jestevens

Whatever you decide on please make sure they are low rolling resistance tires (looks like PureContact LS have "EcoPlus" so you should be good) -- except maybe if you are interested in snow tires. I made the mistake of buying non-LRR tires for a hybrid once..bad idea.. All season radials are fine here in Central PA, we measure snow in inches. I had the P7, they were okay -- a little wierd -- they would slide around a bit until they "bit into" the snow and then they were fine.

The OEM Michelin or Goodyear FuelMax Assurance have been good to me.

One for wife and one for you!

Thanks Plus 3 Golfer, I didn't realize that. I must've been in a hurry -- it was February and 10F outside when I was trying to get into mine.

That is great news -- I don't know why I didn't ask before but have you tried replacing the coin cell battery inside the FOB? It's a CR 2032 (I think this is the same battery used on some computer motherboards). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLI9hLNHdw I had a little trouble at first with mine too - with the emergency keys there isn't much to grab onto to get leverage -- glad it is working.

http://www.fordservicecontent.com/Ford_Content/vdirsnet/OwnerManual/Home/Content?bookCode=O33359&countryCode=USA&languageCode=en&marketCode=US&viewTech=IE&chapterTitleSelected=G1598768&subTitleSelected=G1598769&topicHRef=G1598772&div=f&variantid=4196&vFilteringEnabled=False&userMarket=USA

The High Voltage Battery is disconnected? There is a service plug near the battery that allows technicians to disconnect the entire pack from the car while they work on it so there is less danger from being shocked. When the plug is in place it bridges a gap in the high voltage contacts so the car can use the energy in the battery. Without it, it's like an open fuse -- current can't flow to the rest of the systems in the car the normal way. Sounds like somehow your service plug became loose? I thought the design was such that it would be hard for that to happen. It should be easy enough to wear some thick insulated gloves and plug it back in, but since we are talking about high voltage I wonder if there is a more serious fault in the HV system that caused the car to shut down to protect people?

There are definitely some bugs in the software too -- if you do unexpected things they didn't test for -- like open the passenger side door instead of the driver side door and start the car -- go to shut the car off from the driver's side and the dash and/or touch screen never fade out -- stuff like that. If I see any sort of weirdness like that I go to the driver's door and cycle the engine on and off the way 90% of drivers would every day.

I've never had the parasitic drain issue with my 2013 SEL but from what I've read it seems like one or more of the modules, like the radio gets stuck in a certain state where it never goes to "sleep" even when the car is shut down and thus draws down the 12V. I HAVE had an issue with dead battery, locked out, etc where I had to use the embedded key in the FOB to open the door and perform the FOB to steering wheel start. In that case the 12V battery tested good at the dealership but I had them replace it anyway and the problems went away. They really didn't want to replace it because the instruments showed it was good and they thought I would be mad if it didn't fix the issues. After 7 years the car just needed a new battery -- costs about $200 to replace at dealership. Hybrids can exhibit lots of weird issues with a low 12V battery.

Mine checked okay although I thought they were a pain to read -- I had to use a strong LED flashlight at just the right angle. One of them only had a three digit code -- weird.

One other benefit of the Hybrid Escape seems to be that it has a compact spare tire. I was able to get by using tire plugs and going to Ford Dealer the next day but it wasn't really fun. Otherwise I do like my C-MAX.

Mom is looking to buy a crossover in the next two years -- I think it's down to either 2020 Escape Hybrid or 2019+ RAV4 Hybrid .. both get around 40MPG -- the RAV4 might have more cargo room.

I still love my CMAX .. 105K so far -- according to dealer no indication of transmission leak. Buy a tire plug kit, needle nose pliers and a can of slime if you don't have already.

My understanding is that it's programmed to start to "prove" the engine and to warm up the catalytic converter. Can you imagine a hybrid with an engine that won't start? I did have one time very warm out with high SoC where I think it delayed engine start. The battery pack is very small in hybrid, it would work for your example but under normal conditions it would be depleted quickly. Paul is very good at preserving MPG, I wonder how far he's been able to drive on EV?

C-MAX is still going strong at the moment. If I have a major failure (e.g. transmission or HVB) I'll probably be in the market for a new hybrid and I've come around to looking at the Escape Hybrid, but I need to wait to get more used market built up first. I think I would go straight EV if I was going to do a plug-in and I would rather pay off my mortgage then spend on a Tesla right now. Leaf is probably the most economical for straight plug in right now but not sure if I want to make that jump.

I didn't want to force the lens housing and crack it so I've never actually removed the whole headlight assembly, just undid all of the bolts and pins and rotated it up enough to get better access to the wiring and bulb sockets. I also was never really able to disconnect the wiring clips due to cramped space, but I was still able to rotate the bulb socket and pull it out of the assembly, then when you have the socket in hand pull the bulb straight out of the socket and replace the bulb, reinstall the socket into the assembly and twist 1/4 turn to seal against the housing again. So your bulb socket doesn't want to separate from the rest of the headlight housing? I think the seal initially was a little tight on mine but was still able to rotate the socket to pull it out of the housing, sorry.

Just wanted to mention that my 12V battery tested "good" and my advisor didn't want to replace the battery because they thought I would be upset if it didn't solve the problem. I had them replace it anyway at 6-7 years old - and it did solve the problem.

If you are getting those type of mileage numbers and it comes with a spare than it might be worth taking a look at, I have to wait until a used market develops in my area first though. I still love my CMAX but did not really enjoy trying to plug a tire at 8PM at night in a sketchy parking lot while it was starting to rain.

If you do that about 11 times in a row the car will use its GPS and EV+ to figure out where you spend most of your time parked. EV+ will give slightly more range if it looks like you're heading to a destination where it's going to have to run the engine for a while to warm up the catalytic converter (and charge the battery) next time you start.

The car is not a sportcar but the torque is very nice. Hybrids are primarily set up to coast - so smoothly accelerate up to speed, then back off the accelerator a little bit but keep a steady pressure on the throttle .. on flat land you will see the car switch over to EV mode and coast round like a big electric golf cart for "in town" driving .. With low rolling resistance tires it is possible to get 40MPG without working very hard. The battery capacity isn't very big so you may not be able to go along on EV alone for too long, but I suppose the idea is to even out the RPM on the gas engine and provide a bit of power boost - so it's more like a V6 even though it has a fuel efficient 4 cylinder engine. Hybrid brakes are also typically more sensitive because there are two different braking systems - regenerative braking which shunts friction energy from brakes back into battery and traditional hydraulic brakes to provide more stopping power when necessary. So you can also coast on the brakes to provide an energy boost back into the battery and it won't wear down the brake pads that much because light braking is handled by regenerative system. So Hybrids are great for stop and go traffic. If you choose to use any of these techniques be mindful of traffic around you .. I do practice some of them, but never to the extent where I hypermile and hold up traffic.

If you bought the car from a FORD dealership I would ask them about fixing the belt and the pano roof cover ASAP - most dealers will do a little good will work to make sure customer is happy with the sale? I have a pano roof and love it -MOST of the time I keep it open anyway unless I'm not planning to drive it for a week or more. I -hope- it's something that you can set the limits on by holding the switches and not a mechanical failure. In 80K mi headlight/turn signal bulbs, cabin air filter, the 12V battery (once every 7 years or so) are the only things I've replaced. The service shop changed oil and put new engine air filter in. Like most newer cars this one comes with a tire inflator with a can of slime under the passenger seat rather than a spare. The slime expires - you might want to check the date stamped on your can that's attached to the inflator. Rockauto had a decent price on a replacement can. There's supposed to be a tire mobility kit warning that comes up on the dash when it's about to expire. So you might want to consider a tire plug kit with some cement, etc. Once in 7 years I got a flat from big steel bolt, thankfully it was just within the edge of the tread and not on the sidewall. I was able to plug the tire long enough to take it to a Ford dealer where they got me two new Michelin low rolling resistance tires the next day.

I actually like Sync 2 a lot, having the interface laid out in quadrants and with some manual knobs and buttons is great. My only complaint is that the hardware seems underpowered - it takes too long for screen updates. Competitors products like Entune don't seem as polished. I tried using Sync 3 and hated it - it was faster but I found myself constantly having to look away from the road to read the screen and figure out what to push. I also spent 10 minutes trying to speak a nav destination in a different state.

I found the software on another Ford forum (Fusion or Explorer I think), downloaded to an old 1GB USB stick and installed it through the dash using the media hub in the armrest without too much trouble. Unfortunately there are still some bugs that make me think going from 3.8 to 3.10 isn't that wonderful or necessary. I now have issues connecting bluetooth audio the first time with my original Iphone SE (the synchronization of sound gets out of whack to the point where it eventually disconnects - second time I connect it works fine) and MS seems to have some weird issues with updating track info when playing audio CDs that have always been there. I hit an awkward combination on the touchscreen one time and managed to freeze/hang the APIM while I was driving. It must have some sort of deadlock timer because it did eventually reboot itself after about 5 minutes of being non-responsive. I forget exactly what I pushed but I documented it somewhere on here at the time I think.

It was time to change mine two Februaries ago when I had to use the key embedded in the FOB twice because the doors wouldn't unlock. I could find the battery slightly cheaper online but then you also have to deal with shipping, plus with no heated garage wrenching on the thing for a half hour in the cold just didn't seem appealing to me. I second the notion of using the Ford service special.

Call up your service advisor and ask?