cr08

Remember, the guess-o-meter is based on your recent driving.  If you have a lead foot, it might think that you only have eight miles of juice.  Follow cr08's instructions, that will get to what you really have available.

I'd first start by getting the actual capacity of the battery currently. The estimated range is practically useless as a health indicator as a lot of factors can impact the numbers. Here's the test you need to do:
 
1) Fully charge the car
2) Drive it in EV mode ONLY (avoid things that can cause the ICE to start, ie: No highway driving, no cabin heat, as few active accessories as possible)
3) Drive until the plug-in charge is depleted.
4) Once the plug-in charge is used and it falls back to hybrid operation, safely stop somewhere and shut off the car. The trip summary on the left screen will list the kwh used. This is the number you need. 5.5kwh is the brand new plug-in capacity from the factory. Anything above 4.0 is still in good territory.

Also in case you haven't caught the reply I made in your other thread, you really should avoid using EV mode (Auto with EV charge available or EV Now) on the highway as it really stresses the battery. If you have charge available, switch to EV Later. If the plug-in charge is depleted, EV Auto (it won't let you switch out of it in this case) will operate in the 'safer' hybrid operation.
 
Other than that, the other comments here are correct. The battery still has some level of charge internally like 10-15% or thereabouts for that fallback hybrid operation that it constantly cycles up and down as you drive.

Not to worry.  The car will operate in normal hybrid mode.
 
 
Cheers

A lot to unpack here:
 
First off, Ford's original 'up to 20 miles' was optimistic and considered the most efficient driving scenario which would be in town stop and go driving. All EVs (PHEV's like the Energi included) are going to be less efficient and have less range in highway driving. In fact it is highly recommended not to drive EV mode on the highway because it stresses the battery and accelerates degradation. Switch to EV Later and save the battery for in town driving/roads under 45-50mph.
 
The range estimate is also just a guess by the system and often referred to as the 'guess-o-meter'. There's many factors that can impact what range it shows and as such is not a reliable indicator of overall battery health. If you want to check the current health, the procedure below is the best way to do so:
 
1) Fully charge the vehicle
2) Drive in EV mode ONLY, avoiding scenarios that can cause the ICE/engine to start. This means no highway driving, avoid cabin heat/defrost as much as possible. The fewer running accessories the better.
3) Drive until the plug-in charge is depleted and it drops back to hybrid operation. Safely stop the car and shut it off.
4) Upon shutting off the car, you will have a trip summary screen show on the dash. the Kwh used number is what you're looking for. 5.5kwh is what is expected brand new from the factory. 4.0 or higher is still in good territory. Doing this will also give you more reasonable 'EV miles driven' in that summary that will be a bit more accurate than your highway driving test.
 
The car is perfect for long distance driving IMHO and I've taken mine on plenty of cross country road trips and love it. But some expectations have to be tempered here. Using EV on the highway is not advisable and you really should run it as a hybrid in those cases. It's also not going to be as efficient as a Prius in hybrid mode. That said in my first hand experience I can easily average 37-40mpg highway with cruise set and following posted speed limits +5mph or so depending on the traffic. Lowering speed will definitely improve that and other owners have documented notable mileage increases doing so.

You're fine. The battery has a nice sturdy metal case around it. In fact you can pull up the carpeting back there and see what it looks like. It's just attached with velcro.
 
I know on my Energi I briefly had about a dozen bags of sand from the local big box store loaded, probably well over the vehicle's payload. The battery is no worse for wear.

I just wanted to post a small thing here:
 
I had recently discovered that the FordPass integration for Home Assistant had some VERY useful tools for digging deep into what data Ford has on our vehicles, even stuff that is not surfaced in the app. Doing some messing around with it, there's a TON of useful stuff there. One of which is basically all the trip data we used to have including total trip distance, EV miles, brake score, MPG/MPGe, fuel used, etc.. There's also some other real odd info such as coolant and ambient temp, vehicle and engine speed, transmission torque info, etc.. Some of this is surfaced in HA currently but most of it is not. I've been successfully testing some of this on my 2013 and have gotten some fun data out of it.
 
Issue I posted in the fordpass-ha Github repo starting the discussion on this stuff including some sample data pulled from my own C-Max: https://github.com/itchannel/fordpass-ha/issues/452
 
For those technically inclined, I have forked the integration and did some work to make it standalone and thus not requiring HA to operate. There's also some docs I added detailing some of the different data points produced from Ford's API. Use it at your own risk of course. The main branch is basically my WIP dev branch and could break at any time. Also Ford is generally not happy with frequent polling of their API and will lock your account if you abuse it or any time they deem fit. Currently across the community using this stuff the recommended minimum polling interval is 15 minutes. A good recommendation is to set up a separate FordPass account for this from your primary and set it up as an authorized user for your VIN.
 
https://github.com/cr08/fordpass-ha
 
One thing I'd definitely like to do is build a web dashboard with all the trip data. No ETA but I'm working on this as I go. I need to experiment more and get more data after various trips to get a good idea what's reported and when.

My guess is it either has the 3G modem or the older 2G modem before that. 3G is more likely since that was a free upgrade but I have heard of a few rare cases where it wasn't done (and useless to do now. Ford won't even allow installation of the 3G modems now). 4G most seem to have skipped. Probably the easiest way to tell is download the FordPass app and add your VIN and it'll tell you either to activate the connectivity functions or it'll say the vehicle doesn't have it. There's also checking the modem ESN from the about screen in Sync but I can't recall which letters/numbers indicate which version offhand.

Likely the number is just maxed out and won't move any further. Not too surprising. There should be an option in the menus to reset the lifetime stats here and start over so it can accumulate once again. But then you'd have to keep external track of these previous numbers if that matters to you.
 
Also I wouldn't be too surprised to see 99.9% of the vehicle used in EV only operation. There were some members here early on who were REALLY particular about only operating in EV mode. I can't honestly think of any other explanation why the lifetime summary would show these numbers and not be legitimate. Even though this vehicle really isn't designed to be a full EV, it doesn't stop some from operating as such.

The miles of range mean nothing as that can vary wildly depending on various conditions and colder weather will definitely effect it. You need to do a proper capacity test:
 
1) Fully charge the vehicle
2) Drive in EV mode ONLY until the battery is depleted (no highway driving, avoid cabin heat as much as possible to keep the ICE from starting. If it does, it invalidates the test)
3) Once depleted and it reverts to hybrid operation, safely stop the car and shut it off. The trip summary will list the kwh used for the trip. This is the number we need.
 
5.5kwh is the brand new plug-in capacity from the factory. Anything above 4.0kwh should still be 'good'.

This is correct. If the battery or hybrid system completely fails, the vehicle will no longer drive. At bare minimum the starter/generator motor in the transmission is necessary for starting the engine as well as facilitating the operation of the 'continuously variable' aspect of the eCVT and allowing the engine to properly transmit power to the wheels. This starter/generator motor is powered by the high voltage battery. That all said, there are plenty of failure modes up to the point of complete failure where the vehicle will see the battery is worn/degraded and may not be reliable to use for EV operation or higher loads but will gracefully fall back to hybrid operation or full time ICE operation and still be drivable but with reduced functionality.
 
With how most dealers are clueless on these cars, I'd always go for a second opinion when they call for costly repairs like this. At the very least, getting any codes read and posting to a forum like this with more experienced owners who can hopefully narrow things down or confirm/deny the dealer's findings.

I wouldn't stress out about it too much. We have a 2014 SEL made 03/2014 and it has now 175k miles with original transmission. I've changed the fluid at 150k miles. I've heard that it could happen to every year...not just the 2013 and 14 models. Not sure what the real reason for the bearing failure is. Maybe some "Monday" models😁or too low on trans fluid for some reason. Mine was actually a little low on fluid, but still No problems. 

My personal opinion on this is I'd be perfectly fine bringing the Energi forum back but just lock it and use it as an archive. I think with the small userbase here, having both Hybrid and Energi discussions on the same forum is fine moving forward rather than as separate sites. But that's just my opinion and thought on it. ?

Modern cars command modules on/off digitally over the CAN bus instead of the old 'accessory power' wire or switching the main power feed. The radio is one of many examples of this. That said, there are still fuses that will shut off with the ignition. The power feed for the 12v ports in the front feeds off the lighting relays which means they will stay on for up to an hour or so after the car is off but then shut down. There are a number of fuses that are like this as well even for stuff not lighting related.
 
Here's a thread that has some useful info: 
 

Just to confirm, what exact module are you referring to when you talk about the 'radio' attempting to be replaced? There's a few audio related modules in this vehicle:
 
ACM - The radio tuner/CD unit that sits behind the dash and CD slot
APIM - The Sync module. On 4" equipped vehicles I believe this is inside the passenger side of the center console roughly under the cup holder area.
DACM - This is the amplifier/Active Noise Cancellation module. This sits under the glove compartment. All C-Max vehicles should be equipped with it as it is necessary for the ANC function which I believe they all had standard regardless of trim.
 
If you want to try to disable the ANC, you can follow the easy instructions at the thread below. However this does not usually cause complete audio failures, just the addition of some droning noise to the cabin while the ICE is running under certain conditions.
 
 
More than likely the ACM (the actual tuner/CD unit behind the dash) is the culprit. It's a common issue on these vehicles for various reasons. As far as replacements go, I'd stick with something out of another C-Max, a Focus, or Escape to play it safe since they share the same electrical architecture. You will need to reprogram it to your vehicle though. Most likely this is why the noted attempt with the low volume happened because it wasn't configured correctly to your vehicle.
 
If you are technically savvy enough, Forscan will do this for you easily. I'd recommend putting the old ACM back in and see if it is 'alive' enough for Forscan to pull the old AsBuilt from and then you can put the replacement in and write that to it. If the old ACM won't read properly in Forscan, there's a second option pulling directly from Ford as they keep a copy of the AsBuilt for most modules. You can do so at the link below. You're looking for the 727-XX-XX blocks of data.
 
https://www.motorcraftservice.com/AsBuilt
 
If you are not comfortable doing this, any dealer or mechanic with access to Ford's IDS tools should be able to do this for you. In their own tools it is usually referred to as a 'Programmable Module Installation' procedure.

That is the TCU and is the old 3G model. If that ends up solving the issue long term, then kudos. Hope it works out. As noted earlier, the only things you'll really lose are the ability to set the Value Charge and Go Times features. If you don't use those, then nothing lost. All the rest of the car including phone functionality will remain unaffected.

Here is a pic of the device which they removed. They did not do a good job of describing how this would affect the operation of the car however. My phone is working with the car as usual and everything else so far is working fine. We picked it up a few weeks ago and so far so good, but I am not going to trust the car until it works normally for several months. It apparently is the TCU as they said though. I have never used any of the functions this module controls so will not miss it!  We were given paperwork on what was done to the vehicle, but I am at work and do not have access to it right now.
 

old one above.  New one:
https://www.tsbsearch.com/Ford/22-2396
 

No. The hybrid models don't have the same degradation issues as the Energi. Ford unfortunately had poor programming on the Energi models in regards to the thermal protection and when EV use is allowed, allowing owners who just drive it like any other ICE vehicle to add extra wear to the battery. By the nature of how the hybrid models operate, they don't ever get stressed to the same level and can be driven normally without any extra precautions. The batteries should last the life of the vehicle.
 
As for transmission issues, that's a whole confusing mess. Some owners who have been around the C-Max community for a while have recently started considering that the whole transmission failure concern is a bit overblown. That's not to say it can't happen, but it's been so heavily pushed as a major detractor for the early model years even from those who have not experienced it themselves and just parroting the same line (of which I have been one but I've dialed that back a bit). Also there have been some owners of newer model years including 2017 models that have had their transmissions start to exhibit the same failure symptoms so I wouldn't even count those out of the woods yet.
 
On top of that, no one has really been able to narrow down what the true failure causes are. We all know it comes down to an incorrectly installed bearing installed from the factory that holds the transfer gear and can cause it to slip and eat into the transmission case but its unsure what triggers that to happen in the first place.
 
I've made this recommendation elsewhere and gotten heavily criticized for it, but this is a hill I'll die on: I'd honestly recommend to shorten the transmission fluid change intervals on any C-Max vehicles regardless of if it is a hybrid or Energi or whatever model year it is. Ford's recommendation is 150k miles. I'd probably consider 50-75k but that's just pulling numbers out of my ass if I'm being honest. But the premise being to watch what the fluid comes out like and if there's any sign of wear particles that could indicate the start of a failure. eCVTs by their nature don't have any wear components to them so on a healthy unit there shouldn't ever be any metal particles in the fluid. Changing early can give you a bit of a heads up before a more catastrophic failure. Fluid changes on these aren't difficult or expensive so IMHO it's worth doing so more often for peace of mind. If a potential failure can be caught early, the transmission can be pulled and opened up and get the transfer gear/bearing replaced at a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire transmission.

The ICE running or not makes no difference to voltage. As long as the car is on/in 'Ready to Drive' mode, the DC-DC converter is fully active. Full running should be 14+V. There's also a secondary mode not many are aware of (I only found out after digging deep into the workshop manuals) that when the car is 'awake' by opening the door, unlocking, etc. without actually starting, the DC-DC converter does come online in a kind of baseline/failsafe mode (essentially no input from the vehicle what the desired charging voltage is) that puts out around 13v or so.

That will depend on numerous factors like the current battery health/wear, ambient temp, HVAC use, driving style, etc.. Hence the aforementioned battery health test. A lot of people try to use their miles of range as an indicator of battery health which can wildly vary. Getting the actual kwh is the only true way to gauge battery health.
 
But to at least give some answer to your question: The vehicle was originally rated for up to 20 miles of range. Some people have gotten more with weird trickery with constantly changing the drive modes, confusing the range estimator. My 2013 with ~3.5kwh of capacity currently gets about 12-15 miles on a good day.

Yes. All have Lithium batteries even hybrid models. The only Ford vehicles that ever had the older NiMH batteries were the 2005-2012 Escape Hybrid and the first gen 2010-2012 Fusion Hybrids. Everything 2013+ in Ford's lineup are exclusively lithium-ion based.
 
No transmission issues so far knock on wood. Majority of my driving has been city driving.

To clarify, the more accurate way to gauge the battery health of these vehicles is to see the actual kwh used from a full charge. There's no other way. Ford doesn't have any internal data points on these indicating battery health. Don't rely on the 'miles of range' the vehicle gives you as this can vary significantly depending on certain factors and isn't an accurate depiction of battery health.
 
Here's a brief rundown of the test process:
 
1) Fully charge to 100%
1a) (optional: Reset a trip meter before taking off)
2) Drive the vehicle in EV mode ONLY. Do not drive on the highway or use cabin heat/defrost or anything else that may cause the engine to start. If the engine starts during this test, the numbers are immediately invalidated.
3) Once the battery is depleted and drops to hybrid operation you can either view the kwh used on the trip meter or bring the car to a safe stop, shut it down, and view the trip summary displayed.
 
5.5kwh is what is considered brand new capacity from the factory. Above 4.0 is still 'good/ok'. Anything less starts getting into solid degradation.
 
Anecdotally: My 2013 with 90k miles is around 3.5kwh or so capacity now. It still drives with no issues and nets me in the range of 12-15 miles on a good day.

Once the plug-in charge is depleted, it operates like a hybrid only model which still charges/depletes the battery as you drive as part of the hybrid operation. But it won't come up to having a plug-in charge where you can run pure EV mode, hence the 0km range shown.

Actually there is. Many owners of newer model years have confirmed this on the FB C-Max groups. My 2013 didn't have it initially but I was able to add it. Need to go through the BCM Central Config in Forscan and there's a Global Open/Global Close option. It may need to be 'toggled' to get it to work, ie: If it already shows Global Close enabled, switch to something else like disabled or Global Open only, save/write, then go back in and repeat the process with Global Close enabled.