wab

"As soon as it failed it told the dealer not to just replace the battery but figure out what caused it to drain. The fuse was the difficult one. An infrared camera might have picked up the hot element. I told them to follow the current to the component that was draining the battery. It took 2 weeks but we are working again and enjoying our C-Max."
 
This is a very common mistake usually made by younger/inexperienced technicians.
 
"What did you find?"
"I found a hot fuse and replaced it"
Wrong answer
 
A hot fuse is about to fulfill it's reason for being in the circuit, protecting expensive parts, wiring harness, maybe the whole car!
 
"What did you find?"
"Found a hot fuse, tested the circuit, replaced a defective module THEN replaced the fuse"
Correct answer

Stop at a Discount Tire store.

They have a lane (doesn't cost anything) just to check/fill tires, might take a few minutes if they're busy.

Try sticking the funnel in the cap-less fuel tank a couple of times.

Works on our hybrid.

Here's a link to Motorcraft.

http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdirs/retail/default.asp?pageid=free_quickref&gutsid=c-max_Guide.
I've attached the Modifiers PDF, looks like section 2 might help.

You can subscribe for 72 hours.
http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdirs/retail/default.asp?pageid=pricing&gutsid=pricing_info

Good Luck and

lets us know how it goes

wab

2013_CMAX_Modifer_Guide.pdf

See if the shop checked the alloy wheel for leaks.  I've heard of alloy wheels developing a crack where it's virtually impossible to detect visually and may not leak until under load while spinning.  I don't know what the best method is for finding and repairing such a crack. 

We thought we had one of those on our MKX, till the tire was dismounted.

1" very visible crack, couldn't believe it held air at all.

NTB has a contract with a local welder, no loss of air till we traded for the cmax.

At Discount Tire 2 weeks ago.

Discount Tire "Your TPMS is leaking"

BMW 6 (convertible): "So you're telling that the device that's supposed to tell me when I have a leak is leaking?"

Discount Tire: "uh Yea"

:drop:

N8JJ hasn't logged on since Feb.

It can be jump started. I believe the 12v battery energizes the electronics to start the car. After that the HVB takes over.

 

Check your owner manual for jump start instructions.

Jumpstarted yes, just not very many times, the C-Max Drain is VERY hard on 12V batteries.

I had a BIG rant going one morning, AT&T has to be using the most acronyms of any company, why can't AT&T just type it out, Sometime the only real words in an AT&T sentence or the, turn, on, off etc.

One of my more witty co works said in a loud whisper "are you talking about American Telephone and Telegraph"

took us about 5 minutes to stop laughing.   

please tell me you didn't drill a hole in your CMax?

OF COURSE he drilled a hole in his C-Max!  Where ELSE are you going to mount an antenna?  And I saw a call sign that was N1BM.  Phonetically (and I am sure he has heard this before) that's Number 1 Bowel Movement.  Too bad he is not in "2" Country.

 

Ger (AKA KF6PHV)

It was sort of an inside joke, mtb is one of our more :worship: prolific modder.

His cmax looks like a piece of Swiss cheese. 

Have you seen this thread?

http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/1610-ham-radio-in-the-c-max/?hl="ham+radio"

Maxy if you don't want to have 12v batt. problems just connect a 12v Batt. Charger every nite set on low amp charge,only takes about a minute to do, problem solved. Then the only time you're going to have a dead 12v batt. is when it fails or when you are away from home for a extended period of time and jumper battery will solve those problems. Only down side to this is that the real problem isn't being solved. I guess you could update the CMAX every-time FORD comes up with a new solution. I'm charging up my jumper battery as I write this so I'm ready if I need it. I have had a few incidents where other people needed a jump and I didn't have it with me. :)

 

Paul

Possibly a better Band-Aid  fix would be a battery maintainer.

The battery clips stay on the car (no opening of the hood or hatch every night) the maintainer stays on your work bench.

Supper easy install and supper easy hook-up every night.

20$ on Amazon, search "12V Battery Charger/Maintainer"

You should have a/some error code/s.

Do you have a OBDII code reader?

If not your favorite should be able to read it and maybe tell what it means.

If you have one let us know.

Absolutely. I've not had a single fail (unless it was something like my foot clearly not reaching under the bumper) since the fix. This was a known issue, and your dealer should have checked out the situation.

Before the defective software was fixed our FOBs worked 100%

Wife's under bumper kick worked 100%

My under bumper kick worked < 25% (much less than 25%!).

After the defective software was fixed our FOB's work 100%

Both of our under bumper kicks work 100% :happy feet:

Have your dealers check the batteries in your FOB's and make sure the correct version of software is installed.

We looked at both before buying, half our year is in town the other traveling.

We bought the hybrid because of the larger cargo area, have you checked the Energi?

Will your stuff fit in the smaller Energi?

WAB,  actually,  the O2 molecule is smaller than N2.  which is why  you get the slow drop off of tire pressure.   since N is bigger  It won't leak as bad,  nor does its volume change as much with the difference between eat and cold...  This means  your tire pressures  remain more stable  as your tires heat up or for those of us with winter, the outside temps drop...

 

The other benefit to all nitrogen  is the purging of the water vapor inside the tires...

OPS that's what I meant to type, O2 gets out N2 stays in.

We use N2 in telephone cables to keep them dry.

Anyway almost 80% for free and $50 to $300 for the other  :lol: 20% is a scam alert to me.

If CostCo is "lifetime balance and rotate" then it's a pretty good deal, I think I paid about $75 at Discount Tire. 

I'm too tight to spend $ on nitrogen so I've developed a cheaper method.

Regular ol air coming out of the hose is almost 80% nitrogen, oxygen is only about 20%.

Because Oxygen is bigger than Nitrogen I make a tiny leak so that I have to add air pretty often.

I figure after a few times the nitrogen in the tires is getting close to 100% so I stop the leaks :yahoo:.

Number one on wife's option list!

We did check both before leaving, they worked.

MFT = My Ford Touch

SEL's have very few battery problems, one thing that will cause a DEAD SEL battery is to hit the off button

without

your foot on the brake pedal.

OPS Sorry, I left out a couple of steps from the towing behind a motor home thread.

When the cmax is being towed it must be off and in neutral.

It won't go to sleep and will run the battery in a few hours.

First of all, what is MFT? I own a NEW 2014 C max hybrid, SEL model. Ive had the car for 1 1/2 weeks and have already experienced a dead battery. The car was parked in my garage, locked up and was driven the previous day without any problems. Nothing was left on. Im pretty disturbed by this to say the very least.

 

SEL's have very few battery problems, one thing that will cause a DEAD SEL battery is to hit the off button

without

your foot on the brake pedal.

Greetings and welcome

ouch OUCH

We haven't had any problems. Almost 8k towed miles.

How much drop on your towbar?

We have at least 3" which may be why the tires seem to be wearing too fast.

I was looking for this.

"In January (1997), Chrysler announced plans to develop a fuel-cell car with an on-board re-former. It will extract hydrogen from plain gasoline without actually burning it. Not unexpectedly, Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) and Exxon are helping."

When I found this.

"Hongjie Dai and colleagues have developed a cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen gas could be used to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles."

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/splitter-clean-fuel-082014.html

For forum members who haven't explored the 'Your Profile' settings button next to your forum username, there is a Manage Ignore Prefs setting, so you can mute the posts, signatures, messages, or all three of other members.

Here's another option.

Copied from.

http://www.bullyonline.org/related/cyber.htm

"The Number One rule for dealing with this type of behaviour is: don't respond, don't interact and don't engage. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. It's a natural response to want to defend yourself, and to put the person right. However, never argue with a serial bully; it's not a mature adult discussion, but like dealing with a child or immature teenager; whilst the serial bully may be an adult on the outside, on the inside they are like a child who's never grown up - and probably never will. Serial bullies and harassers often have disordered thinking patterns and do not share the same thoughts or values as you."

I thought it was going to be 24v.

Found this.

"In automobiles, a 42-volt electrical system was an electrical power standard proposed in the late 1990s. It was intended to allow more powerful electrically driven accessories, and lighter automobile wiring harnesses. Electric motors were proposed to be used for power steering or other systems, providing more compact installations and eliminating the weight of drive belts or large wires for high-current loads."

"The SAE discussed an increased automobile standard voltage as early as 1988.^"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42-volt_electrical_system

and this, interesting

"Whatever Happened to the 42-Volt Car?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/4226979

Sorry Diesel, I haven't been able to take anything you have written seriously since that bizarre rant against Toyota.

 

Something I learned a long time ago--the thoughtful rarely use overgeneralizations.   "All Toyotas are crap!"  "Ford mechanics are just parts replacers!".  These are not observations of the careful mind.  These are observations of the cab driver and the barber who have all the answers and could fix the country if they weren't too busy cutting hair and driving cabs.

 

Let's look at the Toyota rant:  These are cars that top customer satisfactions surveys year after year.  My mother-in-law has a '98 Corolla---never had a problem.  My father-in-law has a '99 Camry--never had a problem.  My brother has a Lexus---all he does is change the oil.  I'm sure there are alot of folks on the forum with dead batteries who would love to have Toyota's reliability.  I think they're boring cars, but that is different than saying they are all POS.  When I had an Audi, two mechanics (no make that 3) told me they hated German cars and told their families to buy Honda or Toyota. 

 

At no time did I ever report that I knew the cause of the 12v battery failure.  If you feel so strongly, take your trickle charger to Michigan.  I'm sure the Engineers would love to hear your advice.

Updated my Signature, Thanks

Hello,

 

I had the 14S04 recall updated on 7-10-12.  During the drive home, noticed that the electrical in the car was not correct and the radio would not set etc.  Turned around and took car back to dealer and they did something and said the car was fixed.  Next day, all power gone.  Could not start car.  Had to call roadside assistance who jump stated car and I drove to dealer who kept car on lot for 10 days while I was on vacation at my insistence.  Since the update, my MPG has plummeted from 40 MPG to 34-35 MPG and the total Lifetime MPG over all has dropped from 38.0 to 37.7 mpg.  The drop in  mileage was immediate with the 14S04 update.  The drive home on a 30 MPH drive was 17 MPG instead of the expected 50+ MPG for a low speed drive.  Seems that low speed drives are well below 30 MPG which was not the case before the 14S04 update.  I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing the reduction in MPG due to the 14S04 software update and if so, what was the resolution.  I did respond negatively on the dealer survey for the service but the dealer did not respond.

Greetings and welcome

 17 :sad:,  you need to take your cmax back to the dealer.

There have been a few reports of bad mpg and bad acting cars after a software update.

Good luck, welcome to the forum and keep us updated.