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jestevens

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Everything posted by jestevens

  1. I've never heard of a "lifetime" engine air filter before .. apart from the ones K&N makes that are "washable" .. the internal combustion engine in the C-MAX is not "magic" .. I remember the dealer shop guy look at me strangely when I questioned him replacing it at 60,000 miles but I think he made the right call.
  2. Engineers say "Oh, this part only needs replaced every seven years so" -- to replace the battery in my Prius from the trunk you had to remove a bunch of ductwork and a brake controller .. headlights -- in my HHR you literally had to turn the wheel to one side, undo the clips from the wheel wheel, reach up from behind the wheel well and then change the headlight from under the car. The Prius headlights -- to do by Toyota spec you had to remove and replace the front bumper, $300 .. I found the part on Amazon for $80 per xenon bulb and very carefully replaced them with teeny hands and a compact mirror. Even the CMAX you have to peel up the HVAC cowling, pop some push pins near the radiator and wrench a bit on the headlight assembly to get it to pivot to the point where it's easy access, depending on which headlight you want to replace. My '94 Cavalier? You could open the hood and replace a headlight bulb in about 30 secs.
  3. I'm sorry I don't have access to the tech specs, I hope a tech can help you but with any luck a water pump should still be the same diagnosis as usual anyway.
  4. My 2013 is still good at 137K but I've changed driving styles to highway now, so I guess we'll see..
  5. Based on some google searching these codes sound like water pump issues? Can you check the fuse, wire and connections to the water pump?
  6. We have an escape hybrid at work. It seems like a fine vehicle, fairly quiet .. I don't know if it still uses the HF35 or not but the shifting is non existent so it must be SOME sort of CVT. Even so my next car is likely to a Toyota hybrid, Bolt or VW ID Buzz (if I win the lottery).
  7. One time I had a leaf stuck in the lower grill and it made a really weird, concerning noise. One time I thought it was a wheel bearing ended up being bad tire. Another post on here had the TSB instructions for diagnosing HF35 replacement including very particular info about when the transmission makes noise and when it doesn't.
  8. I just had to pull my fuse for the amp going out again last week, and once last month. I'm not sure there's every any rationale.
  9. Hmmm. I would have thought maybe something with transmission but if the car is expecting to be able to switch to HV or regen and all the sudden there is a fault then maybe it makes sense.
  10. Hybrids work best with low rolling resistance tires -- although a few of the ones I've bought over the years seem to start at 7/10" tread so you're paying a lot and getting less tire? That formulation makes it easy to get up to speed and then be able to coast around town. If the tires are too sticky then you aren't going to be able to coast on electric only and save gas. I've used Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires, Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus and Pirelli Cinturato P7 I would recommend the Goodyears again -- or the Ecopia tire if you can find them (although they seemed noisier). Currently I am using the plain Goodyear Assurance tires WITHOUT the fuel max -- which ARE stickier than usual, and do cause the car's drivetrain to shudder with sudden stops .. That's what the dealership had in stock that day and I thought maybe they would eventually wear down to 7/10 anyway. There is a slight hit on MPG.
  11. It's normal for the car to get less mileage the more you use the heater or the colder it gets. The hybrid battery pack is much smaller than the Energi pack. It definitely seems like a mistake to me, I would ask to undo the deal or ask the battery place if they would consider doing a swap at a discount. I am surprised you can get 10mi out of the pack though because the hybrid pack is significantly smaller capacity. Perhaps the battery you have is somehow a blend of the two parts. Still doesn't seem to be programmed to match the car..
  12. Yeah, that's not normal -- I would take it to the dealer to diagnose sooner rather than later before you have a serious problem on the road. If it is expecting power to be there from the hybrid system and it's been disabled, either because of the HV battery or transmission malfunction ..
  13. I mean, bad brake switch input or a wonky speed sensor could do this probably .. the car would rather shut down than cause a collision. Do you hear any mechanical clunking when you step on brakes? The engine stops and starts normally? Just guesses without a code scan.
  14. Are you using 220/240V charger? Those sound like 120V charging rates. Bear in mind that the EV range on the Energi was never designed to get anywhere near your Bolt -- it's like 15-20mi at the max when it was new. In 2013 that was a novelty, especially for Ford. When the battery dies the gas engine will kick in. I think the only real viable EVs back then were like Tesla and the Nissan Leaf? The regular hybrid battery pack only has like 2mi range at the most? It really was designed to just level out the RPM on the engine and enable better fuel economy, not replace the gas engine. The Energi pack is double that I think, but still not like a modern EV. Lithium ion packs like the one in the C-MAX -are- the state of the art as far as I know. At the time these cars were developed Toyota was still using NiMH packs ..it's just that modern EV have a lot more cells and are designed to "be" EVs ... they aren't trying to cram extra things into a traditional gas powered car design. The Bolt would be one of a handful of pure EVs I am looking at because it has excellent range. The others might be the Ioniq and I think I like the ID Buzz although I doubt I want to be an early adopter. Ford only has the way too expensive $120K F-150 and the "SportsCUV" for $60K .. both of which I am really not interested in. The viable market for EV seems to be a small commuter car you can charge at home, manufacturers don't seem interested in that segment.
  15. The hybrid version does get cabin heat from the engine ... It should run the engine even if you aren't driving if there is large demand for heat in the cabin when it's cold out. You'd think a stuck thermostat or something like that would set a code. Maybe heater core is plugged or air in radiator? I'm by no means a mechanical genius.
  16. I've only heard of like one battery pack that has seriously failed so far. . Having said that if the car is 10 years old and has say 150k mi on it you might need to expect to spend at least $5k within the next 5 years to replace the pack. There are some Prius cars with 10+ years and at least 200k mi that failing but those packs are NiMH .. the C-MAX was one of the first hybrids to use lithium ion packs so it's still a bit of a guess as to how long they will last. Batteries kept in the same environment as humans will last longer. Battery sitting outside in the AZ sun or used as a taxi, not so much ..
  17. The problem with that might actually be lack of use. If the battery is left to discharge for a long time you might have other issues, but a low mileage 2017-18 from a climate that's not overly hot or too cold might maximize your longevity.
  18. If your car still has transmission warranty it might be worth having a second look like Tom says above. The very first time I drove our SE fleet vehicle at work the HV battery was completely depleted and the engine seemed obnoxiously loud and whiny because the car had sat there was at least a week without being driven -- so at first I hated it. But after driving the car for a while I got to like it a lot, so much so that I eventually traded both my Prius and HHR in to get enough money to buy an SEL of my own. My car has always made a light whirring noise on acceleration and deacceleration .. I think that is normal. I think the "bad" transmission noise is a grinding noise .. here is a video I found recently that seems to explain the problem .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbQoUmKhcdQ My 2013 has 135K now and still no problem .. I -hope- it stays that way for at least another 30K, that would be nice.
  19. You may need to take the car in to get it scanned by Ford.. it's hard to say with no diagnostic codes. Another person recently posted similar .. maybe transmission issue or if you are lucky maybe a brake switch ? I say because it's bucking without you hitting the brake but it's all speculation until you get some codes.
  20. I can tell you I switched for the first time to non low rolling resistance tires because the dealership didn't have my usual tire and I can tell there is more stress on the driveline during sudden braking. It shudders a bit, I really hope it doesn't knock the shaft too much. If dealers weren't paying attention and installed a bunch of these with "regular" tires that might account for some of it? My hope is that they'll wear down to 7/10 eventually anyway and then work more like LRR tire.
  21. I tried one of those "headlight rejuvenation" kits and I THINK it made the lenses more cloudy to be honest .. I bought some sylvania white lights that are definitely different than the stock headlights but I have yet to use them, I finally managed to use gloves and NOT get oil on the bulb I guess. I HOPE that when I do switch lights they will fit through the hole in the back of the enclosure.
  22. I'm glad they stepped up and covered the repair. I have a 2013 with 130K mi on mine still on the original transmission -- mostly rural driving .. I don't know if there is any one thing that dictates which transmissions will fail.
  23. The battery pack on a 2017 is only 6 years old -- I would expect the pack to last at least 10 years hopefully but of course climate and other factors may affect individual cars. The fact that they never fast charged the car may help. cr08 gives good advice if they will let you test drive. The EV button should force the car to prioritize using the battery pack when you are ready to start the discharge part of the test.
  24. jestevens

    Ms

    Here is a past thread on this topic -- People HAVE come up with a suitable spare or donut but it will take up a good portion of the cargo area. I wanted to have a spare so I saved a slightly used OEM tire but I didn't have a suitable wheel and no tire shop really wanted to mount it for me so I gave up. I just keep a plug kit with a blanket, light, pliers, plugs and glue, reamer, etc and an extra 12V inflator.. The one puncture that disabled the car was just barely within the tread, I was able to plug it and keep pumping it up with the inflator until I could get a few miles to a tire shop the next day. I've had one other episode with nails in a tire after visiting a construction site -- luckily the leak was slow enough that I made it home without even realizing it, came out the next day and it was flat in the driveway. Pumped up the tire and took it to a shop that was nice enough to plug it for free. That's approximately two times in 100k mi. They give you an inflator under the passenger seat integrated with a can of goo -- the motorcraft TA34 sealant canister should be changed every 5 years from the expiration date on the can. The car should remind you .. I think a new can of goo costs about $35 -- or you can just buy your own at the auto supply store I suppose.t day
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