cr08

I'm gonna add one more entry to my list here shortly but would like some confirmation from 2016+ owners with Sync 3 factory: Do you guys have the climate tab in Sync with the 'popups' when you adjust the temp/fan speed/vent options? My 2013 is a retrofit so I'm not 100% sure what the factory equipped 2016+ models are configured for by default (now that I think about it, I can probably pull AsBuilts myself with whatever VINs are openly posted online). If the climate options are not enabled from the factory, they can be added and I'll dig through my AsBuilt files and post the relevant changes in the spreadsheet.

The ACM is a common 'failure' point (not a hard failure, but a software/firmware bug) on these vehicles. If the Sync system/touch screen still functioned but you couldn't do stuff like change sources/presets, adjust audio, touch screen beeps didn't come through, that's a telltale the ACM is misbehaving. And in these cases it has the potential to stay active at key-off and drain the battery because it essentially completely freezes up. The fuse 79 trick you've likely read up on is the quick workaround for this. If you want a proper fix so it will never occur again, bug your dealer to do a firmware update on it. Shouldn't cost much. It's less than 30 minutes of work and is just them plugging in their computer and doing a quick update. Ford has this issue documented in one of their TSBs on the Fusion models but it's the same exact issue and those call for a calibration/firmware update as a fix. Something you can DIY and is good practice especially with the early 2013-2015 model years is to update your Sync system/APIM to the latest software available. Sync 2/MyFord Touch which is what yours is equipped with from the factory were known to be a bit buggy in early versions and got sorted out in the last updates Ford pushed out some years ago. You can go to the site below and it will give you all the info you need to check the current version, download an update to a (GOOD, brand name!) USB flash drive, and then update the system yourself. Update Ford SYNC® & Navigation Maps | Ford Owner Support

Which audio module? What exactly is the failure mode? As much details as possible would be helpful. Are you are dealing with the VERY barebones 4" non-touch unit or the 8" touch screen, nav equipped, etc? There are two infotainment modules: The ACM and APIM. ACM is the AM/FM/CD/Sirius tuner and acts as the actual audio routing to the speakers. APIM is the Sync unit/smarts and mostly just takes care of nav, Bluetooth, and USB media and is what handles the screen whether yours is the 4" or 8" version and sends its audio to the ACM to route to the speakers. There's also a tertiary DSP/DACMC unit in these vehicles needed for the active noise cancelling feature, though in my second hand experience I have yet to see anyone note the DSP has failed. Usually something happens with the ACM or APIM and both can either be fixed/recovered or at least replaced cheaply without paying dealer prices. Usually the APIM you can find around ~$200-$300 and the ACM probably around $100-$200. Generally these cars are pretty reliable mechanically and will likely treat you well for a long time. There are some potential transmission issues in the 2013-early 2016 model years, but Energi's seem to be spared more than hybrid models in this area. And the average mileage for most who DO run into issues seems to be around the 100k mark so take all of that as you will. I have a '13 Energi myself creeping up on 90k miles and it's mostly been basic maintenance with no big ticket repairs to speak of. Ultimately I won't say yay or nay for whether or not to keep the vehicle, but myself as well as other members can at least give some insights.

Probably the thing I'd recommend is reviewing the section of the owners manual that covers bulb replacements. Ford's instructions are quite clear on the process. Here's a PDF from the 2017 manual. Page 237 covers it. Untitled (fordservicecontent.com) From there it is up to you if you feel comfortable tackling it.

Probably the easiest method is to look for some high brightness halogen bulbs. They exist under different brands and seem to be often branded as a bright white or 'Ultra white' bulb. If the bulbs are factory you could also try just a standard set and see if the brightness improves. Old bulbs can become dim over time. Do NOT buy into the LED hype. Replacing halogen bulbs with LEDs is a BAD idea for safety reasons. The housings are not designed to aim LED bulbs properly and doing so can cause you to blind other drivers. You might have experienced this yourself where you come upon an older vehicle with suspiciously bright/blue or white tinted headlamps with tons of glare. This is why. For the sake of others on the road, don't be that person.

Jumping back in on this here. I know I haven't worked on or updated this much. Unfortunately I lack the energy or extra time these days to really put any focus on it. I'm going to open up the spreadsheet to comments rather than being view only. I'd open it completely but don't want to deal with the potential headache of randos coming in and wrecking it. If anyone else feels like they'd want to take it over completely, let me know and I'd be happy to 'pass the torch'. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tir9hvuLDii0yonGJR3FoyfKzNODT_PZCPZH6Ph9dz8/edit?usp=sharing I'm going to add an extra modification to the list now regarding the 'Next Charge' screen which is VERY handy. I'm also going to try and add some photos in too of some of these changes when I get a free moment.

Ok. Got a form set up. I'm hoping I got all the useful data in here. If anyone has suggestions for other data points to add, let me know. I think for the sake of correlating battery capacity to age/mileage this is sufficient. Feel free to share this around. I'm gonna post this over on the FB Energi group, the Fusion Energi forums, and also the C-Max subreddit as those I have immediate access to. https://forms.gle/HkxTZ3Eoqi83r8xW9

The one thing that makes me curious about this, bouncing off your comment on doing it when replacing the battery: With the older NiMH based Fusion hybrids (2010-2012) had been found to have a hard artificial time limit that severely reduced the usable capacity of the battery and rolling back the clock on these has been well documented to bring them back to being usable again. My memory's a bit fuzzy but I think this even got documented on Ford's end too. So it would be interesting to see if there's any correlation with our newer vehicles as well. I'm gonna see if maybe I can do up some survey/form for people to fill out some good details to compare against like model (C-Max or Fusion), model year, manufacture date, mileage, tested battery capacity, etc.. Just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Just seeing this post now. But I got this sorted on my 2013 with detailed info over here:

Looks like a new reply to the thread with some updated data has been posted. Not terribly conclusive unfortunately so I'm personally still a bit wary of this change, especially these being Li-Ion based batteries and being particularly picky with how they are handled. But if you want to believe the posted results, changing the battery age does seem to have the potential to increase available battery capacity. YMMV. I'd be very interested in seeing if anyone else attempts this and can post more concrete findings (such as the proper battery capacity test which it seems hasn't been done in the linked thread). Unfortunately this being my daily driver I am VERY wary of messing with the programming for a key part of the vehicle that could potentially brick it and rack up a multi-thousand dollar repair.

This is what I pulled from my '13's owners manual. For the sake of the search engine: Engine coolant - Hybrid model: 7.4 quarts (7L) Engine coolant - Energi model: 8.8 quarts (8.3L) Inverter system controller cooant: 1.1 quarts (1L)

Unfortunately that sounds like one of the failure modes seen on these. There's a transfer gear in the transmission that can rub against and eat a hole in the side of the transmission casing. These are not your standard auto trans. These are more akin to a manual transmission when considering what the trans fluid is there for: Simply lube and cooling. There's no hydraulics involved to where a loss of fluid will cause it to stop functioning (at least straight away). Also even with the car sitting still in Park, if the ICE is spinning it will be spinning said transfer gear in the trans which then transfers that motion to the starter/generator motor. There's no traditional neutral gear in these where the ICE just spins on its own. If the ICE is running, it is doing so intentionally either for propulsion or charging the HVB. If it's not needed, it shuts off. So it's always going to interact with the transmission when it is operating.

The one thing to keep in mind just commenting on the climate usage and related efficiency losses is the climate control system is intelligent in these vehicles. Unlike traditional ICE vehicles, it's not gonna require the coolant temp to get 'to the middle of the gauge' (like you'd expect on a non-hybrid vehicle) and will happily let it run on the cooler side with the ICE off/in EV operation. However the climate set temperature is very influential in how high it wants the coolant temp to be and how harder the ICE has to work to maintain that. So if you use HI or Defrost, the ICE is going to run longer and harder. Use something reasonable like 65/67/etc and it's gonna work a lot less to maintain that. When it comes to hybrid vehicles like these and all the nuances like the climate control example, each person's experience and efficiency numbers are going to vary wildly. I won't even comment myself because I own a plug-in Energi model which completely changes things up compared to the hybrid only model. But I will say there's a ton of owners who live in the Midwest and colder climates who like theirs. Hopefully we'll have some of them chime in here with their experiences.

Just clarifying/adding some info to this discussion: Only 2016 model years seemed to be equipped with the USB hubs that could not do CarPlay. They can still do Android Auto but it is often recommended to upgrade them anyways if only to get rid of the constant nag that shows on newer Sync 3 updates. There's also an unconfirmed rumor that the newer hubs may be able to provide more power to the phone for faster charging. 2017 and newer -SHOULD- have the updated hubs already. Telltale sign if it has not been is to ensure you are on the latest Sync 3 release and it will give an obvious warning about USB hubs being incompatible or similar on startup. 2013-2015 C-Max models if equipped with the 8" touch screen were all Sync 2/MyFord Touch. 2015/2016 is the hard delineation point here between Sync 2/3. Old Sync 2 systems cannot get access to Android Auto or CarPlay, full stop. What you see is what you get. These are also EOL so there will be no further updates or features added. However those vehicles CAN be upgraded to Sync 3 with a hardware swap. You'll find full upgrade kits sold by many sellers all over the net. They'll usually provide everything you need (including the updated USB hub for CarPlay if they are competent) including preprogramming it to your VIN. Installation is a breeze and may only take 20-30 minutes tops if you are comfortable. I recommend reviewing Sync 3 upgrade videos for the Escape on Youtube. The Escape has all the same dash/center console pieces as the C-Max so the process is identical. Sync 3 of course has CarPlay and Android Auto native WIRED and as long as you've been keeping up on the updates, they should all be ready to go by now. Wireless will never happen on these natively due to lack of hardware necessary. If you want wireless capability, you'll need the appropriate aftermarket dongle to make that happen. Only Sync 4 equipped vehicles (basically the F150 Lightning and Mach E, maybe others by now and as time progresses, more models 2023 and later will likely be equipped) have wireless AA/CP native. Final note on that last point: Sync 4 CANNOT be retrofitted into our vehicles unlike the 2>3 process. Ford changed a ton of underlying hardware and communication protocols with Sync 4. The C-Max as well as Focus and Escape cannot be upgraded due to their older C1MCA architecture. Even those who have tried on more 'compatible' vehicles like F150's and Fusions have had a lot issues in the process to where they are still unusable as a daily driver and likely never will be completely usable as a retrofit. As far as the compatible USB hub upgrades, this thread has a useful listing of various part #'s to look for. Make sure to look for the 2-port version for the C-Max. Single port w/passthrough is designed for the Ford models that have a separate USB port under the dash. These are not model specific so you can use one from basically any model vehicle as long as it is a 'Wide' model. Media Hub, CarPlay Compatible - 2015-2020 Ford/Lincoln - SYNC 3 - Ford / Information - CyanLabs Official Community

This is well known to have the EV miles be way off like that when you futz around with the EV modes under certain scenarios. A particular member here who goes way out of there way to piecemeal their EV usage to an extreme often posts these high numbers as a result of that. I know I've seen it personally when I took it cross country and up in the mountains of Colorado driving I-70. Regen'd a large amount of juice back into the battery and cycled the EV modes to get the save % bumped up. After that drive cycle I saw something like 30-35 miles of range reported as I recall which is REALLY inaccurate given the remaining 3.5-4kwh capacity remaining on my 2013. As it is, we all know the 'guess-o-meter' is far from accurate for battery capacity readings anyway. Should come as no surprise to see something like this occur. That said, this does not seem to in any way affect the actual MPG readings. I've yet to see any egregious examples of MPG ratings being way off and I follow most of the C-Max related communities around (two known FB groups, C-Max subreddit, here, etc..).

Posted about this over on the Cyanlabs forums, but also updating here: My 2013's still been flaky when it comes to the new TCU/FordPass. I've kept up to date on the TCU calibration levels. Latest one out there is dated 9/15 with the following files: HJ5T-14G139-UP HJ5T-14G144-UR Still dealing with no EV Trip Data and fuel level for whatever reason is seriously delayed and is often consistently days out of date or may take a half dozen individual trips to update. Also had some issues recently getting the Go Times to update properly and failing from FordPass. Reading through the workshop manual, it lists both the GWM (Gateway Module, part of the OBD connector under the dash, not the one in the left side access panel) and IPC (gauge cluster) as gateways feeding data to the TCU from the rest of the vehicle. No ETA, but I intend to try to pick up 'donor' modules that I can safely update the calibration on without risking my primary modules and thus the vehicle and see if it helps any. There's already the note in Ford's documentation for this program that 2017's need their IPCs updated as part of the procedure (although the assumption with no other evidence is it may just be fixing the 'Push brake to start' display for keyed ignition models) so there's some small hope either of these or both may help. Not sure. I'll report back again once I get anywhere on it and have anything useful to report. Mostly down to having the disposable funds and time/energy to mess with it. The IPC's going to be a process since it seems like it needs to be flashed in a bench setup and not in the vehicle on the C-Max at least with Forscan. It may even be fun to see if a newer IPC from a later model year that has more of the 'motive' stats on the right hand screen will be backwards compatible with the older model years. Watch my 2013 quickly turn into a Ship of Theseus! ? (Already tried and failed to get a 2020 ACM in here. Damn the C1MCA architecture...)

Long story made short: A user over on the Cyanlabs Discord was gracious enough to remind me of an old Github repo run by the Comma AI group with some openly available DBC files that include some Ford related files. In layman's terms, DBC files are an open format to translate raw CAN bits to human readable 'dictionaries' for various data points the vehicle spits out on the CAN buses. commaai/opendbc: democratize access to car decoder rings (github.com) Reviewing the databases for Ford, there are some interesting HEV related data points included that are currently not available in the known PID listings. For example there's two for 'ICE off hours at key on', one for the current trip, the other assuming over the life of the vehicle. Granted these are not noted for the C-Max specifically but in my educated experience, they should be universal in theory across the board for any modern Ford hybrid vehicle. Basically just throwing this out here as an FYI if anyone else wants to check it out. I have some ulterior motives for this data (I want to try and develop a microcontroller that can log detailed trip data at the end of the trip and potentially upload it somewhere since the 4G TCU's currently seem to be hit or miss, and a complete miss on my 2013, for providing any trip data in FordPass. Secondary is rehashing an old project idea to implement an intelligently controlled secondary exhaust fan on the HVB to try and aid in cooling.) but with free time and energy at a premium, I'm not gonna promise any specifics at this time.

I don't think we need to worry too much about Catalytic converters on ours. A lot of other vehicles (including the Prius which I know people will compare to ours in this discussion) have them under the vehicle with easy access. On the C-Max, it is well up in the engine compartment attached directly downstream of the exhaust manifold. A lot more difficult to access in a quick fashion which will turn off majority of thieves. They would essentially need access through the top/hood open at minimum to cut it off on the manifold side.

Neither the Energi or Hybrid models will get you much higher than mid 30s or so in hybrid operation in my experience unfortunately unless you take care to do some serious hypermiling techniques. The Fusion might work out better eking out some more MPGs due to the sleeker body but I don't own one so can't say for certain there. Probably the one time you'll see good numbers is cruising at 45-50mph at a steady speed. You can get it up to 40s/50s easy. But outside of scenarios like that you're probably not going to reach your desired 40 minimum mark with the C-Max.

Just to confirm, is this more of a droning type noise that only happens when the ICE runs under certain RPMs? If so, this has been well documented and is due to the Active Noise Cancellation system. There's a workaround to disable it at the tradeoff of slightly increased engine noise: I have had a 'buzzing' noise but rare and is pinpointed in the headliner right over the driver's head. Couldn't tell you how or why. Never heard an actual 'buzzing' sound anywhere else in the vehicle.

Timing chain. And there's no service interval listed by Ford for this.

Classic ACM freezing issues. My stock response: Workaround is the common Fuse 79 pull. Proper fix for this is to work with your dealer to update the ACM. This same issue has been documented and fixed on other models like the Fusion. I can also confirm having the ACM updated in my 2013 fixed this issue outright. Haven't had it happen in 4+ years. The battery being drained completely essentially power cycled it, same as what you'd do by pulling fuse 79. Basically the 'ol 'Turn it off and back on again'.

The only thing I can comment on is the supposed real world time for this, not counting for scheduling delays or other issues. But a few anecdotes on the FB C-Max groups as well as a tech on the Cyanlabs Discord have mentioned it only taking like 15-20 minutes tops to do. Doesn't seem like a long or difficult process. The big gotcha these days is finding a dealer who can schedule it earlier than <x> months out and not gonna hold it for multiple days.

This is incorrect and they have given you false information. The vehicle will not run if the high voltage traction battery is 'dead', ie: The vehicle finds it has degraded enough that it cannot rely on at all. For one simple fact: There is no traditional starter motor on these. The ICE/engine is started via the hybrid system which relies on the HVB to be operational. Without it, there's no way for the vehicle to even start the ICE. That said: Per my post above, I wouldn't worry about the HVB dying in a hybrid model C-Max. It's likely going to last the life of the car. It doesn't have the same wear/degradation concerns as the plug-in/Energi models do.