hybridbear

Time to stop playing nice & get Ford to buyback your C-Max under the Lemon Law provision of your state.

The downhill button on the shifter will get you up to the maximum 35 kW of regen. If the HVB cannot accept that much energy (because it is full or too hot or something else) then the ICE will turn on. If the motor cannot generate enough energy to maintain your speed (because the descent is steep enough that 35 kW is not enough or your speed is too low so the motor can't do 35 kW or something else) then the ICE will turn on. Not using the downhill button should keep the ICE off, but your speed will rise. Using only cruise control will keep the ICE off, but your speed will rise. I have done this too, but some people will express concern about shifting to N being illegal and/or dangerous, so I resisted mentioning it. You can achieve the same effect by gently pressing on the accelerator pedal to reduce the amount of regen drag, without reaching the point of consuming power from the HVB to accelerate the car.

Ideally, drain the HVB as low as possible before the start of the descent so that you can recoup as much energy as possible. Once the HVB is full, the ICE will be forced on. If the ICE comes on via the downhill button before the HVB is full, this means that the gravitational force that is trying to accelerate your descent is greater than what can be resisted just through the traction motor working to do regen. Speeding up will avoid wasting energy via the brake pads or the ICE, but can be dangerous if you start going too fast. You can also end up wasting energy by increasing wind resistance. Wind resistance is calculated using your speed squared, so increases of speed have an exponential impact on wind resistance. It should be noted that the ICE uses no gas when it comes on via the downhill button. It just works as an air pump to slow the car. The possible uses of this gravitational energy are (listed from best to worst): charge HVB via regen increase speed of car turn into heat (waste) via brake pads or turn into heat/pumping losses by spinning the ICEWe would usually try to drain the HVB as much as possible before beginning a descent & also reduce our speed so that more energy could go through options 1 & 2, and less through 3.

These cars seem to be very airtight. We've found in our Fusion Energi & Focus Electric, along with my parents' C-Max, that if all the windows are closed, it takes a good amount of force to close the doors. We've found this is true most of all in my parents' C-Max Energi. If you hear rubbing when closing the door, something we heard on our Fusion Hybrid, you can ask the dealer to adjust the door so that it closes smoothly. It took only a few minutes to fix that issue on our Fusion Hybrid. The FFH door got out of alignment because a rear seat passenger closed the door on their heavy wool coat in the winter. When the door wouldn't close, because their coat was in the way, they kept slamming the door until it closed & in the process they pushed it out of alignment. The dealer fixed it under warranty. Once you hire a lawyer you take away internal options within Ford to get help. That may be why you aren't getting service from Ford Corporate. Have you ever posted a pic of the dent? I don't recall seeing a pic of the dent. It's not uncommon to have small manufacturing defects. Ford has a very specific paint warranty & has prepared guides for the dealers to assess paint damage & determine what is covered by warranty & what isn't. The paint guide is available here. On our FFH there was a paint bubble on the trunk lid near the Hybrid emblem. I pointed it out to the dealer when we did our inspection after signing the paperwork. They made a note of it & repaired it for us under warranty. What has the lawyer recommended doing? Here is a decent article from Edmunds that talks about what options consumers have when they have issues with a new car purchase.

A comment regarding dealers & damaged vehicles. In summer 2014 I helped a good friend buy a Fusion SE. I helped him research online to find one in stock that was what he wanted & then to work out pricing. The preferred dealer to buy from has signs all over their building, promising that they'll match the price of any other local dealer for a car with identical features. We found a Fusion SE base for about $500 below invoice at another local dealer that we desperately wanted to avoid buying from due to prior bad experiences. The dealer with the price matching policy refused to match the price. Thus we ended up going to the dealer that is known for terrible service to buy the car. After completing all the paperwork we went outside with the salesman for the final walk-around & inspection. The car was "new", but had about 250 miles on it already. It wasn't originally shipped to from the factory to the dealer he purchased the car from. During the inspection we discovered that it appeared that the car had been in a fender bender. The left front headlight was cracked, the bumper just below the headlight was cracked & the grille was cracked. We pointed these issues out to the salesman. He went back inside & got the form they use to document issues at the time of new car delivery. He made a list of the issues & we took photographs. He then gave us a copy of the form & kept one. My friend made an appointment to bring the car back to the dealer the following week for repairs. He brought the car back & they provided him with a loaner at no charge. It took the dealer about 3 days to complete the body work. The car was as good as new when they were done & he's now been driving it for 18 months without a single trip to the dealer except for oil changes. My guess is that the car was being sold cheaply because of the damage & that the dealer hoped that the buyer would drive it off the lot without noticing. I'm sure that if we hadn't noticed before leaving the lot that they would not have repaired the damage on their dime. Dealerships are staffed by very slimy characters. This is one pro in favor of the Tesla sales model. Why did you give the loaner back to them? How did you get home after returning the loaner? Sounds like you could have had more leverage in this situation. Have you contacted user FordService like was suggested a number of days ago? What would a Carfax show on a car with 3 miles. The OP said the car had 3 miles on the odometer when purchased. These are good suggestions, I bolded the lines that I think are the most important of your excellent recommendations. Sites like www.dealerrater.com may also be helpful.

FYI for those interested - foam pipe insulation costs less than $5 & offers a number of advantages over the covers that Paul makes. Foam insulation is infinitely adjustable in terms how much much grille space is blocked. It is also much more air-tight if you so desire. It also provides better insulation when the car is off.

The plug should have a long enough cord that it can stick out of the hood. My parents leave their plug hanging out all winter in their Energi.

ETIS will show you the build date. It is displayed in dd/mm/yyyy format.

Do you have a link? I'd like to read what the judge says. The article linked above doesn't include a lengthy statement from the judge. The other articles that I've read on the subject also didn't have a length statement from the judge. Thanks!

What's a "rear main"?

Won't their readers only display DTCs that turn on the CEL? FORScan can read all the proprietary Ford codes that are stored with other issues, not just turning on the CEL. I thought that readers like at Autozone are really only for reading emissions related DTCs, thus the reason why those DTCs turn on the CEL...

Do you have an OBDII reader to check the codes via FORScan?

The dealer should replace the dead 12V battery under the 3/36 b2b warranty.

Here are some threads about this topic where we delved into detail about the lug nuts: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/9150-lets-discuss-your-lug-nuts/page-1 http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/10215-replacing-my-stock-lug-nuts-need-help/page-1 They are very problematic because of the capped design.

You can see this on the Engage screen. The car uses the HVB to drive, while idling the ICE. Check out the warm up stages thread. There are only a few details in the C-Max Forum thread. Click over to the linked FFH Forum thread for lots more info. This is stage S1a. It is desirable to avoid this stage. That thread explains how to get out of stage S1a.

Good article.

My parents had a similar experience with a 2000 Chrysler 300M. It also needed a complete cluster replacement which caused the odometer to be changed. In their case, the odometer was increased. They got a piece of paper from the mechanic showing what the odometer was before & after. They kept the car until they bought the C-Max Energi. At that point it was very old & wasn't worth very much so the odometer discrepancy didn't matter much in the car's value. I'm also very curious as to how an odometer would be rolled back on a new car like the C-Max.

Send a PM to the IVT rep. The 3.8 update is for MY2013 vehicles too, but there are some vehicles where it doesn't show. Ford is working on it according to our IVT rep.

Here's a photo of the CD I have:

Sync is the basic voice command system. The C-Max SE & SEL both have Sync. Sync comes with the car regardless of which size screen the car has. MyFord Touch describes the system that is displayed on the large touchscreen. This is the system with four quadrants on the screen. It is meant as a compliment to Sync. It is being replaced by Sync 3. Cars with MFT also have expanded Sync functionality. Sync Destinations is a cell phone app that can be used to send destinations to your car for turn-by-turn directions.Ford provides this service free for the first 3 years of ownership. This works with all Sync-equipped vehicles. MyFord Mobile is for plug-in hybrid & battery electric vehicles only. If you'd like to see what it does, go to https://www.myfordmobile.com/content/mfm/app/site/login.htmland click "enter as guest". I hope this helps clear up the confusion :)

The CD I have is basically identical to what's available via the Motorcraft Service website. Some things are missing from the CD & it will tell you that you must have access to the online subscription to view that section of the Workshop Manual. The online subscription only gives you access to one vehicle. The CD includes all Fords for that model year. We purchased a shared OASIS subscription at the FFH Forum that we shared among the moderators so that we could post TSBs & SSMs for the community. That subscription has now expired and we don't know if it is worth renewing.

You can buy access to it from Ford here: https://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdirs/retail/default.asp?pageid=&gutsid= This gives you access to both the Workshop Manual & all TSBs, SSMs, etc in OASIS. This is what the dealers use. An alternative is to buy a CD on eBay. Mine was a gift from a friend. He bought one on eBay and then it started acting up so he contacted the seller who sent him another disc. A few weeks later he discovered that the issue was with his computer & not the disc, so he sent me the spare CD. You cannot install the files from the CD on to your computer, you must always have the CD in the CD Drive in order to use it. The one I have is for MY2013. I can post a pic of the CD later.

Rear brake pads are used first in comparison to front brake pads, but after regen braking.

Yes, my post says: "From the Workshop Manual". That is the source. Please re-read my post. When you are turning you need a different amount of braking force on the inside wheels versus the outside wheels. Regen braking cannot provide this. Regen can only brake both wheels with the same amount of force because it's braking at the front axle. Thus you must use the brake pads to apply differing amounts of brake force. Since regen is braking the front axle, brake pads engage first on the rear axle.

Has this been true since the day you got the C-Max? Have you had the RCM recall (14S21) & PCM recall (15E03) done? Our car now has a lurch/surge when the transition happens, but it isn't supposed to. Ford is trying to figure out what they broke. Our Focus Electric has no noticeable transition from regen to friction brakes when turning. My parents' C-Max Energi has no noticeable transition as well. I've described the behavior of our car since those recalls were performed in this thread along with graphs of what is happening.