SOUND SYSTEM QUIT WORKING TODAY

[BWP]

The sound system quit working on the C-Max today.  Can't turn it on or even bring the entertainment display up on the screen.  Someone posted the same problem with a video showing just what I'm seeing as they went through various ways of trying to turn the system on.  Can't find the old thread.  Can anyone help?  

[Adair]

I don't know if this is the same thing you are experiencing BWP, but my sound quits, along with the phone, altho the phone *shows* connected on the screen. No buttons, knobs, or paddles work when this happens. *Sometimes* after turning the car off for 10-15 minutes, upon restarting, everything is back online. This has occurred for me 7 times in the last 10 days. I've been told that the 3.5.1 upgrade will fix this. 

 

Could it be that yours is doing a *scheduled update? When that happens with mine the screen goes black and nothing works for a while. Then the Microsoft SYNC screen comes up with a progress bar across the bottom. Did you see anything like that?

[RachelnLa]

Mine would do the scheduled update every time my husband called me in the car. Upgraded his phone and it stopped. It has done it when the system is overloaded.

[BWP]

No Microsoft screen or connected phones.  Just went and tried it after sitting for a couple of hours and nothing.  Thanks for the input.

[Laurel]

BWP I know there is a thread somewhere with info on your situation, but I have searched without luck for it.  Maybe Jus will appear and find it for you.  Sorry I couldn't recall much about it other than some folks disconnecting their battery and reconnecting it which seems a hassle.  Hopefully it is being its stupid self and by morning it will reappear.

[JAZ]

Happened to me for the first time this week just as I was loading a thumb drive with 200 songs on it.  Did a master reset (lost all presets of course) with no results and about an hour later when a half mile from home it began working.  Froze again a couple of days later but almost immediately started up again.  A bit later it did a Scheduled Maintenance.  Some other forums suggest it may be related to trying to connect a phone while simultaneously loading a drive.  This is with version 3.5.1.

[Laurel]

The sound system quit working on the C-Max today.  Can't turn it on or even bring the entertainment display up on the screen.  Someone posted the same problem with a video showing just what I'm seeing as they went through various ways of trying to turn the system on.  Can't find the old thread.  Can anyone help?  

Go to the general thread and there is discussion about disconnecting the battery and it mentions a certain fuse --the thread is new today.

[BWP]

Thanks again for the feedback. Still no access to the entertainment system, nor will the voice activated functions work. Taking it to a dealer Sat. I'll take a look at the thread on the battery disconnect when time permits. Maybe that'll work and save my Saturday.

[BWP]

The dealership disconnected the battery with no results.  

[Adair]

http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/665-disconnect-low-voltage-battery-frozen-myfordtouch-screen/?hl=fuse&do=findComment&comment=3525

 

 

BWP, I believe this is the thread Laurel was talking about......about  a fuse you can pull. Check it out and see if it applies to you, or if you want to try it. I haven't tried it yet....mine is working ok for the moment.

 

Let us know!

[BWP]

A big thanks to Adair and Lauren!  Per the thread they directed me to, I pulled fuses 69 and 79 (underneath the glove box) ran the car with ICE for 5 minutes, reinserted the fuses, and problem solved.  The inaccessible entertainment screen and voice functions came back online.

 

Good on this forum to help folks solve these type problems.

 

Not so good on Ford service for not knowing this.   The C-Max may be new, but the thread that helped me was also for the Sync system on a 2011 Edge.  Seems to me that frozen screen issues have been around a while.  

 

Bottomline, I'm happy to have this problem solved.  Thanks again.

[Laurel]

BWP hip hip hurrah!  I'm glad that you got things working.  Not so good that your service department couldn't do that for you, but we have found that we seem to know more about the little fixes for the C-Max than our service department too.  Not sure what that is about as one would think that someone from Ford would monitor the forum and pass on tips that work.

[Adair]

BWP hip hip hurrah!  I'm glad that you got things working.  Not so good that your service department couldn't do that for you, but we have found that we seem to know more about the little fixes for the C-Max than our service department too.  Not sure what that is about as one would think that someone from Ford would monitor the forum and pass on tips that work.

I agree Laurel! We are the beta testers (guinea pigs?) for these cars, and there is a ton of information here for the taking, if someone from Ford were monitoring it.

 

So glad the fix worked for BWP!!!

[JAZ]

I'm a bit confused:  it's definitely numbers 69 and 79 and NOT 67 ?

[BWP]

Fuse 69 was the instrument panel and 79 the radio.  Pulling just those 2 worked for me.

[JohnTrigger]

I'm a bit confused:  it's definitely numbers 69 and 79 and NOT 67 ?

 

It is such a pain to get to those fuses anyway (contort body in foot area of passenger seat, pull back carpet, etc) that while you are there, you might as well try all three.  It could be different issues causing the system to lock up, which is why 69/79 worked for him, but 67/79 worked for me.  I don't know.  I did not run my car with ICE when I had to pull the fuses. 

Edited May 13, 2013 by JohnTrigger

[BWP]

Yes, the fuses are a pain to get to and get out.  I ended up filing a small groove into a pair of small needlenose  pliers to have something to grab onto the fuses with.

 

As for running the ICE, I was simply following what the thread said.  If it happens again, I'll try it without running the engine.   Interesting though, while pushing the accelerator will get the ICE to come on, the engine will only increase RPM maybe a couple hundred, even with the pedal floored.

[yahgoat]

I just wanted to reply to this old post concerning the entertainment system not coming on, and thank those who had to deal with it when their Cmax were new. Our 2013 developed the same problem for the first time a couple days ago, and by removing and replacing the 69 & 79 fuses, it now works. I did run the ICE a bit in between which may or not be necessary.

I'd like to add that after getting past the initial disappointment of less than advertised MPG, we have really enjoyed our Cmax Hybrid, and feel that 41+ MPG after three yrs. coupled with the pleasant ride and more than adequate performance to be a very favorable overall experience.

[agilix]

Sorry to recycle this thread, but I would like to report one audio system failure on my C-Max today, and share some leanings from the experience.

 

2013 C-Max SE with 203A package, 34700 miles. After about 5 days inactive in the garage, I started the car this morning and everything appeared normal. The audio was automatically on playing Bach cantatas from a USB thumb drive just as I turned it off last week. About 7AM time for the NPR news, I pushed FM on the screen, no response. AM, no response either. Bach kept playing. Weird! Was the touch screen dead? Tried Navigation or Phone buttons, both worked (if a little sluggish as usual). I tried the audio selection on the right top of steering wheel, it navigated to AM or FM, but none of the choice could be selected or activated.

 

Stopped the car, pulled the key, got off. Got back and re-started, all displays were normal, but still not able to change audio selection. OK, keep checking while driving. Noticed couple additional symptoms:

 

(1) Audio could not be turn off, the big round push button was not responsive;

(2) Volume could not be changed, either by the knob, or by buttons on the steering wheel;

(3) Navigation worked, but no sound as it was supposed to be;

(4) Bluetooth connecting phone worked: could make call, but no sound came from the audio speaker, (Bach kept playing);

(5) Only the USB source worked (and stuck there), and I could forward/backward select different songs on screen;

(6) Tried a compact disc: Insert into the slot, no response. Tried to eject, showing "no disc is found"!

 

Summary: Audio system appeared stuck and was unable to recover.

 

Once arrived the destination, searched for answer by google and on this forum. I tried at least three times of Master reset. Had to pull all accessories off Bluetooth, USB, or SD slot. First time perhaps lack of patience, the next couple times, gave it enough time for the screen to shut down, recycle, and came back again. During the process, lost all previous settings in maps and phone, etc.None of reset solved the audio problem.

 

Searched again, pulled out couple discussion threads on audio system failures, including this one. Decided to give a try. First checked the fuse diagram and compared to the real fuse box, noticed that mine does not have fuse 67 at all (due to SE than SEL?), so I decided to target fuse 69 and 79 as experts suggested here.

 

Got the needle-nose pliers, wrapped the tips with some tapes, pulled the 5A fuse 69 and 15A fuse 79. Turned on the ICE (all instrument panels were dark), running for 2 min. Shut down for about 3 min, pulled the key off for another 5 min (went for a coffee). Re-inserted the fuses, and turned the key to start: Wow, all audio systems were back to normal!

 

Observations: even after so called master reset (three times), the radio preset stations were still there! Does that mean I did not reset completely (or it could not cure the audio stuck anyway)? Anyone can share the proper master reset procedure? I did gave it plenty of time to recycle the screen, and all my phone and favorite map locations were lost.

 

Also, the radio appeared to become more sensitive. I have been complaining poor receptions of this C-Max, especially AM that could not pull WFAN from NYC to New Haven clearly. Now it sounds much better after the fuse trick. Of course, the USB thumb drive had to be re-indexed, but as far as I can tell, the audio system was back to normal during a short trail ride (and it could swallow and spill CDs again). Will report any issue in case it persists.

 

Thanks guys!

[cr08]

Funny enough I had this happen this last week as well on my Energi. TL;DR for the future for anyone else who runs into it: Just pull fuses 67 and 79. Shouldn't even need to really do the engine start rigmarole. I did mine while the entire car was off and just pressed the power button for the radio after re-installing the fuses.

 

I don't know specifically where the presets are stored but in our MyFordTouch systems there are two parts of the radio: The ACM which is hidden and is basically what handles the audio routing and is responsible for the AM/FM/Sirius tuners and drives the speakers. The APIM which is what you see as the touch screen and Sync system largely just handles USB playback, Auxillary input, nav, voice commands, etc.. It routes all audio to the ACM for output. For tuners it just controls the ACM and tells it what to do. All volume controls are also done strictly by the ACM. So what likely happened in your case is since you were already listening to a USB device, the APIM is functioning fine and allowed you to change tracks but the ACM wouldn't allow volume changes or moving off that input to a radio tuner or otherwise doing anything else. ACM was stuck for all intents and purposes.

 

My situation was very similar. USB audio worked but I managed to turn off the audio (audio power button) and it wouldn't turn back on after that. As a result there was no audio anywhere even from the parking sensors. No touch screen beeps, etc.. 

[rjam]

I had this happen yesterday. Maps would not work music norhing. Did three resets no help. Yurned the car off and let it sit. Still no help. Screen went black then all lit up but nothing worked. Was ready to pull the fuse. Restarted the car once more and everything works. Strange.

[homestead]

Yesterday I had a strange occurrence yesterday on a trip.  I got into the car and

plugged my phone into usb to charge, started the car and the car connected to my wife's

phone (primary). Later while driving car was playing bluetooth via her phone and I pressed the

sync voice paddle and nothing happened (no bong).  I think sync got confused.

On the trip home repeated the same process and this time it worked as expected.

[jestevens]

Microsoft software is just cool like that.. :)

[SnowStorm]

Our radio has started acting up over the last few weeks.  You will be driving along and there will be a sudden loud burst of "noise", like static, for a split second.  Afterwards the radio won't turn on.  When you repeatedly press the volume knob to turn it on it will cycle between no response and flashing a bit of colored bars/box on the screen.  Restarting the car seems to fix it - so far.  It has been cold weather of course - don't know if problem is temperature related or if it just started on its own.  We do not have the touchscreen - 2013 SE.  Any ideas?

[homestead]

Sounds like an intermittent connection.  Could pop open the dash cover and reseat/clean the connectors.

For the Microsoft problems maybe we need a reset button on the dash to temporarily  break the power 

so it will reboot.

Luckily ours has only glitched a couple times in 4.5 years and it fixed itself next time car was restarted.