Max Power

My car is in to have the canistor purge valve replaced and I mentioned the TSB 12-11-8. They kept the car to charge the battery and update the software. It would be great if I don't to return in a week or two to update again but if I must, I must.

I spent an hour yesterday hugging the Appalachian mountains of West and regular Virginia. This car is what I would call sticky. My last car was a Ford Ranger, so take that comment with a grain of salt. I looked back several times to see a look of semi-horror on the faces of SUV-driving tailgaters behind me as they started to lose contact with the road. I'm always amazed that people think you can drive a vehicle like that 20 MPH over the posted speed limit for a curve.

The need to do things of higher value, like test different fuel mixtures for their affect on MPG. I grew up in a corn state, but now I avoid ethanol like the plague, as I think my mileage is worse with some of those blends. Several OTR drivers have complained that the lower-sulfur diesel gets worse mileage. This could be an unfortunate truth or they could be full of BS. These are the problems that the EPA should work on. I see no reason why we couldn't report real-world mileage on cars as it is collected. The EPA estimate would be replaced after 12 months(need to account for time of year car is released).

I have no doubts that the results of the EPA tests are thoroughly and completely accurate for the C-MAX. If someone wants to sue because they do not match real-world conditions then all makes and models would fail this legal test. Ford has said they will work with the EPA to determine if the test needs to change. There is zero evidence that they fudged any of the numbers, which was the issue with the other carmaker. I have had no problem getting over 47 MPG in town. I drove 800 miles over the weekend, much of it at 65 MPH or faster and averaged 43 MPG.(that's about 10% less than it is supposed to get) The test is run at 45-55 MPG and I can get 47 MPG at those speeds. The lawsuit is without merit, IMO.

Most likely it is a diode or set of diodes. Diodes can be used to restrict the flow of current to one direction only. I would be curious as to how the C-MAX does this. Essentially you could use one diode and a set of relays to control which side the engine and battery components are in relation to the direction the diode allows current to flow.

No worries, I just found the mounting bracket in the battery compartment.

I had a van doing weird things around me today. Typical pass the hybrid because they must be going slow and then not keep the speed up after you do. With the realization that I get better mileage at 65 versus 55, I usually follow the flow and go ten over through the 55 areas. I'd appreciate if people passing me would do the same, don't get cold feet now that you are in the lead. :) What's the fine for driving while Texan in Virginia? After I backed off for a few miles I came upon them pulled over by a local Sheriff.

I drove 400 miles today. Most of it in ECO-Cruise on US-15. (Speeds between 55 and 65 depending on the stretch, did not notice much change in MPG while in this range, but consistently 65 is better than 55) There were lots of mountains and hills. When In town I accelerated moderately using the ICE for almost all of it. Average for the trip was 43.5 MPG. I am really happy with this car as I don't feel I really had to work at this.

It seems like we get tons of new threads strewn about for these two, most common problems. Wouldn't it make sense for them to each have a permanent sub-category under Maintenance and TSBs? Is anybody here a mod that can make this happen?

I guess I'll have to figure out how to get a front plate mounted when I move to VA from PA. PA is strange like that, no front plate.

If you are testing your battery, don't make the mistake that I did.(thanks Sparky) You need to run off the surface charge before you make a measurement. After parking and turning the car off, turn your headlights on for 10 seconds and then turn them off. Take a reading until it stabilizes.(Various power draws in the car will turn off in the first minute) After fully topping off my battery a few weeks ago, I really don't notice that much parasitic drain. At least not anything that shouldn't be replaced by the charge applied while driving. IMO, the converter isn't letting enough charge out and the battery is just too small to be a buffer between the times you have high energy draws and when you don't. I'm not sure this can be fixed with software.

Add me to this list as well. 1400 miles and the light came on. I went and filled up to see if that made it go away but so far no dice.

Look like I picked the wrong time to move to VA. I can understand the tax, they pay for infrastructure by taxing gas and my hybrid uses the same roads everybody else does. I wonder how they came up with 64 dollars though? How much tax per gallon is collected in VA?

But it's okay to do this and leave it parked in my driveway overnight? is there further damage from leaving the battery depleted for an extended period or does it not matter? Is EV+ really just a means of limiting this to once per trip?

What I don't understand is why I can't use the entire battery range while travelling? Is it worse to let the battery deplete to 15% and then leave it in the driveway for 8 hours versus having this happen during normal driving in which case I will recharge to normal range in a few minutes? Battery experts please weigh in. The whole point of this thread is basically, why can't we decide for ourselves when to use it?

If you have a battery drain with other accompanying symptoms, like a stuck clock or radio acting funny, the solution is to give the car back. If you are in the other boat like I think I am, the solution is to monitor voltage. I have a battery monitor that I plug in to an open 12V port. If I get around 12.0 then I put it on the charger. A lead acid battery that reads 12.0V with no load and surface charge depleted, is fairly dead A battery should read 12.6 and I get to maybe 12.3 by Friday after several short commutes, but a longer trip usually completely charges the battery. If I didn't take a weekend trip, I'd put it back on the charger. The device that PWB linked to should work perfectly if your battery is totally discharged. You can only use it on the port in the cargo area. The hatch won't open with a dead 12V, but you can still get to it through the back. I'm not sure the back-seat door will open either, so I hope you are an acrobat. If I was using that type, I would consider leaving the adapter plugged in without the battery part and route it somewhere over the back seat that you could easily snag it from the driver's seat.

20 or 50 feet seem safe and there is still some gain. I would never work to maintain a draft. Invariably the semi will hit slower moving traffic and the effort for both of you to pass may negate your gains. If I drove 6 lane highways all the time I would try to make a go of it in the center lane.

Nearly identical to my situation Edman. My car died on day two of having it home with 60 miles or so on it. I could tell from the terminals that it had been jumped before. I am not having nearly the same problems with low battery after fully charging it on the trickle charger. I've also bought an inexpensive solar charger that I leave continuously plugged in to the cargo port.

I'm in PA, around Harrisburg, but I'm sure it wasn't me. I would have figured it out if another C-Max was behind me. I did pass another one identical to mine in Hershey and my wife thinks there may be one a few blocks away from where we live. I haven't seen it yet to confirm, but my wife is better at identifying cars from sight than I am. The lot I bought mine at keeps selling them one or two at a time. You'd think they would get more in stock. I'm not sure they had any to test-drive after I bought mine.

I've noticed it too. The car is un-drivable with just one of the rear passenger windows open. I've made my peace with it.

Interesting note, Li-ion batteries have a Peukert constant of only 1.05, versus lead acid at 1.1-1.3.

It will require far less CO2 and create less pollution to recycle these batteries than it take make a new one. You only have to dig it out of the ground once. There is nothing recyclable about gasoline. Our entire energy future is dependent on storage, not production. The sun, tides, and winds produces more than enough energy. We can collect it, but we still stink at storing it. And yes, I know we need to find less disruptive ways to collect it. Current windmills designs aren't all that great for various reasons. I view buying a hybrid at this point as one way to invest in new battery technology.

Almost all plastic will block UV light. In fact it is hard to find ones that don't for certain laboratory applications. Even the thin films in automotive glass to make it shatterproof will generally block out 95% of the UV. Noting wrong with getting rid of the final 5% though. Tinting is also very protective of your eyes in the long run.

Confirmed for me as well, you can't speed out of it. One of my saved locations has a steep hill after a stop sign, since the EV+ is active I can power up it in only electric. It gives me a real feel as to how much the electric motor is normally being limited. You can go to the second bar from a dead stop and the amount of torque available is impressive. Electric motors are really great for this, just need the battery tech to keep improving.

I think the testdrives are really bad about keeping the car charged. Did yours come off the showroom floor. Mine did and that may have been part of the reason it was so depleted to start out.