grege Posted July 2, 2021 Report Share Posted July 2, 2021 2018 titanium cmax, 32,000 miles. Started with high-pitched whine several miles ago. That turned into a humming/growling noise coming from the cockpit area that I would have sworn was tire/wheel noise. Dealer now thinks it's the CVT, which makes sense given the increasing growling noises I've been having, including some recent ones during hard acceleration. Ugh. Never been a fan of CVTs and still am not... Greg AbuDia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homestead Posted July 3, 2021 Report Share Posted July 3, 2021 Sorry to hear that. Not many miles. That year shouldn't have the same transmission bug that 2013-2014's had. But at least it should be covered under the warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grege Posted July 8, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2021 Car finally back after one week (and sketchy service and "lost" parts). Car bought new and now has ~32,000 miles. Surprised to see one inspection item report rear brakes AOK while front brake pads are 4/32" and recommend replacing. With regen braking and only 32,000 miles, front brakes have worn quicker than any other new vehicle I've owned? Will need to visually check that in a few days, but disconcerting to read that while at the same time dealer reports all pads and rotors should be replaced due to rust. Um, if rotor surfaces are rusted, then there's obviously not much pad contact and pads should not be worn much, right? Transmission noises reportedly relate to half shaft/axle and hub (based on chasis stethoscope "ears"), but "replacements" have not yet diminished noises, so I'm sadly skeptical about that too. Second time in a row dealer has not rotated tires when requested as part of oil/filter/routine service. Might end up having another shop look it over to verify service. Servicing should not be this big a challenge for any customer. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted July 9, 2021 Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 The 4/32" sounds fishy. This "rust" thing stinks. Rear brake "rust" was a problem for me after the law was changed to require "full contact". Mine had developed bands (as many others have seen) that were interpreted as not being "full contact" so no one would pass them. I think they were quite OK but I had to get new ones to pass inspection. Front brakes are still original at 221k miles! Sometimes I shift to N and brake hard to try and keep off any rust - don't know how much it will help. Look at your rotors and see if there are any bands that look different from other areas. If I see these bands again, I plan to sand the rotors with a random orbital sander then go out and do a bunch of panic stops to make them look better! I'm sure one brake job negates ALL the savings from regenerative braking. Be sure tires get rotated or you can get some nasty noise later on from cupping. I got asked once if I was running snow tires! My Michelin dealer rotates for free every 5k miles. grege 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cr08 Posted July 9, 2021 Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 8 hours ago, SnowStorm said: Be sure tires get rotated or you can get some nasty noise later on from cupping. I got asked once if I was running snow tires! My Michelin dealer rotates for free every 5k miles. This is a big one for sure. I just got mine rotated at my last service a few months ago with only 10k miles/2 years on a brand new set of tires and the cupping was horrible. Didn't realize it was going to get that bad so quickly. The alignment is horrible on the rear of our vehicles and can't be adjusted with the factory hardware apparently. Supposedly there's some aftermarket components made for the Focus that's compatible with the C-Max to make the rear end adjustable and help with this. Personally I plan to drop my rotation intervals down to 5k/1yr, hold out til I need new tires and then get a good middle of the road all season set and look into the aftermarket suspension components at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grege Posted July 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 Yeah, my OEM Michelin tires are already making noise (likely due to cupping), which is why I rotate tires yearly to prevent, but hasn't helped with this vehicle. I will now steer clear of Michelin tires and Goodyears due to bad experiences with both brands. Just checked the reported 4/32" front brad pads left and...NOPE, the brake pads still have much of their chamfers visible, so not even close to being worn much at all, yet Ford recommending new pads for $555 for the fronts. New rotors and pads recommended all around due to rust = What a bunch of fraudulent BS. I'm all for companies making a profit, but to do so fraudulently is sickening. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted July 9, 2021 Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 5 hours ago, cr08 said: and look into the aftermarket suspension components at the same time. Read this topic (especially my Aug 3, 2015, Jul 10, 2018 and Mar 1, 2019 posts) before you decide about new parts. I don't quite know what to think, really. I've stayed with the OEM Michelins for 221k miles so can't comment on other tires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cr08 Posted July 9, 2021 Report Share Posted July 9, 2021 1 hour ago, SnowStorm said: Read this topic (especially my Aug 3, 2015, Jul 10, 2018 and Mar 1, 2019 posts) before you decide about new parts. I don't quite know what to think, really. I've stayed with the OEM Michelins for 221k miles so can't comment on other tires. Good to know. I'll likely still go through with the adjustable arms but try from another brand and do some additional research there just to try and see what goes. I don't plan on making many other major modifications to this car, mainly just normal maintenance and upkeep. I've done the Sync 3 upgrade and I'm happy where she's at and plan to keep her til it becomes uneconomical to maintain. I'm also not set on what my next set of tires are gonna be. I definitely don't want to go with the OEM Michelin's as that bit me in the butt here my first winter with the car. They don't seem to like ice, AT ALL, even with good tread left. Even the cheapo Kenda all seasons I replaced them with have been miles ahead of the Michelin's in the stuff. But I do believe the Kenda's I got being on the cheaper end may not have helped the cupping situation either so I do plan to step to something likely mid-tier once the tread dictates replacement. We don't get too much or too bad of winter precip being inside an urban heat bubble, just a few days here or there when temperatures rollercoaster and we get snow melt or rain that freezes into solid sheets of ice but that's maybe ~5 days out of the entire year so I've never felt the need to keep a set of winters around and have learned well driving on all seasons (My last car was an '07 Focus with no ABS and rear drums and my commute at the time was in worse conditions with a longer commute than where I'm at. And before that I drove a family member's Cavalier when I lived in the Ohio snowbelt. I got quite adept at winter driving between of those two. lol). So ultimately I'll be sticking with some decent mid-tier all seasons and will do that research when the time comes for replacements. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obob Posted July 16, 2021 Report Share Posted July 16, 2021 On 7/8/2021 at 7:43 PM, grege said: Car finally back after one week (and sketchy service and "lost" parts). Car bought new and now has ~32,000 miles. Surprised to see one inspection item report rear brakes AOK while front brake pads are 4/32" and recommend replacing. With regen braking and only 32,000 miles, front brakes have worn quicker than any other new vehicle I've owned? Will need to visually check that in a few days, but disconcerting to read that while at the same time dealer reports all pads and rotors should be replaced due to rust. Um, if rotor surfaces are rusted, then there's obviously not much pad contact and pads should not be worn much, right? Greg If you can check your lifetime braking stats that would be a good indicator of whether the 4/32 is deserved. If the stats are good then the car mostly uses the back brakes just for 5 to 0 mph. At around 50K my brake stat was something like 95% and the back linings where getting low though still legal and the fronts where looking really good. The rotors were looking grooved like SnowStorm mentioned. I ended up replacing the linings and rotors myself. Parts were cheap off of ebay. My mechanic doesn't get picky about the grooves though I can see how that could be a problem with some places and I was concerned he eventually would. Actually the contact is still somewhat full because the linings have similar grooves that fit to the rotor. The cupping of the rear tires has been very frustrating and "evening the wear" through rotation has been noisy and irritating to me. My latest tire purchase I decided to just not rotate the tires and see how that works out. I haven't driven enough to say whether it was a good idea. I kind of assumed the newer C-Max would have less tilt on the back wheels because it seems like a big design defect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grege Posted July 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2021 On 7/16/2021 at 4:40 PM, obob said: If you can check your lifetime braking stats that would be a good indicator of whether the 4/32 is deserved. If the stats are good then the car mostly uses the back brakes just for 5 to 0 mph. At around 50K my brake stat was something like 95% and the back linings where getting low though still legal and the fronts where looking really good. The rotors were looking grooved like SnowStorm mentioned. I ended up replacing the linings and rotors myself. Parts were cheap off of ebay. My mechanic doesn't get picky about the grooves though I can see how that could be a problem with some places and I was concerned he eventually would. Actually the contact is still somewhat full because the linings have similar grooves that fit to the rotor. The cupping of the rear tires has been very frustrating and "evening the wear" through rotation has been noisy and irritating to me. My latest tire purchase I decided to just not rotate the tires and see how that works out. I haven't driven enough to say whether it was a good idea. I kind of assumed the newer C-Max would have less tilt on the back wheels because it seems like a big design defect. This is becoming the noisiest hybrid I've driven between the brakes and tire cupping noises. Did check the outer pads and those are almost "new" thickness, so if the inners are actually under 5/32", then there's obvious caliper failure and either way you slice that, that is simply dealer fraud given braking score is good and MPG are both quite good. Unfortunate, but a recurring reality for far too many and what keeps me from dealer service for anything except warranty work. I'll DIY the rotors and pads in the next year or two once it bothers me too much, but it's certainly not critical. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbov Posted July 18, 2021 Report Share Posted July 18, 2021 Rear brakes were my one sore point, too. I understand rear wear, given regen only works on the front axel. But I had a bad caliper on the passenger side that the dealer missed at 50K miles, so I had a shop fix it when it failed again at 55K miles. My symptoms included an odd loss of braking coming to a stop. Regen braking needs speed to work, so we all stop using friction brakes. The fake brake failure occurs at this transition, because the bad caliper warped the rotor, which pushed the brake pads back. That caused a delay in braking force, which feels like you lost the brakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grege Posted September 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2021 Update: first dealer threw parts at the car and noises got slightly worse, so took car to another Ford dealer and...transmission is toast at 35,000 miles. Great. May be fixed by late September. Still not a fan of CVTs... Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptjones Posted September 14, 2021 Report Share Posted September 14, 2021 (edited) I got 99K mi. on first trans and FORD replaced for free, got 173k mi. on second trans still working when I traded it in.? Paul Edited September 14, 2021 by ptjones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stolenmoment Posted September 14, 2021 Report Share Posted September 14, 2021 The mechanical elegance of the planetary gear setup still has me in awe. No sliding shafts, no clutch, no synchromesh, just smooth control. ptjones and cr08 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cr08 Posted September 15, 2021 Report Share Posted September 15, 2021 (edited) Yep. eCVTs are fantastically simple and inherently bulletproof with whatever normal maintenance is called for (basically just a simple trans fluid drain and fill at I think 150k miles per the official maintenance schedule on the C-Max). The issues with the 2013-2015 MY's were basically installation failures and not an inherent design failure. Surprised there's a failure on a 2018. That should be a rarity but thankfully you are well within the warranty period and statistically speaking the replacement should last the lifetime of the car no sweat. CVTs (specifically what you'd find on non-hybrid vehicles) are a completely different beast from eCVTs and seem to be all over the board on reliability. Edited September 15, 2021 by cr08 C-MaxA2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grege Posted October 2, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2021 New transmission installed along with two new rear hubs (agaIn). While I know coolant color doesn't matter, it's still disturbing to see green coolant now mixed in with my original ford orange coolant with the new transmission. That, plus the swollen lug nuts requiring two more to be replaced today adds to the chaos. Brakes are rusting and noisy, but functional. Anyone have any rotors/pads they'd recommend? Been eyeing up PowerStop Geomet-coated CRK6397 rotors to see if those actually do rust less. Thanks, Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacienega Posted October 3, 2021 Report Share Posted October 3, 2021 I wonder why they didn't just use the orange coolant. Would bother me too on such a new car. My 2014 sel has 115 000 ml and still original brake pads and rotors. But I also had to buy new solid lug nuts because of the swollen originals. I believe they swell from using the impact wrench on them...pretty sure if you would hand torque them to the specified 100 ft-lbf , they would be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grege Posted October 4, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2021 After some brief research...ford switched to a yellow (greenish) coolant in 2020 that is "backwards compatible" with ford orange. So, I'll simply add my leftover orange coolant as necessary and not sweat it. First day driving car with new transmission (metal shavings found within original cvt from wearing bearings) and it's quieter, but mileage has not improved, so suspect the newer goodyear maxlife tires are to blame for that (was hoping the grenading tranny was partly responsible). If you want better mileage, do not use goodyear maxlife tires. Greg Lacienega, C-MaxA2 and ptjones 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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