RonS

I wanted to change mine, searched the forum and found this post. I followed your instructions and changed mine today. It looked hard at first, but I managed to replace it without too much trouble for the first time. 2nd time will be a lot easier. The old one did not look too dirty from the outside, but there was a lot of dust in between the pleats that made a dust cloud when I shook it. Will replace it again before next winters heating season.

Lets say you have a 2013 cmax that had a new transmission in 2014 or 2015. Is it possible the replacement transmission you received is still one of the bad batches? If yes, then how many people have had 2 transmissions replaced? Just wondering if they had substandard fluid installed in the early years that accelerated transmission wear.

Well, I guess every dealer is different. The car was originally bought there and they have done all the servicing. Anyway, the car climbed that hill again 2 more times since the foam inserts have been removed, no problems, and everything is back to normal, no other problems have come up so far.

I check all tires, lights,engine oil, both coolant levels, washer fluid before trips and at fillups. Everything was full except the the washer fluid, which I added. So, yes, coolant was full. The last oil change, they checked the coolant concentration, which was good. I don't have pictures, as I discarded the foam, sorry. Edit: The dealer took pictures of the foam when the hose was being replaced. Hope they do not use that against me in the future.

Thank you for this information. I have printed it out for future reference. There is more than 1 person driving this car and I don't expect them to know the temperatures, remove and install covers. If I were the only operator, maybe in the future, I will try it again. But for now, the foam inserts will not be reinstalled due to my negative experience. The Cmax is operating as it came out of the factory right now.

I think its debatable what caused the hose failure, since it happened very shortly after the overheat condition. But it still could have been a defective hose. But I still believe the overheat condition was cause by me when I installed the foam grille block inserts.

It has 55,000 miles. I bought it used from a family member who has had it since new. It had absolutely no problems since new, just regular maintenance. And the 12volt battery has been replaced. It only had problems after I owned it, that seems to have been caused by me. Its still covered under Ford ESP warranty but it was denied because of the foam I had in the grille. The dealer said it was an unauthorized modification that affected the operation of the vehicle. They also said the car has automatic shutter systems and blocking the grille is not needed or recommended. So I removed the foam blocks and have not used them since. I'm just thankful that the car did not stop on me when driving up that hill with my wife and kids in the car. I was hoping to get some input from jus-a-cmax to see if there was any other damage that occurred later when theirs did the same, hope they are reading this.

Hi, I just bought a used cmax about 1 month ago. I was reading through this forum and I made my own grille covers. I was driving up a long hill. Around the middle of the run, a chime was going off and the temperature gauge went all the way up. The same as what you experienced. My car actually slowed down, I was blocking traffic and I could not pull over. I made it to the top and temperature dropped as the road flattened out and everything was ok, or I thought it was. 1 week later, one of the coolant hoses, the connector cracked and I lost all my coolant. The dealer told me they have not seen this hose leak before and attributed it to the overheating condition causing it to go brittle. I still had my grille covers on and they told me to take them off, so I did. I have not put them on since. This was very expensive to fix as it was difficult to access. Maybe its just a coincidence? I'm scared now that I may have damaged more hoses. Did you suffer any hose damage later?