Redshift

My 2015 had this issue. Took it to the dealer who did the TSB. That was 2 years ago. Never happened again. BTW they don't replace the AC fluid. They just make sure it's full.

A/C doesn't run directly off ICE, but all energy comes from the ICE charging the HVB. This is probably a more efficient way to do it and I imagine some ICE cars are already doing it. I still know that running the A/C on long FWY trips I'm losing at least 2 MPG as compared to run with my windows down 2-3 inches. :sad:

 

Paul 

All the energy doesn't come from the ICE for charging. Don't forget regenerative braking. Also  don't forget the battery is charging whenever you are slowing down or going down hill.

Depends on what you mean by "parasitic." While the AC doesn't steal engine power, when cooling the car it does hit the battery very hard; which hurts mpgs, as you can't stay in EV mode for very long.

How can the A/C hit the battery hard? It runs of the high voltage battery that barely notices the drain.

You guys are missing the fact that the A/C on the C-Max is ELECTRIC, thus no parasitic drag whether it's on or off.

That's what YouTube is for. :)  I use a sharp knife and pry the case open starting on a side where the key ring attaches (narrowest part of case).  You have to be somewhate careful and work down around the sides of the case until it pops off.  Snap the case back on starting at the bottom (widest part of fob).

 

If you don't want to DIY, go to a Batteries Plus store and they will probably charge double the cost for a battery (IIRC CR2032) at Walmart but replace it for you at "no charge".  

Every time I buy batteries at Batteries Plus, they install them for free. I even replaced the battery in a beard trimmer that required soldering and they still did it for free.

Our engineering team is always working to improve SYNC. What version do you have now: https://owner.ford.com/tools/account/how-tos/keep-your-sync-up-to-date.html 

 

Shaay

You proved my point with your link. There are no cars listed there older than 2016. I have a 2015.  Also, I have Sync 2, version 3.8 that hasn't been updated since October 15th, 2015. 

Hi Redshift,

 

Our Owner site is not only for SYNC 3. Were you actually logged in: https://owner.ford.com/tools/account/sign-in.html Also, it sounds like you were viewing an article that pertained to the SYNC 3 system only. You can change the vehicle year, model, and system.

 

For example, this article is for the MyFord Touch system: https://owner.ford.com/how-tos/sync-technology/myford-touch/settings/how-to-perform-a-master-reset.html If you don't change to your vehicle info, you'll see the notice that says THIS INFORMATION APPLIES TO SYNC WITH MYFORD TOUCH.

 

 

jestevens,

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Shaay

Great. Does that mean they are working on a software update for all the Sync 2 users?

Just went to Ford's site to see if they have any upgrades for Sync 2. Since the site knows I have a 2015, they recognize me. Under the Sync tab, I cannot even click on anything, like choose your year. It's all greyed out. Guess us millions of Sync 2 owners are just left to fend for ourselves. This does not give me a good impression of Ford. The site has, in small text, a notice that the site is only for Sync 3. Thanks Ford. :-( 

Such a ridiculous price for something that is super cheap to produce. I bought a Garmin GPS and a temp mount (a sandbag) so I use it only when needed. Cost? $150 with FREE LIFETIME map updates.

And us poor Sync 2 owners are left out in the cold. No worries. There are only 10s of MILLIONS of us.

Most here don't have the "Eco Mode", I believe that was first added to the 2016 C-Max. 

My 2015 has it.

According to Ford, the USB ports support all types of devices for charging. They say that .5, 1 and 2 amp power is available depending on your device.

I put on 215/55-17 snow tires, no problem, in fact I think they "fit" better than 225/50-17 OEMs.

Remember variable valve timing can kick our engine into and out of Atkinson (late intake valve closing) at will, although its true efficiency does elevate when Atkinson vs. the usual Otto cycle. Power is down when in Atkinson, but efficiency is higher.

The ICE in the C-Max does NOT switch from Otto to Atkinson. It is always in Atkinson mode.

Yep it sure is 6'9".

Agreed. 6'8" here and I can wear a hat while driving my C-Max.

Went to another town for a retiree lunch and look what I happened to park next to. 2013 C-Max. What are the chances?

While this would be true of conventional cars with a fuel injected engine, it isn't true of a hybrid -- so the oil pump not turning could be an issue on a long, gradual hill. 

That is logical except that driving out of the mountains, my C-Max used the ICE constantly to help slow the car, even after the big battery was completely full.

Thank you for that.  It's interesting that MA is mentioned, because that is where I grew up and first learned about coasting in N (with the engine on) to save gas.  Yes, I think coasting in a regular car with the engine off is dangerous (of course we all do that all day long in our CMs, but that is different).  Also, from a wear and tear perspective, I believe most automatic transmissions can be damaged in the long run, by repeatedly turning the engine off and coasting, as this will result in the input shaft to the oil pump not rotating and therefore no transmission fluid circulating to lubricate the bearing and gears.  Actually, I think one of the issues with early CMs is with premature transmission bearing or bushing wear, caused by lack of adequate lubrication in EV mode.  I think I read that the Energi has a supplemental electric trans oil pump to address that issue - I'm not sure what the fix was for regular CMs

With a fuel injected car, it doesn't save any gas when coasting downhill in neutral because the computer has to keep the engine running, thus using gas. All modern fuel injection systems turn the gas flow completely off when coasting in gear. The forward momentum keeps the engine turning with no gas use at all. So driving in neutral uses more gas.

I have a good recording of the noise! This is coming off a traffic light on Jan 22. Outside temp was 31F, the heater is off. Two people in the car.  Recorded on a Nook tablet.

 

In the file, noise at 0:15, and again at 1:05 briefly. RPM to get the noise going (I finally found the tachometer) is about 2400.

 

The file name is C-MaxWooo.mp3

 

Spectral display shows a 15 db peak at 159 Hz. That would be twice the engine firing rate at 2385 RPM which is consistant with the tach reading.

 

Hope This Helps.

My 2015 SEL just started making this noise about 2 weeks ago. 13,200 miles. It's intermittent also. I cannot make it happen on purpose. Sounds like we may have some kind of issue.

My wife has a 2014 Passat TDI. She is a bit worried. Obviously the cars can pass emissions, because they do when connected. I suspect they will simply enable the controls continuously, probably with some performance hit. With her TDI, it could lose 20% of it's engine power and still be vastly superior to a gas car. My question is what will happen to the MPG, which is currently about 43 on her daily commute.

If it lost 20% power I don't think it would be "vastly" better than a gas car. The diesels only get a couple of more mpg than a hybrid so a 20% loss would be a big hit.

I agree with most of what Plus 2 had to say - especially:

 

Since there are electrical related losses associated with regeneration, IMO it's more efficient to coast in N.

 

I have been coasting down long, moderately steep hills in Neutral (for example, Davelo, back in the day when I lived in the Boston area, down Rte 2 Belmont Hill toward Fresh Pond) since the 70's, and I still do it with the C-Max and my Buick Lacrosse (mild hybrid).  If I can coast, instead of feathering the throttle to maintain speed. that has to be a gas saver.  If the hill is too steep and I will pick up too much speed, then of course I use D or even hill descent mode   I do not coast in Neutral up to stop signs or red lights.

 

 

I made a Three day trip to Rochester,NY and back this week so I decided to fill up with ethanol free (6.1 gal) with the 93 octane Premium and then add 2/3 of bottle of NOS Octane Booster Racing Formula.  I was amazed by the results and I saw the highest advance ignition timing ever.  I started out on I-85, I-285, I-75, I-71, I-90 to I-390 and by the time I got to I-75(50 mi) my average MPG was 58 going 65-75mph. I think the Octane Booster was worth 2 mpg, but not the money spent on it. Temps started out in high 60's, got up to 78*F and then dropped down to 55*F and I did have a tail wind 10-20 mph.  My average GPS speed was 63.5 mph and you can see on the GPS I wasn't driving slow, 84.9 mph max with 54.3 mpg average (53.5 mpg Actual). My second tank, 92 octane Premium Temps 50-58*F some rain averaged 53.6 mpg(51.6 mpg actual) .  When I got home I did final full up 53.9 mpg average (54.1 actual). I had the Grill Covers on for the whole trip and only used the heater to lower the ICE temp below 230*F for no longer than a minute at a time on long climbs.  The Total trip was 2033 mi. so I average about 700 mi. a day and BTW all three fill ups could have 700 mi. tanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS. Who said you could not get as good MPG's as a TDI. LOL :yahoo:

 

Paul

 

It great to be able to say you get that kind of mileage but I don't believe it's worth it taking an chance of damaging your fuel pump. Since the fuel pump is in the gas tank, it uses gasoline to cool itself. Run the tank super low and your fuel pump is exposed to the air and gets hotter. I'd rather fill up earlier and save my fuel pump. Doesn't mean anything to me personally about how far I went on one tank but you mileage is impressive.

At this point I don't bother about the price difference.  I want the longer engine life you supposedly get with E0 as we often run our cars 100s of thousands of miles.  There is some reason they limit you to E10 (and its not about gas mileage).

FYI using premium gas will NOT improve your engine life. It has nothing to do with it. Just use a good grade Top Tier gasoline and enjoy your car.

Agreed. I've got to the point now where I don't use the windshield vents because it uses the AC compressor. I just turn recirc off and turn off all the vent settings but have it on say 3 or 4 speed, or crack the front windows. Takes a little longer but gets the job done. I think it's a bit underhanded of Ford to have the controls say AC is off when it's not, and the only way we know it's running, is through the electric usage gauge (or compressor buzz). If I want to open the windshield vents and blow warm non-air conditioned air at the windshield, I should really be able to. Like I was on my 78 Mini Cooper, Ford Sierra, Renault Clio, Jeep Liberty, and any rental car I've used. If Ford want to help improve gas mileage on this or future cars, maybe make the AC on/off switch do what the user wants it to do.

Just curious. Why don't you want the a/c compressor to come on? Mileage? It's not going to make that big a difference. Also, if you don't run your a/c occasionally, the seals in the unit will dry out. They use the coolant to lubricate all the fittings so it it never runs, they will dry out and crack, thus causing a leak and expensive repair.

When the sensor detects the lack of daylight, it's designed to activate the headlamps. So when you pull into the garage, they will come on by design.

The headlamps will only come on with the wipers set to the low or high wiper switch settings. Not in rain sense/auto mode.

That's not true. My 2015 C-Max SEL headlights will come on automatically if I have rain sensing wipers turned on and the headlights set to auto. I had it set like that for a 5k mile trip I took this summer. Worked like a champ. I never had to worry about the lights or wipers.

I was also surprised at the dearth of LEDs, used only for interior lighting I think. However, this vehicle, with both gas and diesel engines has been on the roads in Europe since 2010. There seems to be a disconnect in regards to which technologies/features would be appropriate for hybrid vs. non-hybrid vehicles and I'm sure the manufacturing cost influenced the decision.

 

I also can't advise you on the effect of lower wattage LED bulbs on the entire electrical system. You'd think it would be a good thing but maybe not. Perhaps others more knowledgeable will chime in.

C-Max has been on the road in Europe since way before 2010. It was 2003 when they first came out.