jmckinley

Amen on turning up the heat. Flooring the accelerator pedal just makes it do funky things and eventually shutting off anyway. Just turn the heat up all the way. I let mine run for 5 minutes. Over 30,000 towed miles and no problems so far.

Changed the battery in my key fob and now it doesn't work at all.. Owner's Manual says take to dealer for reprogramming. Has anyone else had this problem and if so, did you find an easy solution?

I tow my C Max with a motorhome. To keep the 12V battery from running down when towing, there is a 12V charge line from the Motorhome to the C Max battery. On occasion, when camping somewhere where there is no 120V hookup for the motorhome everything in the motorhome runs off the two large house batteries. After a day or so I will let the Cmax run and charge the motorhome house batteries back through the charge line.. Same as previous posts, the ICE will start occasionally and then shut off. Much quieter than running the gasoline generator on the motorhome.

I'll never know. I let them do the first one, which was free. I've done the rest myself.

It's a mystery to my dealer too.

Dealer charged me $109 and I did the installation myself. Not difficult to do and nice since everything is sparkling clean. There was absolutely no warning. Worked one day and the next day it didn't. Would not hold a charge and the little "eye" in the top of the batttery stayed red, even with charge.

Update. Finally gave up and went to the Ford dealer and bought the 67R. Not cheap, but at least they had one.

After four years, 12V battery died on my 2013. Looked at owner's manual, it says 96R battery. Not easy to find, but I located one. Got home and pulled old battery and discovered it's about 3/4 the size of the 96R and won't fit, no way. The battery that's in there is a 67R which is really hard to find. Has anyone found a decent substitute?

Good to know that Lord Motor Co. did the right thing for you. I'm running grille covers too but would probably remove if I have to take it in. So far tranny is doing fine. No funny noises, probably towed 20 K miles by now. Speaking of mpg, mine never got much over 40 until early this year when suddenly it started to get in the high 40s. Don't know why.

Mine is early model year 2013. I took delivery in December, 2012. Did Ford replace yours under warranty? Seems that some guys are getting stiffed on replacement because dealer/Ford says they were improperly flat towed.

Has anyone changed their trans fluid DIY? After hearing about failures, and since I tow my CMax four wheels down, I'm thinking at 45K miles I should go on and do it.

I see that our Ford Rep for this forum is not responding to this. As usual.

I think the Energi has the same hydraulic brakes as the hybrid, using an electrically driven vacuum pump for a conventional vacuum assisted master cylinder.

Direct from the Owner's Manual: Recreational TowingNote: Put your climate control system inrecirculated air mode to prevent exhaustfumes from entering the vehicle. SeeClimate Control (page 104).Follow these guidelines if you have a needfor recreational (RV) towing. An exampleof recreational towing would be towingyour vehicle behind a motorhome. Wedesigned these guidelines to preventdamage to your transmission.You can tow your vehicle with all fourwheels on the ground or with the frontwheels off the ground by using a tow dolly.If you are using a tow dolly follow theinstructions specified by the equipmentprovider. What else would you need to see from Ford? By the way, the instructions continue and provide the method for flat towing. This car works great in flat towing. I've towed mine over 20,000 miles with no problems.

You didn't really have it in the ACC mode. You were in the run mode with the little green car lit up at the bottom of the speedometer. That's the only way it will add miles when towing. I'll bet you showed some fabulous MPGs on that tank though.

Here's the question of the day. Has anyone on this Forum ever gotten any useful help from the Ford Service person assigned to this Forum? For example, Brittany's promise to help above, now 14 days ago.

Good luck with asking your dealer about towing. Also, the Owners Maual has been changed at least once. The early manual was just wrong about the procedure. If you have an earlier version, be sure to download the latest version.

That's the spirit, don't take anything at face value. It's interesting that if you look on Roadmaster's web site they have a chart which says that the Invisibrake is not recommended for the CMax. ETrailer shows the Roadmaster 9400 as OK for for the CMax and it looks just like the 9300. Who knows? I still say with the engine off, the CMax is just another hydraulically braked car and just about any system that fits can be used on it. In addition to the vacuum pump, there is other stuff which apparently uses up battery power when the engine is off but the system is in the accessory mode (not turned off completely). Simplest solution is a charge line which will be needed anyway because for anything but the ReadyBrake, the auxiliary brake system will run down the battery anyway without a charge line.

I use a ReadyBrake. Nice simple system, no electronics. Works great. But, I can't imagine why the 9300 system wouldn't work too. I know that when the CMax was first released some of the auxiliary brake system manufacturers were telling people that their systems wouldn't work on a Hybrid car. Turns out they were mostly wrong. If I were you, I'd ask Roadmaster to explain why they think the 9300 won't work on a CMax. There's a reasonable chance they are just plain wrong.

The Ford and the RV dealers you have talked to are idiots. Look at your wheels and you'll see conventional hydraulically actuated disc brakes at each wheel position. These brakes are what stop the vehicle at low speeds or the engine is off or when the regeneration isn't enough to provide the required deceleration. Almost any commercially available auxiliary brake system will work. Lots of us are towing our CMax's successfully. If you can't install the system yourself, find an RV dealer and tell them to forget they're working on a hybrid and pretend it is a Focus or Escape. Since the engine on these cars isn't always running, vacuum is supplied to the brake booster by an electrically driven vacuum pump. When towing with the ignition off, this pump will run the battery down in about 2-3 hours. No one has found an easy way to disconnect this pump for towing, so you will need to add a charge line connecting your motorhome battery to the CMax battery. This is no big deal and most cars need charge line anyway. The battery is buried under the rear floor so the easiest place to connect this line is under the hood where there is a post for attaching jumper cables. Check your owner's manual for the location.

All manufacturers caution against backing up. Unless it is done very carefully and not for long, the bar will get bound up and bend. Also, the toad wheels will most likely go to full lock either left or right and scrub mightily. What can be done, and I have done it, is tow the Motor Home backward with the toad to get out of a tight spot. Should only be in a straight line and on a flat surface. Requires someone in the motor home keeping it straight. Mentioning this method always starts a big frenzy on the RV forums, so let me say some things up front. I know your bar and hitch are rated for 5-8000 pounds - but you're not towing the motor home backward up the Rockies at 65 mph. You won't rip the baseplate out from under the toad. This operation is traction limited - your toad wheels will spin long before you develop substantial force. Cmax has around 2000 pounds on front axle - due to differential action only one wheel will pull - only 1000 pounds per wheel x .7 road coefficient of friction so only 700 pounds of pull.

Take a look at Fuelly.com. Average for all owners reporting is 40 mpg. Dorkmilers and other fanatics can get more by driving this thing like a 1968 Volkswagen but I had hoped at this stage of my life to enjoy Heat and Air Conditioning and to be able to keep up with Interstate highway traffic. I had my fill of hot, cold, slow cars when I was working my way through college. Drive this car 70 mph and you won't get 45 mph. And, if it's cold, or raining, or hot or there's a headwind you may not even get 35 mpg. And, I'm running crappy looking Plexiglas covers over both grills. If people ask why, I explain that Ford wasn't smart enough to design radiator shutters that actually work.

My dash display is consistently 7% optimistic on gas mileage. So if you saw 41.5 it was actually 38.5. Don't expect even that much mileage if you're going to drive it 75 in Texas in the summer with A/C. More like 35 then. Lots of cheaper cars out there that can get just as good mileage without all the complications.

I forgot some more tips for good CMax Mileage: 1. Don't drive when it's hot, AC will knock off a few miles a gallon. 2. Don't drive when it's cold, heater and cold starts will knock off a few miles a gallon. 3. Don't drive when it's raining, wet roads will knock off a few miles a gallon. 4. Don't take anyone with you or carry luggage. Extra weight will knock off a few miles a gallon. 5. Pump up one tire until it blows off the rim. Replace it, then run all your tires at 2 psi below the blowoff pressure. Ride will be horrible, but you may get better mileage.

1. Buy a Focus if you want decent mileage driving like a regular person at the speed limit. 2. Don't believe what the CMax dashboard tells you. It lies by about 7%. If it says 40mpg, you're really getting 37.2. Don't believe me? check your fillup to fillup mileage sometime.