'm done eating. 4. The 12 volt battery in the past only seemed to last a year or two---but this may be in part because I have aftermarket amplifiers for my stereo and had a very short commute for a while, and anyway it seems to be less of an issue after the last round of software updates. Worst case, buy a battery with a long warranty; then the battery maker or retailer will be buying a new one if it fails, instead of you. 5. Nearly all new cars have very soft engine mounts to quell noise and vibration---but the flip side is that they wear quickly, and after 5 years or so one or more of them will inevitably have compressed enough that more vibration on engine shut-off and more noise on full-throttle operation can enter the cabin. If you didn't own the car since new and you aren't extremely sensitive to your car's behavior, you wouldn't even notice. But I have and I am so I do. 6. Leaves really like to settle inside the fenders and they're really hard to get out of there; and since that's not far from the cabin air intake, I suppose if it's rainy where you live this could lead to a mildewy smell. That's a minor issue only once a year for me and maybe wouldn't be if I'd change my cabin air filter more often.

More like 1-2 years for me, and I live in a warm climate. However, I do have aftermarket audio installed, so maybe it's me.

I had the same issue, I really wanted to like the Bolt but the hard-edged seats, narrower cabin and Fisher-Price plastics were really hard to swallow after enjoying the C-Max's perfectly proportioned thrones and entry-luxury-quality interior. My C-Max is just about paid off, still drives nicely, and has a near-new transmission---every logical part of me says to keep it. However, after 72k mi in my C-Max there is so much creaking around the door frames, and a couple of squeaks inside and outside the car now too, that I have serious doubts about the long-term viability of the car---and I live in a sunny state where the roads are never salted. I'm used to German cars that are durable but unreliable. In the C-Max I have a car that's hypothetically reliable (now that we've served as guinea pigs through innumerable recalls and TSBs) but certainly doesn't seem durable. I wish there were strut tie bars or something available for it to improve the dishrag-like rigidity. No wonder the dealer gave me a lowball trade-in estimate. In any case, if you like me are thinking of going more electric but want a bigger car, not a smaller one, consider the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It's an all wheel drive CUV on the large end of compact, with a spacious interior, lovely leather seats, and Apple CarPlay. It gives you 22 miles of all-electric range, then switches over to hybrid operation. The MPG while there's still charge in the battery is an impressive 74 MPGe. The MPG once the battery is exhausted is a dismal 25 mpg, the same as a typical NON-hybrid CUV of similar size. So the key question is what percentage of your drive will be on electricity. If your commute is under 50 miles, it is more efficient than a conventional hybrid CUV; but if your commute is 50 miles or more, a conventional hybrid CUV is more efficient. If your commute is 22 miles or less, of course, you could hypothetically use no fuel at all.

Apparently it affects only about 100 early-build cars. Pretty sure the thing could not be more troublesome than the C-Max...several issues on my C-Max never got addressed under warranty because there were too many recalls to attend to first. The Max has still got creaky doors, intermittent AC, and a door latch recall that apparently still doesn't have parts available, off the top of my head...but the worst of it is over. I've had my transmission and CV joint replaced finally...plus, the 12 volt battery no longer dies every year, and the infotainment finally mostly works, so all those software updates did something useful in the end. I really enjoy the C-Max overall, and I know it's financial insanity to keep a new car less than 10 years...I just hate the feeling that another shoe could drop--e.g. OMG, What if the door creaking isn't because of dry seals but a cracked frame? What if the trans goes out again? etc.-- and my confidence in the dealer's service department is asymptotically approaching zero.

Yep. Every year, VW trots out another "Microbus reborn as an electric vehicle" for the car shows, promises to build it, and then flakes out. Another year, another 2-tone electric van with lots of seats and windows, another broken promise to build it. Like clockwork. Supposedly this time with the ID Buzz it's different. I'll believe it when I see it at the dealer with a Monroney sticker in the window. I've come pretty close to trading the C-Max for a Chevy Bolt EV. But the driver's seat is a deal killer, like sitting in a narrow but attractively upholstered lawn chair, complete with having to slide over a hard metal frame under the edge every time you enter or exit the car. If I could put C-Max seats in the Bolt, they'd have a sale. Actually, one guy did in fact put the seats from his rear-ended VW Jetta into his Bolt EV. Swapped the Bolt's airbag modules into the seats in place of the VW ones, and off to the races. Others have figured out how much additional foam to put in the Chevy seat, what kind, how and where -- and honestly I could do that the same afternoon I bought the car, it's not a complicated job. I'd still have to figure something out for the permanently forward tilting headrest constantly knocking at my skull, though -- by far my least favorite thing about modern cars. It's lovely that the C-Max lets you ratchet the headrest back...one of my favorite things about the car, even though it's a small thing.

OK, I owe my Pirelli P7 AS tires an apology. Part of the issue is that they were "greasy" and new, and part of the issue was that, despite being told three times to please fill the tires to the pressures stated on the door jamb panel, the tire shop underinflated them. I am now running the pressure a bit higher than I did with the Michelins, but the squirmy handling is gone. I'd still probably go OEM if I were to do it over, but I'm satisfied. I do rotate the tires at every oil change, so neither the Michelins or Pirellis have ever gotten particularly noisy. The OEM Goodyears on my last new car got really noisy over time, while the Yokohama S Drives I replaced them with never did (but at some cost to handling precision -- those Yokes were heavy and greasy til the last mile).

You, sir, are a prince among men. Thank you.

I was on a long road trip in my 2013 C-Max, ~60k mi on the car, and this happened to me when it was over 100 degrees out with no exits for miles. The AC could be heard but not felt: NOTHING seemed to be coming out of the dash vents. Turning the temperature all the way down, and the fan all the way up, or trying to change which vents the air was directed to, did not help. The blower could be HEARD plenty, and sounded like it was trying to blow through the defrost vents, but could not really be felt at the dash. We found an exit, pulled off, got a bite to eat, came back out, restarted the car and everything worked fine again. (Other than I'm pretty sure I felt a few drips of cold water on my ankle from somewhere under the steering column.) Thought it might be a one-off but it happened again the other day in town. Turning the car on and off did not help, but turning the AC on and off several times seemed to reset it. I have heard that the culprit in this apparently very common issue is a bad evaporator temperature sensor, and that Ford has a TSB about it, and that the fix is an $11 part. Does anyone know anything about that? I have also heard that the issue is low freon. If so, then that ticks me off, because the first guy on this forum to complain about the loud and nasty AC compressor noise common to every 2013 C-Max (audible only outside the vehicle) got more freon added by the dealer, but IIRC after that Ford said the sound was normal for a modern rotary compressor ("they all do that") and did nothing for others.

Ooh, can we get Pursuit Mode too? :wub2: Seriously though, they're really going to do Pursuit Mode with the same puny battery as stock? Now that EVs can pack 50% more range into the same size battery pack, they're not maybe going to upgrade the pack to better withstand the extra drain? Color me doubtful about the wisdom of that. That 0-60 time in Pursuit Mode is extra impressive because -- and I don't know if it's to do with weight or gearing or what -- the Fusion Hybrid always seemed pokier to me than the C-Max Hybrid...even more so when comparing the Energi versions, where the Fusion Energi feels downright slow. It might not all be my imagination. When the current Ford hybrid powertrain came out, I remember reading magazine tests and seeing the C-Max Hybrid tested with a 0-60 just over 7 seconds and the Fusion Hybrid just over 9. The C-Max Energi was just over 8 seconds; I don't remember seeing a figure on the Fusion Energi. I'm sure those are all magazine style tests (best run of several, traction control off).

2013 purchased new in December 2012, now with about 62k mi on it. One new set of tires. Original set of tires would probably still be on the car...but I got the bright idea to drive for Uber for a while....and their tire tread depth requirements are ridiculous...so I bought a new set way too soon so I could qualify to start driving...probably negating whatever I eventually earned in the time I spent Ubering before I decided that having strangers vomit in my car in exchange for net minimum wage might not be the best side hustle. Live and learn. One new windshield. One new transmission. One new rear seat release cable (defective on delivery). One boatload of money upgrading the sound system. All recalls, TSBs, scheduled maintenance. MPG was 34.5 before the MPG software reflash, eventually rising to 38.1 after (since falling to 37.3 after transmission replacement, not sure why). Honestly I'd trade the 4 MPG post-reflash difference for how much quieter and smoother it was on the original software, but that was never offered as an option. The main thing the C-Max has done is make me fall in love with electric motoring...which unfortunately it can do only for a mile at a time. If the Chevy Bolt had the interior quality of the C-Max, I would own one right now.

Hate to revive an ancient thread but....has anyone figured out a lasting solution for this? Silicon spray worked once, for one day, and has been of no use since.

Yep, bearing problem on 2013s, Hybrid and Energi versions alike. My transmission started audibly failing quite early on and I had it replaced a few months ago (car now has about 62k). Apparently the trans was redesigned early into the 2014 model year to fix this issue, so the new trans is unlikely to fail. I have thought about making the switch to an Energi and there are good deals on 2013 Energis, but after all the angst trying to get the dealer to acknowledge and act on the problem, I wouldn't buy one that hadn't already had the trans replaced, particularly since I don't imagine it's any easier to get warranty service when you're the second owner and didn't buy the car at your local dealer.