jestevens

The Energi is what they call a "plug in hybrid" in today's marketplace -- the battery pack is larger (hence less cargo room) and you can plug it in to charge it. It still shares a lot of the same tech as the hybrid car including the engine. I think the Energi uses more PTC heating vs relying on heat from the engine block as the hybrid does. Playing with the EV button changes the priority of energy usage and allows you to run for a longer time using electric before it switches to gas. You should never run out of range until you run out of gasoline. Sounds like in your case the electric range must be big enough to cover most of your errands without needing to switch to gas which is nice thing. I have only the hybrid version, my current MyView setting has the split energy tachometer alongside the MPG vs time bar graph. For a while I used MPG coach that shows the scores, when it gets cold out I switched to the engine temperature gauge for a while but now I don't worry about it so much. In the hybrid battery seems to be more geared toward power (torque) or leveling out engine usage. As ptjones used to say keeping the RPMs in the 1-2K range seems to be ideal for efficiency .. sometimes I do enjoy stepping down on it though .. It's not a sportcar but the torque is still kind of fun.

I think the CVT in the C-MAX and Prius are more reliable compared to the ones from Nissan for example -- it's just unfortunate they had this seal issue. I do love the car, a lot of hybrids come with upmarket trim because the car cost a lot more than a gas car at new. I'm very satisfied with my purchase but bought the car used with 30k mi around 2016 or so so I've been able to enjoy it for quite a while. The 2nd Gen Prius batteries are starting to fail now, but they also use Nickel Metal Hydride chemistry, I think the C-MAX uses Lithium ion -- so far I've only seen a handful of cars reported on here saying "Stop Safely Now" -- someone with the Forscan app and an OBD dongle might be able to see the actual degradation in the state of charge on the battery pack. The charging routine typically only allows using between 20-80% of the ACTUAL battery pack range to help preserve the battery for as long as possible. Charging to 100% or discharging to 0% is a sure way to lower the life expectancy of the battery so the battery management software is programmed to avoid it. This is all seamless to the driver, the difference is programmed into the gauges, etc. Maybe you can at least test drive the C-MAX and see what you think .. I really like the car .. It's a lot better than the competition, which at the time was the Prius V -- (had absolutely NO power). Ford was more interested in selling F-150, Escapes and Fusion and seemingly took some government funding to develop their version of the transmission and a few other components. They oversold the car as getting 60MPG -- on a very good day, with just the right driving the car CAN do that but it's more typical to get around 40-42MPG. It was TRW that actually developed the drivetrain concept way back in the 60's but up until now they just never had decent enough batteries to make it a reality.

I've not sure if they've ever been able to pin down a particular range of model year where the transmission issue was fixed. I think my car was built May 2012 and I've never had a problem .. most of my driving is 40-60MPH driving on rural roads. I even had the transmission fluid changed at 128K per the service schedule and the transmission has been fine. The transmission is more like a manual with planetary gears and electric motors in the same case. There aren't any "bands" like in a traditional automatic. The issue seemed to be with a particular bearing seal where somehow the shaft would get dislocated and grind the transmission case? It's been a very good car, between this car and my Prius I'll always be looking for a hybrid or EV in the future. They are smooth, quiet and powerful plus good MPG. Having said that there's still no getting around that it's a potential high mileage vehicle with a 10 year old high voltage battery pack. You may need to spend at least $3-5K on a rebuilt or new battery pack sometime within the next 5 years. It would be nice to find a car that wasn't a taxi, where the battery wasn't excessively boiled in the heat or frozen, the batteries are usually happiest at the same temperature range as human beings.

My 2013 SEL has 130k and still seems okay .. just routine maintenance, new 12V battery after 7 years. Having said that the last year the C-MAX was made was 2018, can you look for newer model year? The hybrid is NOT an electric car, the battery is used to give more power, even out engine RPMs and extend the gas mileage. It's still significant since the best gas only crossovers still get like 25MPG - I routinely get 40MPG. To maximize MPG you'll also want to use low rolling resistance tires.

All I can say is that a) I got into an accident, grazed the right front end and STILL had to pay for new vent shutters -- although they are only active at like 65-70MPH and up -- and b) my car NORMALLY will keep the cabin fan off in the winter until the engine warms up to the point where it can generate heat in the cabin .. unless you are overriding that by pressing the DEFROST button .. You'd think they'd also close the shutters when the engine is very cold but I guess there's a lot more holes in the front end to "breathe through" beyond that anyway. I don't know if C-MAX uses the same design but I know the amount of trouble the Prius goes through -- like keeping a "thermos reserve" of previously warm coolant and allowing that to loop back into the engine on demand to warm up a cool engine quicker, plus all the things it does to maintain a proper EVAP cycle are a bit crazy. I've always averaged about 40-42MPG -- except on trips around town it does more EV+ and a few times gets 50+ MPG. Lately the dealer installed the "wrong" tires which are stickier and hard to pulse and glide .. I assume they'll wear down to 7/10's eventually anyway and for now enjoying more burn out potential.

Yes, unfortunately there is not a corresponding "Global Express Up" command to roll them all back up -- although it is handy on a very hot day when you want to let the seats cool down. One time I came outside and the back hatch was open, apparently all night long -- I do not recall if I left it open unloading groceries or if maybe somehow I managed to hit the fob just right while it was in my pocket in the house .. crazy.

Is the TCU separate from the gateway module in the C-MAX? I was sort of thinking they are the same device. I don't blame you, I would be upset as well .. like don't offer the service if you can't perform the service without damaging the rest of the car. It seems Ford really has/had some issues performing this CSP -- Dealers were not well informed/educated and/or parts were not available .. in addition to that TCU I think you are also supposed to get a new antenna.. C-MAX is still running so my next car is likely to be a Chevy Bolt, Kia/Hyundai EV or maybe an e-Golf or ID.Buzz .. if the C-MAX goes first next gas car is likely to be a Toyota. Ford builds a ridiculously small number of Maverick pickups for demand and their interpretation of "EV" -- a $120K cash cow F-150 or $65K Mach-e .. plus the dealer's inability to cope with "new" technology .. My C-MAX has actually been incredibly reliable but I just don't trust the brand anymore.

Actually you have a 2016 Energi, the complimentary trial period was 5 years, oops, nevermind .. still doesn't qualify for free labor .. sorry..

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10204043-0001.pdf I'm pretty sure the "Complimentary Trial Period" on all these is up, so you would have been paying for both the parts and labor to perform the work anyway. But .. he wants you to pay for *another* TCU -- because the part they received is either faulty, flashed wrong or was the incorrect part for your car? I'm confused.

I hope they were able to help you -- let us know what happens..

Yeah, that's the thing I notice too is the shuddering noise right before the "Stop Safely Now" .. Honestly, I would just take it to Ford .. P0A92 is Hybrid Generator Performance? There may be a problem with the drivetrain. I would not take this hybrid car to a third party transmission shop. (I wonder how many HF35 transmissions or hybrids they've routinely worked on?)

Reading from here.. http://www.fordservicecontent.com/ford_content/catalog/motorcraft/OBDSM1700_HEV.pdf It says the SOBDMC is a charger module that is designed to charge the car from AC input .. do you have a C-MAX Energi -- and have you been able to open the charge port and charge the high voltage pack? Either that or maybe the high voltage battery pack relay is stuck open? Do you hear any relay clicking noise in the back when you "start" the car? When the car is off the relay is normally open to disable the High voltage components of the car .. when you command the car to start, if all the checks pass it will command the relay to close, which connects the high voltage components of the car to the high voltage battery pack. There is a HVB safety plug that can be manually pulled to ensure HVB is disconnected while servicing the car, perhaps this plug is loose ? All speculation on my part ..

Just for fun I googled around for fusion oil warning and most folks are saying in the 06-07 Fusion it was bad oil pressure sender, a fluke, one person mentioned the possibility of a low 12V battery. I will only say that once the 12V battery starts going on hybrids sometimes the computers can act a little weird .. in my Prius it would set weird codes -- in the C-MAX I just came out the next day and the 12V would be stone dead since there was a cold snap. My original 12V battery lasted 7 years since it was in the trunk, but once it's dead, it's dead. UK C-MAX pages have a few more things but that's not a Hybrid car -- in Europe it's a regular Duratec or Duratorq engine. https://www.cmaxownersclub.co.uk/threads/intermittant-oil-light.8421/

FYI, my battery lasted about 7 years but yes, if it has been sitting on the shelf awhile maybe it wasn't kept topped up. It's in the trunk, under the flip up part of the floor. The battery is very small compared to a conventional 12V -- it really doesn't need a lot of CCA since all it is doing is booting the computer, which closes the high voltage battery pack relays, checks a few things and then uses the motor generator in the transmission to spin the crankshaft and start the engine from HVB power. When it does go dead, it can be very unexpected -- and may require you to use the spare physical key under the Ford emblem if you have a radio key -- there is a lock on the driver's door handle .. once inside the car you have a few seconds before security alarm goes off .. you can place the key next to the steering column in order to get the car to pass security check and start the engine. I don't have a spare car, so I keep a $99 jump pack from AutoZone in the house just in case I come outside and the car is completely dead now. As others have said, when they install a new battery they are supposed to reset the BMS .. I think there is a way you can do that yourself but I just had the dealer replace mine since it was February and not a lot of fun to be fooling around "in the trunk" for 30 minutes outside.

We had an SE in our fleet at work some years ago and one of my co-workers had the same situation with a sudden loss of power on the highway .. it was severe enough that he decided to not drive C-MAX in the future. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what the dealership found as the issue and this was likely when the vehicle was new in 2013-14. I have never really had a huge issue with my SEL, none of the parasitic drain issues or anything -- makes me wonder if the SE had some issues the SEL did not. When I first bought the car used I would intermittently have an issue where the check engine light would come on when trying to engage the push button start in "Run" mode from sitting in a parking lot, but a software update from the dealer fixed that. (Yes, I had my foot on the brake to start).

Yes, the service advisor had these in stock as their medium price option but they are definitely not "low rolling resistance" -- they are stickier - so not easy to do do pulse and glide type coasting. Prior set was Goodyear *Fuel Max* Assurance, which WERE a decent tire for the C-MAX. Normally I would be very happy, "Goodyear Assurance All-Season" are very nice riding, quiet, safe tires. I left them on anyway because I really need a decent set of tires, I am hoping once they break in a little bit they will be less sticky. The engine runs more so approx 3-5 less MPG.

These was a company that once offered a kit to do this .. it's not a simple as just swapping the radio .. it's a significant hardware upgrade. There is a new GPS antenna, a new media hub, new faster APIM, new screen and some reprogramming required based on VIN. https://www.4dtech.com/c-max-13-15-sync-3-upgrade-for-myford-touch/ There are less expensive options on say, amazon -- https://www.amazon.com/Upgrade-Support-Including-Navigation-na3-4119/dp/B08SMD5GC5?th=1 I'm not specifically recommending any of these because I have no way of knowing how reputable any of these vendors really are. I believe the last version of Sync 2 upgrade was 3.10 - I am still using Sync 2 and for the most part it works, although slow -- "Windows Embedded Automotive" was running on underpowered hardware and is just not as responsive as QNX. As clunky as Sync 2 is, I dislike the navigation voice prompts for Sync 3 even more.

I have a 2013 Hybrid SEL with 126K mi and routinely get about 40MPG driving around town. I specifically take back roads with this car because it has an opportunity to drive more EV miles that way. Highway will prompt the engine to run simply because it needs both the engine and battery for highway driving any reasonable amount of time. I have Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires on mine. The heater will drain the battery and require use of the engine more in the winter. In very cold winter days I typically get like 34MPG. From what I understand the Energi has PTC heater so your setup might be a bit different. When you consider majority of gas crossovers get 25MPG max 40MPG is pretty good. The problem FORD had was they got greedy and originally stated the car would get 60MPG -- which it does -- but only in perfect laboratory conditions for the stock model - not typical. I've gotten 55-57MPG in very rare conditions riding around town. A lot of people became disgruntled about that. The other significant problem was a parasitic drain on the 12V battery -- if your car has all the recalls hopefully this shouldn't be a problem, but you'll still need to replace the 12V about once every 7 years or so just like any other car. Apparently several of them also had transmission shaft bearing problems, I've been lucky so far that I haven't had that problem -- I had my transmission fluid drain and fill at 120K per the owner's manual specifications and no problem so far. The transmission is more like a manual transmission -- there are no bands, etc. like you would have in a traditional automatic so I guess they are able to get away with long service interval. How about the tires? They must be low rolling resistance tires in order to "coast" effectively. If someone put regular tires on your car they will be too "sticky" and won't coast effectively -- you'll need to be constantly applying gas to keep speed. The idea when driving hybrid is to accelerate efficiently/swiftly to the traveling speed you want to travel and then sort of "coast" around .. gently ease off the accelerator, then apply a little back pressure to the pedal and the thing should kick into EV mode around town -- as long as you aren't going up a hill or pulling a load. The regular C-MAX can travel max 2mi in EV mode before it MUST use the engine to recharge. The Energi can go further -- up to 7 miles I think - and I guess you can plug it in, but I still consider it a hybrid, just with a bigger battery pack. If you drive the car on the highway it WILL kick in the engine, but the idea is that it uses the battery pack to even out the RPMs. The specs say 20 miles on a charge, I'm not sure if that's realistic or not. If you press the leaves near the bottom of the touchscreen it will display a picture of the car showing you where the energy is coming from and where it is going to, and the potential reason for the engine being on. In addition until you get used to driving it you can set the driving coach display in the left hand gauge display -- this display can be configured using the arrows and OK on the left hand side of the steering wheel to display a range of information using the "MyView" setting including the driving coach. Honestly, you don't want to hypermile your car, that just drives people nuts -- but there are a few things you can do to help extend the range, driving even reasonably well you should be able to get at least mid 30s and my car routinely gets around 40MPG -- higher if I'm just coasting around to the grocery store in town on a particularly nice day outside. You may have noticed how sensitive the brakes are, if you use them correctly you'll probably seldom have to use the actual brake pads, the regenerative brakes will slow you down and put energy back into the battery at the same time. You can get pretty good at timing red lights so you can get there when they turn green. Now that gas is more expensive a few other drivers don't seem to mind, but again I only really hypermile whenever traffic is light, most people just want to get where they are going and you'll only be aggravating the other drivers if you drive excessively slow.

Indeed, as it turns out I got screwed in the rear driver's side tire last weekend. I could not feel it by hand. A local shop plugged it for free.

It was about $250 for the drain and fill. I took the car for a long drive on back roads today to charge the battery and try out the transmission. No issues so far -- other than a low tire pressure warning. Pulled over to check and the back tires were low .. one about 10 psi and the other about 20 psi .. no punctures .. I don't know if this is because it was sitting on the rack for a while, or maybe the crazy temp swings we've been having here in the Northeast US. I filled them back up and they've been fine since.

Yeah, sure sounds like the old 12V battery drain issues to me. Lately I've noticed my car won't unlock again, I have to open the door with the key inside the fob and then start it up with the FOB next to the steering column once inside. Ever since COVID they have been letting us work remotely more. I don't drive it on a daily commute and the 12V is probably going low from lack of routine charging. I left the car "idle" in the mall parking lot with the climate control off yesterday for about an hour while I was getting an eye exam. Just locked the door with the FOB. That seems to have been enough to restore normal operation for now. If the 12V goes bad too many times I suppose it could actually damage the battery. For the Prius I bought one of those gold top optima AGM batteries so that way if it went completely dead I could still charge it -- although I never had parasitic drain with that car. I didn't typically didn't have issues with the 2013 C-MAX SEL either, but a handful of times as it's gotten older I've had to pull the fuse when the touchscreen became non-responsive and the amp wouldn't output any sound. Now I keep a small toolset with pair of piers and a tire plug kit in the back of the car at all times.

You'd think the part would still be around because the HF35 is still being used on Maverick and a few others -- but then again they only build a few Mavericks per year I guess..

I had dealer shop complete the shift cable bushing fix and drain and fill the transmission at @ 123K mi today .. they didn't notice anything peculiar in the fluid, so far no issues.

Thanks everybody -- about 125K mi so far and no transmission issues yet. I drive mostly on back roads with the occasional highway trip. I might have them drain and fill at 130K per the maintenance schedule.

Is a 2013 SEL Hybrid, I've never changed the fluid. If I can make it to 200k I'll be more than happy .. lately haven't been driving a whole lot to be honest. With a regular transmission I would never consider it but this transmission is more like a manual eh? And I'm not interested in doing a flush, just the drain and fill they typically recommend.