jmckinley

When this came out, I asked my agent about it. My question was, if my driving was not up to their undefined standards, could the price go up? He didn't know. He called the home office and reported back that that might actually be the case. Beware of clever schemes by insurance companies. They are not necessarily in the business of saving you money.

"I am NOT crazy. I AM NOT CRAZY! :headspin: Something's up." Can't say for sure if you're crazy or not, since most people are, but your experience is the same as mine after the 3.5.1 and liftgate updates. Definite change in accelerator pedal response and brake feel. I know of what I speak. I worked in automotive brake design and development for years and we spent a lot of time evaluating brake pedal "feel". It's an elusive quality to quantify and generally ends up being done subjectively with a rating system rather than trying to develop charts and graphs. So, in my humble opinion, I am an expert and I say the pedal feel has changed.

They used up a ton of gas on mine too while trying to do the update. Must have missed the External Power Source instruction.

I'd like to volunteer to rewrite Ford's press release as follows: At Ford Motor Company we are always striving to improve our products. We are happy to announce the following changes to our Hybrid Vehicles: At the initial release of our 2013 models we made sure to maximize fuel economy on the EPA test so we limited electric only propulsion to 62 mph, the max speed on the EPA test. While this was good for advertising, we forgot that this limit negatively impacts normal freeway driving fuel economy so we are now changing the limit to 85mph so the hybrid system will actually help fuel economy on interstate highways at normal freeway speeds. This was no big deal since the Energi models already had that speed limit.We equipped our hybrids with Active Grille Shutters but forgot to program them to reduce aerodynamic drag under most driving and temperature conditions or to help the engine warm up quickly. In fact, we had no idea what they were supposed to do, only that Chevrolet advertises them all the time on the Cruze. We are reprogramming the Shutters so that they will actually do something, including faster warmups in cold weather, during air conditioner use and when the engine coolant temperature is higher.Our Hybrids are equipped with electric radiator fans but we forgot to tie the fan speed to coolant temperature or any other useful parameter. We are now reducing the electric fan speed as a function of coolant temperature to minimize the fan's energy consumption which we should have remembered to do in the first place.Someone noticed that it takes forever for our Hybrids' engines to warm up and in some cases never actually reach proper operating temperatures. Many owners have resorted to Duct Tape or other Southern Engineering schemes to block off grille openings to promote faster warmups and proper operating temperatures. After only twelve months of production, we finally noticed this and are now shortening engine warm-up time by up to 50 percent to enable electric-only driving and engine shutdown at stops sooner after cold starts.Our Hybrids' air conditioner compressors run most of the time, not necessarily related to demand for cold air. We are now optimizing the climate control system to minimize use of the air conditioning compressor and reduce the energy used in cold weather operation.We are confident that these changes and the secret changes implemented as part of the previous 3.5.1 upgrade will help improve customer satisfaction and help us sell more of these cars at profitable prices instead of having to give them away to the rental companies.

Thanks to the recall dealers can't sell any now or even let anyone take test drives. What recall are you referring too? The 3.5.1?

Prius, I think, can only run 25 on full electric anyway. But, I'd be happy with that since it is all in our little town and i never exceed that anyway. I'm pretty sure, however, if we could force the ICE to not start up we could run up to 62 mph as long as the battery lasted.

Speaking of running full electric, European Prius' have a button that forces full electric for a short period. Many US owners have found a way to install a similar switch. This would be a nice feature for short hops. On my car, even in summer, on the one mile run to the grocery store, the computer runs the engine to warm it up which takes the entire trip. It's all downhill so the gas to warm up the engine is wasted. Hopefully someone will figure it out a way to do this for the C Max. Also, on a similar note, how about something to override all the Nav features that are inhibited while the car is in motion? Boxes that allow this are available for other Ford products but are expensive. I would like for my passenger to enter addresses, etc. while we're in motion.

On another thread I mentioned that on a recent trip to Honolulu and Maui I saw lots of rental CMax's. I commented then that Ford was probably offering deals to the rental companies to get the sales figures up. They've done that before on slow sellers. I imagine that the word is out on the poor fuel economy and real sales to private owners are down significantly.

Ditto on the Nav voice prompts. I like the on screen button much better.

"good to hear an owner confirm what we were all speculating that Ford did indeed tweak things (over and above nav and synch) without letting everyone know exactly what they changed." While chatting with the Service Manager I brought up our suspicions that other things were likely included in the update. He said that this was not uncommon. Most recently some significant changes were sneaked into some updates on diesel pickups.

Can you explain what you mean different brake and accelerator response? Thanks. Not exactly, but it seems like the brakes are slightly more responsive and more linear. Previously the pedal effort vs deceleration was somewhat nonlinear. Not unmanageable, just slightly not right compared to most cars. Accelerator response seems more immediate and also more manageable. Engine noise is also different, probably indicating a change in the programming of the CVT. The car seems easier to drive smoothly now, both in braking and acceleration. It's really too soon to tell, only drove it about eight miles so I'll know more later. There is no doubt in my mind that significant Engine, transmission and electric motor control parameters were changed. No way to quantify this or prove it, however.

Picked it up today, Monday, and all is well. They reported, however, that it took a long time and several redos, ending up with long phonecon with FoMoCo and manual entry of some codes. Car definitely drives differently now with different brake response and different accelerator response. Too soon to tell about gas mileage. Interesting that those things would change with a reprogram of the navigation and entertainment system!

SE will be next, I bet. They will come up with some other excuse to get the car in for wipers or something and then reprogram the Engine/drivetrain controller at the same time. They're not likely to admit that they are changing the basic programming to improve the mileage because then they would be admitting that they screwed up and that would impact the class action lawsuits currently in progress regarding fuel economy.

MFT 3.5.1 Cars built before about Feb 2013 had an earlier version which doesn't work as well. If you don't have it, you should have gotten a letter from Lord Motor Company telling you to go to your dealer. Ford's story is that it fixes problems with phone pairing, navigation and other stuff. Some of believe it also has something to do with drivetrain programming and will actually improve mpg. Cars built after Feb get better mileage and several people have reported improvements after the update. Jury is still out, but anecdotal evidence points to some change.

That's really interesting. Wish my update had of worked yesterday. Who knows when I'll see my car again? One of the advantages to living in the Detroit area. You can always find someone who has the inside scoop on things automotive.

"They replaced the clock spring which should fix the cruise control" What?

I tried to warn the dealership Geek Guy about the bad module thing, but he didn't seem to get it. He will eventually find out about it, I guess.

When is the do-over scheduled? Beats me. He asked if I wanted to take it anyway and reschedule. I said no way. Fix it and don't call me unless someone who knows what they're doing actually verifies that the software was updated. I assume that since it's Friday, it won't get worked on until Monday at best. I don't care, I have four other cars and two motorcycles. I'll find something to drive that doesn't irritate me while they fiddle with the software.

Add me to the list. Took car in for 3.5.1 and liftgate fix. They called, I went to pick it up. Guess what, no 3.5.1! Like the rest of you, I inquired as to why they didn't look at the screen to see if the fix actually taken place. They said, "They don't tell us what is supposed to happen with the fix, so we don't know what to look for." Why am I not surprised about any of this. Lift gate, by the way works with one kick now. All this despite my warning the Tech guy in advance that the fix doesn't always work right. Even sent him a bunch of posts from this forum as proof.

It's interesting that the Fusion vacuum pump still works with the ignition off. I've tried my CMax several times, just to be sure, because I thought the pump might still work and that might have been what was running the 12v battery down while towing. On my car at least, the pump doesn't work even in the accessory position. I'm using a ReadyBrake too. I like the simplicity of the whole concept. It was a little tricky, however, getting the cable through the firewall while avoiding those big orange high voltage lines. I just revised the front part of the installation two nights ago because I found that my cable routing had moved and was bearing against the bottom of the radiator shutters in the lower grille, preventing them from fully closing. I had previously routed the cable to exit through the lower grille but now will be moving it so it comes out through the bodywork below the grille.

Good points, except for this: As to braking systems: Ford's hybrid drivetrain (again, same in Cmax or Fusion) has 'active braking' that is on/active ALL the time, regardless of ignition position. I disagree with that. I have coasted down my driveway with the ignition off and applied the brakes and I can guarantee that on my car there is no brake assist with the ignition off. Contrary to what a lot of people think, the friction brakes on this vehicle are exactly like a those on a 55 Chevy with power brakes (except for disc brakes instead of drums). There is a master cylinder and a vacuum booster to provide assist in applying force to the master cylinder. The only addition is a vacuum pump to generate vacuum when we're EVing. When the engine is off and the Vacuum pump is off, it takes a lot of force to apply the brakes, just like on most other cars. Of course when we're actually driving the thing, a lot of braking is provided by regeneration which uses the electric motor as a generator to charge the big battery. There is definitely not "Electric Power Braking all the time". Others were told that some auxiliary brake systems would not work on the CMax and later found that the suppliers had changed their minds. Certainly the ReadyBrake system works just fine on the CMax and I suspect most of the other systems will too. There is no magic or high technology, here. Just a brake pedal, a master cylinder, a vacuum booster and four hydraulic disc brakes.

C Max odometer does not accumulate mileage while towing. Look at your owner's manual. It shows how to hook up jumper cables to two terminals under the hood to jump start. That's where you hook up the charge line. Easier that way since 12V battery is under the floor way in the back under the cargo area.

If you tow on a dolly with the front wheels off the ground, I don't see how that could bother the transmission. This car is front wheel drive, and the rear axle is just a dead axle, like a trailer axle.

Regarding Sirius, I also do not use the music part very often. As someone else mentioned, the Traffic function is pretty much useless, either not up to date or incorrect most of the time. I do, however, like the Weather and Fuel Price functions. I called Sirius and asked how much for just the those two things and they said $2 per month. Those functions were worth that to me so I signed up. I'm happy for now.

Regarding the blinking circle - I've always had it too. Haven't got the update yet. Circle is annoying. Nav system is annoying anyway compared to anything Garmin makes.