BobRay

My 2016 C-MAX Energi was stored outside in the sun (plugged in) for six months in Florida. The 12V battery was dead as a doornail. It didn't seem to take a charge so I replaced it. I think the battery was original, so at five years it was probably due anyway, but it's possible that the storage killed it. I have to store the car again each summer and could used some advice. It won't be driven at all for six months. First, a couple of questions: 1. When the Energi is plugged in, does that charge the 12V battery? 2. Is the cooling fan that runs during charging powered by the 12V battery? 3. Does that fan ever run when the car is not plugged in? 4. Is there a way to prevent the HV battery from charging beyond 80%? 5. Ditto for the 12V battery Now for the advice. My thought for the HV battery is to leave the car plugged in, but put a timer on the cord so it only charges at night and only for a limited time each night. For the 12V battery, the car has a charge control in the engine compartment from when I towed it behind my RV it takes 12V input. I think it helps prevent overcharging, so I'm thinking about connecting the output of an 8-amp charger to input of the charge control unit, and also putting the 8-amp charger on the same timer. Does that sound reasonable? IF so, what do you think I should set the timer at for the best battery health? Thanks for any help!

I used a small booster battery on the jumper posts under the hood to jump the car and to get the lift gate to operate.

Others have suggested a confused automatic noise-cancelling (ANC) system as the culprit in weird cabin noises. There's a panel below the glove box with a 6-pin connector where all the wires are blue or brown. If you pull it apart, it will turn off the ANC system. Worth a try for persistent noises. One forum member thinks that his ANC sometimes works backwards -- making the noise louder rather than cancelling it out.

I'm wiring the rear lights on my 2016 Energi for towing behind my RV, can anyone tell me the wire colors for the tail (running) lights and the third (upper) brake light? The harness to the tail gate lights has 20+ wires. There's a purple/gray (or purple/light-green) wire that's hot at the tail lights, but I'd rather not cut it at the harness until I know for sure. The wires are so small, I hate to use a probe on them. The third (upper) brake light is really difficult to remove so I haven't been able to get the color on it. Maybe someone has a wiring diagram or can point me to one.

IIRC, the Coastal tech video completely skips over the process of getting the wiring from the rear to the front of the car.

I had one put in by Automotive Concepts in New Hope MN. They do lost of them, as well as sunroofs (I had one put in as well). The camera was about $900 installed. It takes some programming to convince the car it has a camera. It's done through the OBD II port. I suspect that if I do a master reset, my C-Max will forget it has a camera. The weird thing is that I have a 2016 Energi SEL with navigation and heated leather seats that came with no backup camera. Go figure.

@dicko How did you route the tail light wires through the car? BTW, thanks a million for the tip on getting the wires through the firewall! :) That's a great solution. For others, you can see where the wires come out if you look below the brake fluid reservoir (easier if you take out the screws and drop the reservoir to the left). Look for the round aluminum thing way back at the firewall. Just below it, you'll see a rectangular black (at least on mine) felt cover about 2" x 3" with an indentation in the center. That cover stays in place when you remove the grommet, but if you push on the bottom of it from the inside, it will tilt up leaving a hole below it. First, you have to get through the soundproofing crap. It's easy enough to rip a hole with your fingers to feel around for the grommet (as dicko says, a few inches to the left of the plastic grommet that holds the sheet of rubber and about 6 inches up). It has square corners. That's not enough to remove the grommet, though. I'm big enough that I couldn't get two hands up there to use a knife. I ended up snipping at it for about an hour with a sharp pair of heavy duty scissors while sitting on a 6" high box outside the door. The stuff it maddening. Every time you open the hole, it closes back up on its own just to spite you. Once you've opened the hole enough to remove the grommet, grab the upper left corner and pull it to the right and inward. The grommet will pop out. Now if I can just figure out how to get the tail-light wires to the back end without them showing. The e-trailer videos all show the wires running under the car, which is pretty much impossible without a lift.