NewMaxDriver

I used mine last night. I had to take the car to a Goodyear shop to be the tire plugged since the dealer was closed. This morning I went by the dealer to get the car retrained to the TPMS fearing that the goo had damaged the sensor. Luckily it had not damaged the sensor. However, the replacement goo cannister for the TMK cost me $30. Live and learn. From now on I will try to plug the tire myself roadside to get me to a service station.

Well I made it! I wasn't really trying. I was just being lazy and not wanting to get gas, when I realized that I was very close to 600 miles. So I kept going just for fun.

If you have not had the opportunity or need to really punch your C-Max it might take you by surprise. I had to punch mine to merge into some fast moving traffic and it met the challenge. However, when I looked in the rear view all I could see was a thick cloud of smoke. So thick that I couldnt see the cars that were in the lanes behind me! My son was minute or so behind me and saw the cloud. He phoned me and insisted that I pull over. We checked the oil and it was fine. Then we proceded to drive and I punched the car again. This time no cloud. We checked the oil again and it was fine. There were no warning lights or indicators that anything was wrong. Very strange.

The delay is set to Manual

I drove 450 miles from South Carolina up to Washington DC yesterday. Most of the trip was done at speeds of 60 to 70 mph with eco-cruise on. The overall average was 46.5 mpg. This is a little misleading because the end of the trip covered about 20 miles of suburban driving between 30 to 50 mph. However, on the portion of the trip where the eco-cruise was on I averaged 44.5 mpg. I am impressed with that mileage and even more that I did the 450 miles and still had gas in the tank.

Update: I spent some time on the phone with Ford and according to them this behavior is not normal. They suggested I take it to the dealer to have it checked out. So now my question to all you SE owners is "Does your car do the same thing"?

I mentioned this in another thread, but thought I would open a new topic here. I have the SE model and I have noticed that when I have the headlamp switched to on (not auto) the headlamps go off immediately when I turn the ignition off. I would prefer if the lights would stay on until I switch them off. Does anybody know if there is a way to adjust this?

My battery died the first day I had the car. But I left the headlamps on. Since my previous car had no warning chime when you left the headlamps on I got in the habit of making sure they are off. So it was hard for me to accept that I had killed the battery on the C Max. I have noticed that if I turn the ignition off while the lights are on the headlamps will go out but because the switch is in the on position the warning chime sounds when you open the door. If you get out and shut the door the chime stops and since the lights are out there is no visible evidence that you are draining the 12 volt. I still don't understand where the drain is if the lamps are not shining. And if the battery saver is acting properly it shouldnt matter what you left on. I suppose I need to do a little more troubleshooting to completely understand what went wrong

Today I was about to turn into my parking garage and looked down to see I had hit the 47mpg mark on the lifetime guage. (check the gallery for pics) I also average 53.5mpg on this commute (yesterday I avg 59.3). I wasn't using any hyper-miling techniques but did try not to exceed the speed limit. During one segmet I was able to use the eco-cruise at 65mph. The temp this morning was about 60. I use regular e-10 gas because that is all you can get around here. My commute is 27 miles with one third suburban roads, one third highway, one third city traffic. I have noticed that I get my best mileage when traffic is light and during the city segment there is no one behind me at stop lights. This allows me to ease through an intersection and gain momentum gradually. Other than that I drive pretty close to normal.

The guy I used to take my Hondas too was a Chevron station. I was having trouble with pre-ignition due to carbon build up. I put the cheapest gas in that Honda so he recommended that I dump a bottle of Techron in the tank every 3000 miles. Sure enough the knocking stopped. You can get a bottle for about $6 at the auto parts store. This way I get the advantage of Chevron gas for a whole lot less per gallon.

I registered 53.8 this morning when I pulled into the parking garage at my office. I took the same route as always, but the Friday traffic was a little lighter.

Mine is the same, bu it would have been nice if Ford had installed a lighted ring there so you could see it in the dark. I mean they put lights in the cup holders. Why not around the ignition?

I couldn't get my ambient lights to do anything even when I followed the owner's manual. So I looked around the net and found a Focus forum with a good discussion of this problem. I thought I would share the solution here since it is the same for the C-Max. If you can't get your ambient lights to change color no matter what you do, you are not alone. The color palette button will only work when the car is turned on, the headlamps are on, and it is dark enough. This is not stated anywhere I could find in the owner's manual. Apparently older model fords with ambient lights did work no matter the light level, but the C-Max has a sensor. I was about to take mine back to the dealer when I saw the post on the other forum. I thought it might save somebody a trip if I posted the answer here.

I had no trouble getting 45mpg on my daily commute and reached 48mpg a couple of times and 50mpg once. The lifetime is hovering around 45 and I expect that to go higher since I only ave 500 miles on the car. My commute is a combination of suburban streets, highway speeds of 60 to 70 mph with rolling hills. It ends with city center stop and go. So far I think the MPG is great.