HPRifleman

Is anyone updating the first page of this thread as well as the 600+ mile club thread?

The miles to empty was already about 7 miles past zero when I filled up. I didn't want to temp fate by pushing things since I have never been that low before. Even my other 700 mile tanks still had some miles to empty on the display.

I'm already a member of the 700 mile club but I was able to raise the bar a bit. I was shooting for an 800 mile tank but some highway driving and cooler weather put a stop to that. Oh, well. This was on 87 octane fuel but I don't know what the tire pressure was at. Driving was in typical suburban and rushhour (that means stop and go) traffic with a daily one-way commute of 23 miles.

I forgot about this thread but by coincidence I passed 500 miles on my present tank today. I should have taken the picture before I left for work. It was a cool day and my mileage kept dropping during my commute.

I just took my 2013 in for an oil change and 15B04. The interesting thing is that the invoice says the battery was tested and that it failed the test and was replaced. This is on an SEL that has never had any 12v problems and I used to check battery voltage after sitting in the garage and the voltage was never low. Other actions were to reprogram PCM, DC/DC converter, IPC, GWM, FCDIM, and clear programming DTCS. The dealer also installed protective tape on front door wiring and liftgate wiring.

See my signature for the build date. There were some TSB's that had to be taken care of by the dealer early on but relatively trouble-free in two years of ownership. The car is stil smooth, comfortable, runs great, and last tank was 660 miles and 54MPG. I have not had any MFT problems in a while so I'm very happy with it.

I really liked the Ford GT from 10 years ago. Great styling and so close to the GT40. This new one is not as good looking, in my opinion.

Are there any SE Energis? I thought they were all SELs.

I find myself as a very interested bystander observing a shift in transportation preferences. For decades we have had an infrastructure model of ICE-powered vehicles and energy sources (gas stations) scattered around the country. You can travel from any point to any another point as long as you are moving from one gas station to another. Now we are seeing vehicles that don't subscribe to this model. For the most part, EV's source their energy from wherever they are based. For privately owned vehicles that means at home. The downside of this is that the vehicle can't venture out to an external energy source and must remain within range of its base. There is a lot of inertia behind our existing infrastructure model. It remains to be seen if the infrastructure will change to accomdate EV's (charging stations all over the country), if the vehicles will advance to the point that they don't need charging away from their base, or a combination of the two.

I think your dealer is giving you a lousy excuse because they don't want to pursue the matter. There may be differences between the SE and SEL but I leave my cell phone charger and iPod plugged in inside the center console cubby and this hasn't been a detriment to my 12v battery.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this. A lot of detail behind pure electric vehicles can only come from the people that own and drive them. Knowing details like this helps to educate the rest of us.

I don't plan to sell my C-Max. Unless I change my mind, the typical price of the car has no meaning. It's value is in the utility it gives me.

+1

As of today: Total Miles: 18918.4 EV Miles: 7130.3 Regen Miles: 227.6 45.4 MPG Brake Score: 99%

This doesn't seem to work in my car. Using a USB cable, MFT will only play ringtones and I cannot browse to actual songs or control playlists.

Thanks for the advice on the phone volume. That did the trick. Although I found that even if I turned up the phone volume all the way the music on the car speakers was still slightly quieter than sound from another source such as FM or Sirius. It is at least listenable although having to adjust settings just to listen to a different source seems.....unelegant.

Multiple or larger batteries are not a solution to the problem of the 12v battery being discharged in some vehicles. The solution is to find and fix the unintentional draw on the batteries in those vehicles.

I have been using an older iPod connected via USB to play songs. This has worked well until my iPod decided to give up the ghost. Now, I would like to use my Samsung Galaxy S4 as a music player via Bluetooth. The S4 connects seamlessly via Bluetooth so I thought this would be straightforward. Unfortunately, I have two problems with this method. One, MFT will only play one song no matter how many times I tap the "forward" button, and two, the volume is really low. So low that I have to turn the car volume up really high just to hear the song at normal loudness. I never had these problems with the iPod. From some of these threads it looks like many of you have had success using your phones as music players. Are there any hints at the best method for this? Do I need any apps to help the process?

At one time I had heard that the Volt initially runs off the battery until the charge gets low enough. Then, the ICE starts up and continues to run (like a conventional automobile) until the car can be plugged in and charged again. Is this true?

I almost forgot about another great channel I listen to, Radio Classics. These are shows from the golden age of radio ('40's and '50's). Shows like Gunsmoke, Charlie McCarthy, Dragnet, Jack Benny, etc. Way before my time but quite entertaining.

Hair metal bands from the 1980's. Motley Crue, Cinderella, Poison, Warrant, etc. The nostalgia of my youth.

Not in my experience. Every time I try to use Eco-Cruise I get lower mileage than I do with the manual method of keeping the battery charged and the engine load just above the electric threshold.

Hair Nation 1st Wave Classic Rewind

For those that may not understand some of the highway mileage techniques mentioned, here is a picture of one application. 1) Set the left screen to Empower. 2) Run the ICE enough to raise the indicated battery charge level to almost full. 3) Moderate the throttle so the white part of the load display (far left) is only slightly above the blue battery envelope. Keep the engine running. Don't let it go into electric. This will take some work and your right foot might get tired. When all of this is working you can get an instantanous mileage reading as shown in the picture (60MPG) depending on conditions. Provided the road is flat and you don't come across traffic, you can keep this up for a while. Remember that if the ICE load falls inside of the battery envelope, the ICE will shut off and you will be running on electric only. This may seem great but as soon as the battery charge level drops and the ICE restarts the instantaneous mileage will drop. Then, it will take more work to get back to the state you were in before.