dalebunker
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Posts posted by dalebunker
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After about 6 weeks, I think we've finally got all the issues solved. First, huge kudos to the service crew at The Ford Store in San Leandro here in the SF/Oakland Bay Area. They've gone over the top in working to solve my issues; I could have never expected more from a service group!
1. Twitchy Steering. We never isolated a specific problem for this. We drove 2 other C-Maxes + a Fuzion. The Service Advisor, the lead mechanic and the mechanic all acknowledge the characteristic of the car but could not find or isolate anything. They consulted with Ford through many many emails. They did an alignment, and while nothing was out of spec, he made some small adjustments to tighten up the adjustments. As one poster noted, and I agree, as I've gotten more miles on the car, the problem seems less. The Michelin tires are definitely prone to following the road (Fuzion with same tires does the same thing) and as they wear a bit, may lessen the exaggeration of the problem. I agreed with the Service team to drive the car for a while to see what happens. They've committed to resolve the problem, so if it does not go away or I'm not happy over time, they will make more attempts to solve the problem. They're also hoping as more of these get on the road, if it is a common problem, possibly someone will isolate or solve it. So its just a matter of time.
2. Front Strut rattle. The rattle issue(s) drove us nuts. Turned our there were two different issues. The first, which acted like a front strut rattle turned out to be a faulty sway bar connecting bushing. Ford helped them find the problem. Finally Ford told them to disconnect the sway bar, and the front noise went away. The ordered new strut connector bushings and installed them. That problem took two weeks to solve, but after definitely solved the front rattle.
3. Literally not 15 mins after driving off the lot with the front sway bar issue, another rattle was immediately evident. I drove the car for 2 weeks to be sure the problem was consistent. This sounded much different; like the muffler banging against the car: and in certain conditions banged the car pretty significantly. After 3 days, they found the rear strut upper attachment bolt was loose. (literally a strut rattle this time lol) The nut that fastens the top of the strut to the upper mounting plate was about 4 turns loose. The nut is a Teflon self-locking nut and their guess is the assembly robot thought the nut was torqued down but wasn't. Installed and tightened a new nut and this problem appears solved.
Hopefully I'll have rattle free driving now! I'll keep everyone posted if things change or if we get any more insights on the twitch steering.
Dale
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Pemulis, thanks for your posting, a more concise and clear characterization of the issue. I took the car to the delear and received the expected 'its the characteristic of the car and steering'. With your reply, I'm going to keep pushing them
Your comment about the rack and pinion being to tight would be a plausible explanation. I've been in a ford fusion with the same platform and electric steering for the past two weeks. The Fusion 'acts' like it wants to do the pitch back and forth like the c-max but takes care of itself without having to make manual adjustments. Additionally in the 'zone' the fusion steering is light and easy to drive vs the C-max, when in the same zone is more tight and more difficult to adjust manually.
I'm going to talk to the advisor in the morning and explain this to him. He is so committed to assuring I am happy, he's not letting the me mechanic ignore my issue. This helps characterize my issues more clearly.
Regards! Dale
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It's 4:00AM, what are we doing awake at this hour??
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They only had two. Only the airport, no where else because, like you I called all over, even Hertz and was told no. It's why I was so surprised to see it on the lot when I returned the other car to national. Not sure how close you are, but might be best if you just went there, or try to call the local hertz counter at the airport, not the reservation line.
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Hey Maxed, I replied in one of your other threads, I found one to rent from Hertz at the Oakland Airport :-). Just walked up to the counter and asked to rent it when I saw it on the lot. It was just pure coincidence as I was there returning a business rental from National when I the C-max on Hertz's lot...
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Hey Maxed, I rented one for 3 days from Hertz at the Oakland airport!! Totally a fluke thing, I was returning a business rental and saw two of them on the hertz lot, I walked back in to the hertz counter and asked to rent one and did on the spot. I had it 3 days it was great. I took it home and threw all the weekend 'stuff' in it, we drove over to Pacifica, then out to Oakley, up to Placerville, and back to Alameda. Got 41 mpg average and confirmed it was the right choice for me.
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Hi Maxed, welcome to the forum!
I bought mine through the Ford Store in San Leamdro off Marina. I couldn't be more happy with the dealership and the experience. I was able to buy using X-Plan pricing and used both the public and the private rebates available at the time. The private rebate you get If you order a brochure from the Ford website and they send a hard copy in the mail. I dealt with Gordon in fleet sales who was over the top with professionalism and customer service. I ordered my Max on Feb 6th and took delivery on April 2nd. We did all the paperwork on April 1st (LOL) to take advantage of the public rebate that expired on the 1st. Because of x-plan and the rebates I felt I got an excellent deal without any haggling --which I do not do well at. I've also am working with Gary in the Service department who has exceeded my expectations for customer service; that story is another discussion, but the net is he has worked very hard to assure I am 100% happy.
Overall my experience with them has been one of the best I've encountered, with the huge caveat -when I was ready to buy-- I called made an appointment and worked directly with Gordon Reynolds their Commercial Account Manage in fleet sales and avoided the sales floor guys. I had already checked out and test drove the car and knew exactly what i wanted so when I called Gordon, I simply made the appointment to go in and place the order. He kept me fully informed and when the car arrived he had everything ready when I went in to do the paperwork and had the car ready when I picked it up a day later. My suggestion is if you still want to check out the car and test drive, just let the floor guys take care of you. But don't buy that day. When you make the decision to buy, call and make an appointment with Gordon. He will sell the car at a fixed price if you're a retail customer e.g the fleet sales price, in fleet sales they don't haggle/negotiate, it's a fixed price, but since I had X-Plan, even made it easier.
Sorry if the posted is a bit jumbled, I'm doing this on my iPhone...:-). If you have additional questions send me a private mail.
Best regards, Dale
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Just purely by coincidence I was returning a rental car to the Oakland Airport the weekend before I was scheduled to take delivery of my ordered c-max. As I was walking out I saw two sitting on the Hertz lot. I turned around and asked the Hertz person if I could rent to C-Max for the weekend. She said I was lucky as they only had the two, and I just caught it as both had just been returned. Gave the car a full test drive to the Sierra foothills and back, confirmed all the surf stuff fit, I returned it Monday knowing I'd made the right choice!!
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Sirius 58 Chill is on 80% with a mix of 70's, 80's, Sinatra, classic radio, and talk radio!
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SixtyEight, took my car to the dealer for the rattle issue and the mechanic confirmed with me on a test drive the rattle exists. But he could not find any TSB related to the issue
By any chance do you have any kind of reference we can use, or can you check with your service guy and see if they can find a reference I can provide my dealer with? Any help would be awesome!
Thanks, Dale
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Even if they could, you have to show proof of employment either by ID or current check stub with the PIN. They take photo copies of everything.
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I live in Alamda, across the bay from SF. My daily commute takes me over a pass or two or three depending on the route. While not the intense hills of the City, I think it still applies. What I find is what goes up must come down or in our case when mpg goes down going up, always goes up when going down. I've been careful to not base the mpg on a single one way trip, but round trip and the net of it is the mileage always evens out and normalizes. Factors of course is the rate vs duration. Is it short and steep or longer gradual. Short story is my mileage always evens out at 41.5. I don't panic when one way drops to 38.9 because I'f I'm going back it goes back to 41.5. I'm a bit of an insomniac and love going over to the city and driving the hilly streets at 2 and 3 am, and will be taking mad max over to see what happens. I let you know..
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Hey SixtyEight, anymore details on the strut noise? I definitely have a rattle going on, and inductive of a strut related noise. I'm planning to Take it in next week as its rattling all the time now..thanks
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Cool!! Welcome this is a great forum with lots of helpful people and information! Enjoy!
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I'm finally taking this issue to the dealer. I've put about a 1000 miles on the car and I have 20 to 30 mile freeway commutes which --mostly because I'm aware of it now-- the car simply does not track a straight line. I'm getting ready for a trip and anticipate this process will be exhausting on long straight stretches of freeway: I just can't relax driving the car as I'm constantly correcting the track every few seconds vs just holding the car in a straight line. We'll see if they come up with anything...
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I was able to save them as PDF docs...
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I was able to save them as PDF docs...
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Cool! Thanks for the OBDII link! I've been looking for an overview of the systems operation! Perfect..
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Guys thanks for the great replies. You've confirmed one thing I'd noticed that when the battery is full, the instant mpg is higher. I know it not general practice any more, but I still warm up my car for a couple mins when I do this the battery tops off, before EV mode kicks in I see the average MPG above 40. Then on my way home today from Pleasanton( about a 30 mile run) I was late and ran between 70 and 80. I noticed the battery level was on average higher this less drag on the ICE when running at speed but not under a major load, again instant MPG above 40. So j agree a full battery = higher MpG. But takes some work to make it happen. But I understand the dynamics now, and hence can manage the results thank to you explanations !!
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I've heard mention a few times of ICE high (mode). Is this a setting, or a method of driving?
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Mine sat on the train locally for 4 days, then it was 2 days before it got to the dealer and delivered.
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My window sticker listed a build date of 3/12, but the car, according to the sticker on the car itself, was actually built on 3/13. So maybe they will be a day behind on yours as well and yours will get built on a Tuesday? One case where not meeting your deadlines might be OK. :)
Mine says the same thing, with the same dates : sticker says build date of 3/12, sticker on the car says built on 3/13. Wonder if we'll have identical issues :headscratch:
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Sterling Grey SEL. I live in Alameda with daily travel to Oakland, Pittsburg, Walnut Creek and or Pleasanton......
Twitchy steering?
in General Discussion
Posted
Hi Salsaguy.
Hertz had them at the Oakland airport in NCAL. It was just a chance I came across the rental. I was returning a car from a business trip and I saw 2 C-Max's on the Hertz lot. I walked up to the counter and asked to rent; they were available. This was definitely a lucky chance as I had been looking/calling all over to rent one and nothing was showing up, nor would the local rental desks really saying anything about their inventory. So I don't have any real suggestions, other than call the local rental car desks; maybe try the airports. They will not hold a specific car for you, so if they have them, you'll have to go and take the chance to get one.
Good luck!!