livesmith

I think the ICE is designed for it, with 132k mi. on mine with little to no oil usage. :)

 

I would expect CMAX ICE to last longer, it runs half as much as Prius.  We haven't heard of failed ICE on CMAX that I'm aware of. :)  There are probably 250K CMAX/FFH out their now in three yrs, 8 months of being available. :)

 

Paul

Yeah, but running an engine at operating temp is about the easiest thing you can do to an engine.  It's the starting and not at temp parts where the wear is more likely...

Sure, there are a decent amount of them out there, but 3 years and 8 months is a pretty short amount of time in my mind.  This is the newest car I've had.  Usually I don't get something till it's at least 5 years old.

Wonder what the highest mileage C-Maxes have gotten to.

Once a good number of people start clearing 250K miles without major ICE trouble then I'd start feeling confident that it's a pretty reliable setup.

I'm not saying I have any reason to think otherwise, just that I haven't heard of any long-term data yet.

Starting and stopping engine 50 times a day on a 5 mile commute during which it never reaches normal operating temperature is probably worse for an engine than normal driving

True. This appears to be a key difference between the Prius and C-Max. The Prius seems to run the engine much more often to keep everything up to temperature.  It seems the C-Max is much more likely to shut off.  I wonder how the long term may differ.  A failed ICE on a Prius seems almost non-existent.

I've got a set of Taurus wheels for my snow tires.

Bummer, I had thought Max had the approaching lights as well, but I guess I was just used to it on my old Prius and Sienna.

Oh, there are occasions when I miss this sort of room...  I managed to get a Weber Grill in my Energi, but only by squeezing another couple inches out of the box and headliner/carpet, etc.  By all accounts measuring it, it shouldn't have fit.  And it did NOT want to.  Was going to go pick up a board for my trailer, but realized I don't see any way to get a 46x60" item in there either... 

We brought home a mirror from Ikea and needless to say something had to give:

 

Any chance you turned off the interior lights?  Do they come on when you open the door?

Since a lot of time has gone by since the date of my original post, and there are many more C-Max owners, I'd like to know if anyone has further thoughts on this topic of using an Energi but never plugging it in.

 

Thanks

I've got a 2013 Energi.  If you got one and never plugged it in you'd only be at a negative state.

-You'd spend more money to get the car

-You'd spend more money on gas since you'd get worse mileage.(more weight in the car and a lower final drive ratio)

If you don't plug it in, you've essentially got a slightly worse version of the C-Max Hybrid.

That said, if you happened to go down something like Pike's Peak routinely then yes you would be able to fill up the larger battery and use it later so in that particular scenario you *might* end up with better overall mileage depending on conditions...

 

  Whdz® Auto 6th LED Headlight H11 Conversion Kit - LED Bulbs H11 6000lm 44w - Super Bright I found these LED headlights on Amazon to replace the OEM Halogen low beams. The price at the time was $55 for the pair. They're plug & play, with no separate ballast, or igniters to be squeeze into the housing. Installation wasn't that difficult. I had no problems removing the right housing was really easy. The left I couldn't remove, but was able to move it enough to swap the lights.

 

I was pleasantly amazed of the difference. Plus the 22W LEDs draw less than half as much power than the 55W Halogens.

 

There are several different conversion kits available at a wide range of prices. be sure to look at their physical characteristics before buying them, because some may not fit. 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Whdz%C2%AE-6th-Headlight-H11-Conversion/dp/B016PV6ZV0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

 

 

 

 

 

So these LED replacement lights actually seem as bright and cover as wide an area as the stock halogens?

The Ford dealer can turn off the DRL for the 2013 model year. They might charge for the service.

So if I made it to the drive-in with my Energi fully charged I wonder how much battery I'd burn through sitting in "ON" for 4-ish hours...

Wonder how hard it is to unplug the headlights...

Ah, ok. Mine is an SE (just got it last week!), so I wasn't able to test it for myself. For what it's worth, I did find a thread in the Fusion Hybrid forum saying that the radio can be powered on while the car is off, and it will stay on for about two hours. May help for the drive-in situation. 

I'd like to know just how to do that...

I only recently started playing around with the radio with the car "off" and on my 2013 Energi it seems you only get 10 minutes before it shuts off and further it seems that after you've turned the stereo back on twice(maybe 3x) then it "shuts off to save battery" and I guess requires the car to actually be turned "on" before it will let you use the radio again?  Which would REALLY suck at the drive-in since I've also got DRL's which Ford apparently requires to be on any time the car is on, never mind if you're driving or not...

The 2013 can be turned off at the dealer. The setting is in the BCM. Unless you are in Canada, of course.

That's what I've heard.  Trouble is I'd just as soon have DRL, I'd just like a way to not have it on while parked but on.

Starting your car with the emergency brake on will typically make the DRL's not turn on.  This is pretty much a standard on any car I've had, whether it's Ford, GM, Toyota or Honda.

I WISH this was the case.  I agree, I've had cars in the past with DRL's and they had ways of temporarily turning them off like with the e-brake on.

Not so on my 2013 Energi.  I had it in park, parking brake engaged, lights turned to OFF and as soon as I turn the car ON, the DRL's are on.

Not normally a problem for me, but it would make it a lot more of a pain at the Drive In...

I had this problem at one point in our garage.  One day they chewed through an ignition coil wire on our Sienna(thankfully it was able to be patched).

Then when we had our first kid, my Prius sat in the garage for like a week.  After that there was a small chunk missing from the front passenger seat and the airbag light was on.  Fortunately I found another chunk missing out of the back seat and apparently they chewed through the curtain airbag wire assembly back there.  Again, patched.

For a while I just didn't park in the garage and it seemed to help.  Thankfully no more problems in a few years!

All I can say is that remaining oil life is always displayed on the Vehicle Health Report for our 2013 C-MAX Hybrid SE.

 

Here's a screenshot of the top of the email report, with some information blanked for privacy.

 

Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 10.21.37 PM.jpg

 

Of course it may be different for C-MAX Hybrid Energi, and for other model years.

Nice!

Yeah, I just re-checked the one I got for my 13 Energi and it doesn't show the oil life like yours.

I think you're right... I was thinking about accessory mode, which will turn itself off. Sucks at drive-in movies.

Frank

I haven't played with it much yet but there appears to be another even more minimal mode than accessory.  With the car off I can press the power button on the radio and turn it on without ever touching the power button for the car...

I'm used to the auto power off feature at the drive in.  Our Sienna has the same thing.

What I've realized would be even more of a problem with my 2013 Energi is that it's DRL's don't shut off in Park.  Any time the car is on, the lights are on.  So to not annoy anyone I'd have to make sure I got there well before the movie starts(not a big deal) and then not turn the car back on until everyone else is leaving...(even then I've tended to just use the marker lights to not annoy others still watching the credits or something).

The trouble with that is hoping that the 12v battery will be ok with the stereo on for 4 or so hours...  Might be fine...  Oh, and hoping that I don't need to start the car for a bit of heat or defrost...

Every other car I've owned had options for shutting off the drl's, either with a built in switch or with the parking brake on a notch, etc...

Now I see why my oil at walmart cost a little more, it is the advanced full synthetic but it has been treated for

extended miles.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mobil-1-Extended-Performance-0W-20-Full-Synthetic-Motor-Oil-5-qt/36019107

Yep, I get the extended performance as well.  If this stuff is going to be in there for 1-2 years and/or 10-20K miles I'd like the added protection.

Remaining oil life is one of the items included in the Vehicle Health Report.

 

"How to run a Vehicle Health Report with SYNC"

 

https://owner.ford.com/how-tos/sync-technology/sync/vehicle-health/how-to-run-a-vehicle-health-report-with-sync.html

Does this work for the C-Max Hybrid?

I finally got a VHR to run on my Energi and I can't find anything about oil life remaining.  All it does is give me like 5 green checks for various categories and the "additional info" just has some generic boiler plate about how your engine works, etc.

The closest I found was in my 70K mile service to be done where it says that the oil should be changed either when the OLM comes on or 24 months or 20K miles, whichever comes first.  

From the 53% reading on Forscan I'm assuming I'm just going to get an OLM light at 80K.

That's not how MY 2013 auto headlamps work.  

 

When in auto mode and in normal daytime light (especially in sunshine) the headlamps are off.  If when in auto mode and the headlamps come on like when in a dimly lit tunnel in daytime, the headlamps will not stay on after exiting the tunnel (short time delay after exiting).  The headlamps do not become running lights.

 

mtta, was your car a commercially leased vehicle as IIRC they can be programmed for day time running lights? or maybe someone modified your vehicle for daytime running lights?  The sunlight sensor is on the top of the dash in the center.  Did the dealer scan your car for diagnostic trouble codes as there are many DTCs for the sunlight sensor?

My 2013 Energi has DRL's and autolamps.  But there's still a difference.  The headlights are always on, but at reduced brightness and the headlight indicator on the dash is NOT on when in DRL mode.  When the autolamps switches on, the headlights go full brightness, the rest of the marker lights turn on and the indicator light on the dash turns on.

Ford needs to figure this stuff out if they want to remain relevant in the future, and dealerships need to hire techs who understand computers. It's 2016. I shouldn't have to explain software version numbers to my service department.

Yup.  Or that we get responses like "yup, you're right it doesn't work." and have no plan to fix it.  Or to tell us that whatever is wrong is basically a feature and supposed to be that way...

My car has been one of the ones which doesn't "see" the update via the website.

 

So I took my car in to the dealership to get routine service and asked them to do the upgrade while it was there.  They simply re-installed 3.7.   When I picked up the car, I let them know that they re-installed the version of system that was already in there.  They weren't sure what I meant.

 

The dealership thought 3.7 was the latest version.  I showed them the info about 3.8 and they scheduled another appointment for me (which in and of itself is a major hassle).

 

I went back in and they tried again.

 

Nope, reinstalled 3.7.

 

So they tried a different way, nope - still 3.7.

 

They called Ford and worked with Ford for an hour or so, and Ford sent them some detailed instructions of a "special" procedure that was designed to fix it.

 

They were trying that "special" procedure, and my PCM died.

 

Now my car is completely 100% bricked.  A $38k paperweight.  They can't get any communication working with the PCM at all.

 

We'll see what happens.

Nice.

Sounds like your dealership is about as bright as mine, but I didn't try fighting them that much to actually get anything done because it looked like a losing cause.

I just used the install someone else posted and after about an hour of various updating it went through it finally finished and I was on 3.8.  Never showed as an option on Ford's website and I've yet to find any way to report it to Ford.  And the dealer gave me the expected response of "yeah, it doesn't work." Which was the same response to the Vehicle Health Report not working.  Which I have managed to get closer to working on my own.  

Oh yeah, GPS as well. Except they told me on that one that *I* was wrong, there was nothing wrong with my GPS.  I've since gotten it working at least for now by pulling a couple fuses.

I am so fed up with dealers.

Good luck!

Doesn't violate the warranty to have it done elsewhere, but if the service is done at the Ford dealer everything is already documented in their computer, simplifying the claims. Plus, I know it is done right.

"Know it is done right".  THAT is the key.  Back to the matter of whether you have a competent dealer.  

My personal experience with most dealers is that I trust them a lot less than independent mechanics.  Even with just changing the oil.  Sales, Service and Parts.  I've heard people in each of those departments spout things that weren't true and they do it the whole time like they know better than anyone else.

Depends on the dealer. I've had nothing but great service from Galpin Ford here in the LA area. When under warranty, I always use the dealer for service. It simplifies things if any warranty repairs come up. But also, I prefer taking my hybrid to a dealer who knows the technology. I had an Escape Hybrid before the C-Max Energi, and my dealer has been servicing hybrids for 11 years.

 

YMMV, I know, but it just depends on the dealer.

I agree completely.  If you've got a good dealer who knows what they are doing and does a good job and doesn't try to overcharge you for everything they possibly can then I'd definitely go with them.

The trouble is finding such a dealer...  I have a lead on one possibility I hadn't thought of.  Though it would also mean I'll be driving about 70 miles to go to the dealer when I have 2 dealers within 10 miles.

Though, that said, even under warranty with a good dealer, I wouldn't have the dealer change the oil unless it was free or otherwise cheaper/more convenient.  There's nothing complicated or warranty violating by having it done elsewhere or by yourself.

I am near due for my next oil change, and I want to go back to 0W20. I am definitely having reduced fuel economy since going with the standard oil used by the dealer. I only switched because the previous oil change had an extra $70 premium on it when I requested the 0W20.

 

I'd like to buy my 0W20 oil--I am thinking Mobil 1, but I am open to suggestions--and bring it to the dealer, paying for the labor when I do my 10,000 service. Has anyone ever done something like that before? How did it turn out? Did the dealer try to balk or decline, saying that they wouldn't be responsible for engine failure after using your store bought oil, even if it is the approved grade?

 

Thanks.

I'd skip the dealer entirely.  I buy my Mobil 1 0w-20 at WalMart in a  5 quart jug.  I'll either change it myself or take it to my independent mechanic and pay him $10 to change it.

I stay away from the dealer if possible.  I have about a 5% satisfaction rate with any department of any dealer I've dealt with.  I have exactly one Toyota dealer I like and they're about 70 miles away and I haven't been there in years.

Just got Max back from the dealer last week and was told flat out that I was wrong, there was nothing wrong with my GPS showing my car off to the side of roads that haven't moved in a hundred years.  But was also repeatedly told that I NEEDED new $188 maps...

Anyone have access to a C-Max shop manual site?  I want to see a diagram of the underside of the car so that I know exactly where the jacking point are.

Look for some tiny traingle/arrows.  One near each corner, under the doors close to the wheels.  There seem to be solid points inside there.

I believe this is the GPS Module (GPSM) that is located behind the Instrument Panel Cluster (IPC).  Call the dealer parts dept. and ask for the part number of the GPSM to verify?

Hmm, thanks, I hadn't seen that module yet...  Maybe if I call a different dealer.  The one I went to already quoted $750 for the part, so I'm sure they think it's something else.

I found this video:

One person on there says they have to pull fuse 67 and 79 every 6 months to fix it.  So I'll try that free fix first.

But they also list the GPS Antenna module as the fix:

Part# CJ5Z-10E893-C