GSMacLean

I have not seen that they are moving C-Max production anywhere. The news articles said they are shutting down the Michigan plant (actually, I believe they are converting it to another vehicle), and moving the Focus plant to Mexico. I believe it was Focus, but anyway, they mentioned the other car being built on the Michigan line, but did not mention the C-Max.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2015/07/09/ford-focus-uaw-contract-mexico/29918345/

http://www.carscoops.com/2015/07/ford-moving-focus-c-max-production-from.html

My car went in this morning to Liberty Ford in Brunswick, OH. They breezed through the outstanding recalls, and ordered a new seat cover for me, no problem at all. Couldn't be happier with this dealer, they're competent and communicative. I pick up the car tonight, and it will go back next week when the seat cover comes in.

How did your dealer trip go, GSMacLean?

 

Meagan

I haven't even scheduled it yet! :)

My 2013 Energi, with just over 25,000 miles on it has cracking on the driver's side bolster. I'll be taking it in now that I've seen this TSB.

My parents have a similar ratio of EV to ICE miles on their Energi which has about 14,000 miles now. It's odd that something would go wrong so quickly. Do you hear the noise when in EV Now? Or is it only when the ICE first turns on when cold? Does the howling happen more in winter when the eCVT fluid is much colder & thicker or more in summer where the eCVT fluid is now warmer?

It seems to be unrelated to ambient temperature, it has happened pretty consistently regardless - only it's happening more and more often now, and is now also happening intermittently while driving on the highway with the engine fully warmed up, as I mentioned. The fact that it's increasing in frequency is what got my attention.

The howling is definitely not normal. You may need a new eCVT. You can contact user FordService to get help at the dealer. How many miles are on your Energi? The eCVT is covered under the 8/100 hybrid components warranty.

That seems to be the consensus. I've got 23,000 miles, of which about 16,000 is EV only.

When I first got my 2013 Energi, it was tough to tell when the engine started up. A little bit more vibration maybe felt in the steering wheel, but you couldn't really hear anything.

Some time ago, I noticed that when the ICE was cold, and was first starting up, for about the first 30 seconds or so as the car computer would hold the ICE at idle to warm it up, it would make a kind of howling noise - almost the kind of noise a bearing makes when it is failing. Once it allowed the engine to start actually driving the wheels through the transmission, instead of just idling, the noise would go away. I thought at the time, "hmm, perhaps it's always done that, and I just never noticed before."

Recently, it's now also started doing it at times when the car is driving - usually at highway speed, the ICE is running, but the car is on a slight downhill slope, so that the car is regenerating. I can watch the battery arrows - as it switches from the arrow pointing down (drawing from battery) to the arrow pointing up (regenerating into battery), the howling noise will start. The instant it switches back to draw instead of regenerate, the howling stops. This is also intermittent.

The noise at start-up used to only happen when the ICE started up at first while the car was moving; now it does it every time, even if the car is stationary.

While driving with my wife yesterday, she remarked, "what's that noise? Your car never used to make that noise." If the noise is loud and noticeable enough that she actually noticed and paid attention to it, then it's definitely new and abnormal.

I made a recording of the noise - and of course, because I had my recorder out there, it would only do it for a few seconds at a time, instead of the normal 30-45 seconds. Perhaps it's because the engine was still warm from driving earlier today.

In any case, has anyone else experienced this? Is this the noise that indicates a forthcoming problem with the transmission?

I posted an MP3 of my recording of the noise here: http://ilovewbpf.com/Car_Noise.mp3

Any comments are welcome.

Never heard of such a thing, and several Google searches also show no existence of it. Sounds like snake oil to me.

This is normal, not just for the C-Max, but for all cars. When you clear all codes in the computer, emissions tests will require a specific amount of miles/time driven before they will accept results as a pass. This is to prevent you from hiding a known emissions problem by clearing the codes just before taking the car in for its emissions test.

The rear window washer spray on my C-Max comes out in a stream that dribbles down the window. Eventually the wiper manages to spread it over the window, but I'm thinking it should actually spray out over the whole window to begin with. Am I correct in this, or is everyone's car like this? I've attached a picture of what I'm talking about.

My compressor is fairly loud - but I don't know if that's just the nature of the beast, or if it actually has this problem. I could measure it with a sound pressure meter - does anyone else have a sound meter, and could measure theirs to make a comparison?

To begin with, the battery is much smaller than you would find in a normal car. It doesn't need the massive current a normal car needs to crank the engine, so it doesn't need to be as physically large, or have anywhere near the capacity. Its job is primarily as a small reserve and buffer. As soon as the car is turned on, it starts charging the 12V battery from the HV battery, through the DC-DC converter. Essentially, the HV battery is running all the 12 volt accessories (radio, Sync, headlights, seat heat, etc), and a small bit more to keep the 12 volt battery charged.

When the car is first turned on, it uses power from the 12 volt battery to actuate relays that energize circuitry that is run from the HV battery. The main one of these is the DC-DC converter that provides 12 volt power to run accessories and charge the 12 volt battery.

Because the capacity of the 12 volt battery is quite small, it can easily be run down by anything being left on - headlights (i.e. user error) or Sync (software error). It won't run your headlights for hours, like a normal car does - it simply doesn't have that reserve capacity. Eventually, the voltage drops below what the computers require. You can't start the car, because the computers aren't running.

Connecting a "jump" pack provides the (relatively small) amount of power to allow the computers to start up. This in turn allows you to "start" the car, wherein the computers close the relays to energize the DC-DC converter, which allows the HV battery to begin charging the 12 volt battery.

Because the 12 volt battery has a fairly small capacity, it charges relatively quickly - it doesn't take hours to charge from dead, like a regular car battery.

The "Performing Scheduled Maintenance" message actually means "Computer has crashed and is rebooting." It sounds nicer than saying "sorry, our buggy software crashed, please wait while the computer reboots."