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Here's actual photos from mine. Really easy access from above it seems like.

For a hybrid/non-Energi model I wouldn't worry. The battery should last the life of the car. They aren't stressed nearly as bad as the Energi models. As nogoodbum mentioned, the HVB is responsible for starting the ICE and the hybrid system is crucial to vehicle operation. IF (and that's a big if on hybrid models) the HVB fails, the car will be undriveable. You will get clear warnings and error codes if this happens. One thing that may be worth doing on early model years for a hybrid vehicle at least is disable the EV+ function. This is up to you though. The premise for this is EV+ allows it to discharge the HVB much deeper than normal when approaching a repeat destination (like home or work) in order to try and get you the rest of the way on EV only. With the way these batteries behave it means that while you end up arriving home with one charge level, once the battery settles and cools down, the SOC will actually drop further on its own. It's rare, but some have reported this discharging it enough that the vehicle would not start and a dealer needed to be involved. Energi models fare better here because of the plug-in aspect.

Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately the diagrams in the service manual were not as clear in showing the location/accessibility as I thought. But I'll see about getting an actual photo on my '13 later this afternoon since I know I've spotted it on my own pretty easily from above.

It's simply an indicator to let you know when all doors (including the hatch) are locked.

From what I've seen at a glance, it should be accessible from the top. It's on the driver side and you'll see a cable come down into the top of a bracket that sits on the front of the transmission housing. Not at my computer at the moment but I'll see if I can pull up the diagrams from the workshop manual.

I should be able to pull that info for you from Ford's workshop manual sometime today if someone else doesn't chime in with it first. I know that info is in there for sure. And definitely looks like the control side wiring and not the primary power feed (would be obvious with the beefy orange high voltage cables). EDIT: Attached pics

My personal recommendation and go-to: An OBDLink EX and Forscan. Forscan is free for basic diagnostic work and the OBDLink EX is relatively cheap (usually runs about $50-$60 USD). This combination will pull basically any trouble codes including Ford proprietary ones as well as viewing detailed real time data that would normally be exclusive to Ford's internal IDS software. That said: This isn't going to handhold you into a solution. Any scantool out there, including Forscan, will just give you trouble codes as the vehicle stores them. They may or may not directly pinpoint to the actual cause of an issue. Some knowledge is needed to understand what the vehicle is telling you. Feel free to post anything you find to this forum though as well as any specific issues you're having, and someone may be able to help out.

I'm assuming based on the content of your post that you may have also posted this to the /r/cmaxhybrid subreddit? Azraiah over there commented with good starting points to check. I'll repost them here in case they were missed or that was not you:

Right now they are no longer replacing with the old 3G TCU's and have to replace it with a 4G model per Ford's directives. Unfortunately for the C-Max they have had some issues and part of the 4G upgrade program they have held off upgrades until new TCU parts are in. But they state it should be available Q4 2022 meaning right now up until end of year. Unfortunately I don't have any specific 'inside baseball' on the current status of that. It may not hurt either to have the dealer check and run some of the battery drain related TSBs especially if you are first owner of this 2013 and never had any of them applied. These early models had a number of power and battery drain issues early on that were largely fixed with software updates. I'll see if I can track down specific TSBs if someone else doesn't chime in with them.

The vehicle is drivable without the TCU, but you will lose out on the Value Charge and Go Times features if you use those as they are operated on the TCU itself. I'm still doubtful the TCU is a cause but more of a symptom. There have been no anecdotes on the number of C-Max or Fusion communities that I follow indicating issues with the TCU causing undue battery drain or killing other modules. -How- new is the 12v battery? You also say Sync has had issues where it won't turn off or it dies. It's a VERY common issue on these older models with Sync 2 for there to be a battery drain by the ACM failing to turn off at key-off. This has been WELL documented. Depending on how often this happens, it could be the cause of your issues especially if you let the vehicle sit in this condition and drain the battery. I'd love to have more details on this, ie: Do you get any weird error messages or displays on the touch screen? How often do these radio/infotainment related symptoms happen? Your comment about it taking the power steering about 30 seconds to kick in after starting: My -educated- guess is it is seeing the low battery voltage and waiting for it to come back up after the vehicle is started before it activates. I'll look through my workshop manual to see if it confirms behavior like this. If you have the option to test, may be worth putting the vehicle on a trickle charger while it is sitting and see how it behaves then. If the power steering is fine afterwards and doesn't have the delay, it's probably something along the lines above and probably doesn't need the power steering rack replaced as your dealer is trying to push you toward. Are there any other power steering specific symptoms other than the delay on startup? EDIT: Here's an excerpt from Ford's workshop manual: One note: The second failure mode mentioned in the above excerpt will usually give a clear warning about needing the power steering system serviced. If you haven't gotten a message like this, even more of a reason to doubt outright failure JUST yet.

Sounds like the dealer is throwing you a lot of BS. I can't see how the TCU having an increased power drain (it can't really drain that much on its own without going up in a literal ball of flames) would cause the power steering system to fail. Unfortunately while not overly common, there have been a good number of cases of the power steering failing on Ford vehicles around this MY/build timeframe. Usually comes down to an internal failure of the assist motor and electronics due to poor solder joints. The fix is to replace the entire steering rack. $4200 seems a bit much for that though. My vague recollection tells me others have been quoted around the $2-2.5k mark. At this point, I'd highly recommend trying other dealers as it sounds like this one is just trying to take you for a ride.

As best I can tell, they share the same DC-DC converter. Nothing in their workshop manual seems to make a differentiation between the hybrid and Energi models when it comes to DC-DC converter/12v charging systems. Both are still rated for 'up to' 145 amps.

I'd get codes pulled to start with to see if anything is being produced to narrow down the issue. The HVAC system on this vehicle is fairly intelligent and monitors a number of data points that it could show if something is not behaving within normal parameters. Personal preference is using Forscan with a decent OBD2 adapter. For AC/climate related stuff, a cheap Amazon/fleabay Bluetooth adapter will be sufficient. But this combination will also show Ford specific codes that generic code scanners may not. The condenser/engine bay cooling fan should always be running to some degree with the AC compressor running since airflow is constantly needed over the condensor for it to operate correctly. That said, both the cooling fan and compressor are variable speed on the C-Max depending on AC or engine cooling load. For example if it isn't terribly hot or humid outside and the cabin temp has been reached and is just being maintained, they'll slow down quite a bit but should still be audible.

Just as an FYI, Syn3Updater just pulls down updates from Ford's own servers. It's all still official Ford files, just another way to update Sync with some side benefits as a result (including updating to Sync 3.4 which Ford officially doesn't support on our vehicles but works just fine).

Nope. Sync 3 is loaded directly onto the internal storage via USB. No more SD card. In fact no more SD card slot or A/V inputs. Just a couple USB ports. Also the maps for Sync 3 via official methods are VIN locked and you specifically need to provide that when ordering to get the proper USB key. That said, pro tip: Cyanlabs Syn3Updater can load on the newer maps for free at least with the current NA versions... (My 2013 Sync 3 retrofit I've kept up to date this way and haven't paid a single cent). The process is a bit involved for some.

Doing some research on other topics and came across this thread in the Forscan forums: BECM Configuration - FORScan forum The short summary being that they are discussing modifying the battery age counter for the HVB to try and affect the reported battery capacity. As backstory: It has already been sufficiently documented that this is also a thing on the first gen (2010-2012) Fusion Hybrid's with the NiMH based packs and has actually worked for them. In this case the assumption is Ford, under an abundance of caution, put some artificial age based limits in their programming and a lot of those vehicles still had good batteries that were otherwise hampered purely in software after reaching a certain age. Now that's for NiMH chemistry packs which are a COMPLETELY different beast from our current Li-ion based batteries. As a result, I am personally hesitant to put any belief in this really doing anything meaningful given we don't really have to worry about things like the memory effect or regular reconditioning by the BECM to help with said memory effect. But I found the thread intriguing and figured I'd share. I'm interested as a 2013 Energi owner with about 3.7-3.9kwh left in my HVB but I'm very hesitant to mess with this so I'll just leave this here for others to potentially guinea pig if they're adventurous enough. ?

Another reason for charging off-peak other than cost is charging when it is cooler out especially in warmer climates. My electric provider doesn't do TOU rates. Just one flat rate 24/7. I still schedule mine to charge after midnight to help with temps. Just an FYI.

Here are a couple PDFs from the workshop manual detailing where the ambient temp sensor is wired as well as the brief wiring diagram for it. 2013_cmax_ext_mirror.pdf 2013_cmax_front_door_trim.pdf

I can pull up the workshop manual and post full PDFs/pictures tomorrow, but the ambient temp sensor goes through one connector with the rest of the mirror/housing wiring and that sits on the inside of the door up near the mirror itself. I would definitely pull codes (again, with the proper tools. This will be stuff that is on the MS-CAN bus which most generic scantools won't know anything about) if you can as it could also help a little bit in pinpointing the problem or at least confirming if something has or is failing. I'd give about a 90% guess this ambient temp sensor could be the main or at least majority of your problem. The automatic climate control system on these vehicles heavily relies on the ambient temp sensor during normal operation to determine how to operate the heat/AC. Unfortunately AFAIK there's no way to straight up bypass it and make it fully manual. One thing you can try as a workaround/test, though I can't guarantee if it will bypass the ambient temp checks completely, is using Max AC or turning the temp all the way to LO. I -THINK- it's been mentioned maybe a few times by other owners with faulty temp sensors that this works in the short term but my memory is a bit fuzzy on that.

Citation needed. Do you have any further info or leads on where this is from or documented? So far this has been undocumented anywhere in the community.

How's the outside air temp reading from the vehicle itself? This can impact HVAC operation if it is flaking out and it'll be really obvious if it is as the displayed ext temp will fluctuate quite a bit. The exterior temp sensor is in the passenger side mirror and is the little nub that sticks out the bottom. If it is faulty, only replacement is replacing the entire mirror housing. It can in some cases be temporarily messed up by water/moisture making its way up inside the housing due to a car wash or such. Blasting some compressed air up into the housing around the sensor -may- help these cases. Another thing would be to check for any stored codes with a competent code scanner (Forscan with a good MS-CAN capable OBD tool like the OBDLink EX is my preferred go-to). The HVAC system is just as intelligent as the rest of the car and monitors various stats/pressures that -could- pinpoint a cause if there are any related codes stored. This is not guaranteed though. What are the weather conditions when this happens? Does it ever seem to happen more often during hotter and more humid weather? There's another well known condition where the evap core in the cabin will freeze over due to a faulty evap temp sensor. Usually this happens when it is very hot and humid out. It will more cause the airflow to slow and not cool -as well- as normal, doesn't outright switch to warm/hot output, and usually requires manual intervention and will not clear up on its own. This I doubt is what you are running into but figured I'd rule it out here. Those are the immediate things I can think of to check on.

Depends entirely on the warranty and whether you have a CARB length hybrid warranty or not. Baseline is 8 years/100k miles, whichever comes first. So on the age alone you wouldn't be covered. CARB states have a 10 year/150k mile warranty so you are still technically in the 10-year period IF covered under this. Since this is all part of the eCVT and hybrid system, it should be covered under the hybrid warranty. But like most things with dealers you may or may not need to fight with them to make sure it gets covered

Ideally: Get something like the OBDLink EX and use Forscan (Windows and Apple/Android versions of the software are available). The OBDLink EX will read all the CAN buses in the C-Max and is highly recommended by the Forscan devs. Forscan will be the best tool to interact with and get access to Ford specific data and service procedures.

As the others have alluded to, the recommended option by most is doing a Sync 3 upgrade. If your C-Max already has the 8" touch screen, it makes such an upgrade super easy. You can look around on the usual sources like Ebay and Amazon and such. Many sell pre-programmed kits with everything you need and it is 99% plug and play and retains all factory features. Depending on whether you get factory nav or not (the built in factory nav is NOT required for using CarPlay or AA with their own nav apps like Waze/Google Maps/etc) will affect the price but you can expect numbers around $500-$700 on average. Sync 3 is a lot more stable and performant than Sync 2/MyFord Touch and you get the bonus of CarPlay and Android Auto. If yours has the smaller 4" non-touch unit, it'll be a bit more involved as a different wiring harness and dash components are needed to start. I'm not familiar enough with this particular upgrade path to give you specifics and those selling Sync 3 upgrade kits don't usually offer the extra parts needed to do a 4" to 8" upgrade.

This. Forscan will show you basically anything you'd ever want when it comes to Ford vehicles including their own proprietary DTCs/trouble codes that generic handheld readers will often miss. One thing to keep in mind is there are multiple CAN buses in these vehicles. Most cheap Bluetooth adapters will only read the HS-CAN bus which will at least cover the important stuff the engine, transmission, hybrid system, HVB, etc.. Other less critical systems like drivers/passenger door modules, parking aid system, climate control, etc. will be on the MS-CAN bus. For your needs this is probably not an issue, but this is merely an FYI. Forscan will still work just fine with these Bluetooth OBD2 adapters for basic diagnostics. In fact I keep one of those cheap low profile HS-CAN only adapters in my car at all times if I need to diagnose anything on the spot. I then leave my OBDLink EX for more 'heavy lifting' like firmware updates.