AudenHoggart

We'll be away for 4 weeks in August. Should I disconnect the battery? (presumably by just disconnecting the negative lead.) In case it's relevant, this is a 2013 C-Max SE with only 65K miles on it. It's kept in a carport in Portland Maine. Thanks!

Does the inverter controller fluid cap just pop off (unlike the regular coolant cap that screws off?) I'm approaching the 6 year 60K mark on my 2013 C Max and I see in the maintenance instructions that both regular coolant and the inverter coolant should be changed at six years or 100K miles. I've got another year and a quarter to go on my extended warranty so I don't want to void it. I checked the regular coolant and it's at minus 45 degrees, good enough even for Portland, Maine, where I now live. Any advice on whether I should have these coolants flushed and replaced? Thanks!

I don't drive my 2013 C Max a lot (about 10K a year) and I'm approaching the point for my 10K oil change and whatever other service is needed at 60K miles. Car runs fine. The Ford website brings up a long laundry list of needed 60K service items, with a total cost of $575, plus additional $99.95 if I got the rack and pinion service. I have an extended warranty for up to 80K miles, if that's relevant. Which of these additional service items do you think I should get? I tried to copy the list but the website wouldn't let me do it. In addition to oil change and the usual inspections it includes replacing air filter, hvac air filter, automatic transmission fluid exchange,cooling system fluid exchange, fuel/air induction service (whatever that is) and, as an option for an additional $99.95, rack and pinion fluid exchange. I've omitted issues for tires, balancing, alignment, since I'll be putting on my winter tires pretty soon and normally have this stuff dealt with by the tire store (which does the changeover "for free" as part of the deal for having bought the winter tires there in the first place.) Although this site shows me living in St. Louis, I now live in Portland, Maine, hence the need for winter tires. I do assume the Ford dealer will check the brakes though. Since I don't want to raise any issues about the validity of the extended warranty (which I've used successfully) I'm continuing to have service done by my Ford dealer as long as the warranty is in effect, which should be for about another year or so. Advice? Thanks!

Can scanners report the type of information the Vehicle Health Report does?

Does anyone know a way to get a display in-car (or off of a flash drive, etc.) of things like remaining oil life, fluids, brake status, etc.? I always found this useful in knowing when I actually had to bring the car in for routine service (as opposed to when the dealer thought I should bring it in.)

I got an email from Ford yesterday that Vehicle Health Reports will be discontinued on August 1st. Anyone know anything further about this? I assume this data must be stored somewhere on the vehicle's on-board computing system. Anyone know how to access it once the Vehicle Health Report feature goes away? Thanks.

Does anyone have an idea about whether any of the C-Max replacements will be "tall" like the C-Max? The combination of "tallness" and the huge windshield makes my C-Max one of the favorite cars I've ever owned.

Our dealer is currently replacing the transmission on our 2013 C-Max (with about 45,000 miles.) I hadn't had any driving problems but heard a clicking noise as I slowed to a stop, with the clicking frequency decreasing as I slowed. In any event, the dealer is currently installing a new transmission and I'll get it back later in the week. Next Saturday we're leaving on a long driving trip. Do you think I need to drive any differently in the break_in period of the new transmission? Obviously, there's nothing else on the car that needs a break-in. Thanks!

Another option I've been considering for a trip to pretty isolated parts of Canada is to just buy a replacement tire - same size as OEM. Maybe even a used one if I can find one. This would, of course, require getting it mounted on the tire that had gone flat but it would be a lot lighter and easier to stash behind the front seat. Anyone have experience with this? Of course it assumes that whatever caused the flat didn't also damage the wheel. As another option, I have a set of winter tires mounted on steel wheels. I'm pretty sure they're not identical to the size of the original tires and wheels, which I swap out at the end of the winter. Any opinions on just taking one of those as an emergency spare? Thanks!

I've got a 2013, and the door panel says 38 psi for the tires. I had to take it in to have a small leak fixed in one of the tires, and asked them at the dealership to check all the tires and inflate them to the proper pressure. This morning I checked and they were all 42! Either the dealer is following new recommendations that came out since the 2013 models, or they've got bad tire pressure gauges. Anyone have experience with the dealer increasing the tire pressure? They didn't say anything to me about this. I'll try to call them tomorrow. Thanks.

I've now had my third time with a completely dead battery. Car was left in garage overnight and had been fine the day before. This is a 2013 C Max SE with about 20000 miles on it. The first time, a few months after I got it, the dealer did a software update. The second time, a couple of months ago, they couldn't find any problems. I'll take it back again (and we'll first have to see if it starts tomorrow morning.) But I've read a number of comments on this thread about getting an small and inexpensive battery charger as backup. I do have jumper cables, but having the charger as additional backup does seem like a good idea. Any suggestions about what to get? Thanks!

Third time I have had a completely dead battery after being parked overnight in our garage. I have a 2013 C Max. The first time the dealer did a software update. Problem did not recur until Feb. 2015. Got it jump started and took it in to dealer. They kept it overnight but could find no problems. I'm getting it jump started again today (Sunday) and we'll see if I can start it tomorrow morning. Either way I'm taking it back to the dealer. I only have a little over 20K miles on it, but I use it pretty much every day. Any suggestions on what I might ask them to do? Thanks.

Got our $475 check yesterday. It's in the bank already! This was our second rebate, so together they've paid for an extended warranty, which we got from the discount Ford dealer in Rhode Island recommended on this forum.

Not your question, I realize, but I use Google Maps on my Android, so I can get spoken directions over the phone. I've paired my Android with the C Max. So if I want spoken directions through the car speakers (which is much clearer than the phone when there's road traffic), I just use the "bluetooth audio" command on the C-Max and whatever's on the phone comes over the speakers. In this case, it's step by step travel directions. I like this better than in-car GPS since it means I can program the phone with my route before I even go out to the car.

I got this same code when I looked today. I know I didn't have it a couple of days ago. Do we have confirmation that this will produce an additional rebate even if you got the first one?

Has anyone contacted Ford to see if early C-Max purchasers are indeed getting a second rebate?

I also get the recall message using ETIS. Does anyone have any information about when dealers will be ready to handle this problem, and approximately how long the fix should take? Thanks!

I'm the original poster on this thread. FWIW, I called my local Ford dealer, Suntrup Ford in St. Louis, MO, this morning. I had looked in ETIS earlier this morning and saw the 13B12 notification and also a 13B10 notification. The dealer's Service Department said they thought everything had already been done on my C-Max and they weren't seeing anything else that needed service. I did have the 13-7-10 update a couple of months ago. Having finished my call with the dealer I looked again in the ETIS system and it now shows nothing that needs to be done. So I imagine the dealer's checking the system somehow cleared the ETIS. The car is running fine and I've had no further battery problems since the initial dead 12-volt, that presumably was dealt with by the 13-7-10 update. I don't know how this fits with anyone else's experience, but for now I'll just keep driving!

Several months ago, the 12 volt battery on my C Max died without warning overnight. It's an SE and doesn't have MFT. I had the car jumped and then drove to the dealer, with all sorts of warning codes displayed. Following the advice from the forum I told the dealer I thought it needed the 13-B7-10 patch (and I appreciate the advice.) The dealer confirmed this, installed the patch, and reprogrammed things. Since then I've had no trouble at all, including having just left the car outdoors for a week without using it (in cold weather.) It started up with no troubles when I returned. Today I have a letter from Ford about having the 13B12 patch installed. The description of the problem it's supposed to fix sounds just like what happened before, and what others have reported on in this forum. So my question is whether 13B12 is an additional patch that I should have installed. I'm certainly willing to do this, but thought I'd ask the experts here first. Thanks!

I just had a dead battery. Hadn't used it for one day, and had no advance warning of any problems. Roadside Assistance came and would have towed the car to the dealer but was able to jump start so I drove the few miles to the dealer. Brought the dealer the notice of TSB 13-7-10. It took overnight to get rid of the various error codes showing up and the dead center screen. I just got it back and it seems fine, so far. In follow-up to an earlier post, do we know if anyone has had recurrent dead battery problems after getting the TSB 13-7-10 software fix?

I knew I'd need to reset my home location after getting the upgrade, so when I got home I just started and stopped the car 11 times. That worked fine, but the range of the EV+ was noticeably smaller than beforehand. I hadn't known about the 11 times trick earlier, so I only got the EV+ at home when the car "learned it." Although I still don't know why the range narrowed, the car has now "learned" that I regularly stop at the Starbucks about half a mile from home. So on my way home I now get EV+ from that location, and then, shortly thereafter, from home. I don't intend to do this, but this raised my curiosity. Could you set a number of locations, using the 11 times method, so you'd get an extended EV+ range? I assume this would stop working when you ran out of battery power, but are there any other downsides? Has anyone tried this? I am now thinking of setting another location about half a mile from work so I'll get there on a more extended range of battery power. What is the limit on the number of locations the car can recognize?

We have an SE and don't have NAV or MFT. I just use the Navigation function on my HTC Android phone (which I have sync'd) and send the directions to the car speakers by Bluetooth Audio. This works just fine and also allows me to program the navigation function before I actually go out to the car. All I have to do once I'm in the car is hold the right paddle and then say Bluetooh Audio. I then start getting turn by turn audio directions over the car speaker.

I've noticed that local Ford dealers in the St. Louis area almost never include the C-Max in their listings of advertised new cars. Is this common across the country? Is this because of short supply, perceived lack of demand, lack of national Ford incentives to dealers to sell C-Maxes, or is something else going on?

This may not be your issue since you said it hasn't happened when streaming Bluetooth audio. But I've had it when using Bluetooth from my cellphone. In my case it's been a low battery warning from the cellphone when I haven't had it plugged into the charger.

When you pair a second phone, what do you do to change which phone is the active one?