reedmother Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 Get this. My c-max died on interstate 91 in Vermont. I was on my own, headed down to catch the bus to Logan to go to Seattle. Traveling on my own is never very relaxing and making all the connections drives me a bit nuts. So.... the car gives me a message to "find a safe place to stop immediately". Oh shit. I stopped, shut off the engine and tried driving - to no avail. The message came on again and I could see that the engine was not coming on. The battery was completely drained. I ended up abandoning the car and hitch-hiking. Luckily a great guy picked me up and got me to the bus on time. I left messages with the husband to deal with Ford. So, here I am on the west coast and the news is that they had to "re-program" it. Great. Oh, c--max, I love you, but if this ever happens again, I'm going to be very disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelnLa Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 Yikes!! How scary. I am glad you are okay and made it in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotomoto Posted September 15, 2013 Report Share Posted September 15, 2013 What a horrible time for it to happen too! If in safe location, I personally would have tried disconnecting the + terminal on the 12v battery. Sometimes a hard reset/reboot will do the trick. I'm not necessarily saying you should have tried this as I know something of this nature is above many folks abilities (like my wife for instance); especially on the side of the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurel Posted September 15, 2013 Report Share Posted September 15, 2013 Good grief! What a bad experience. I hope you are enjoying the west coast though? I am waving to you from a little north of Seattle i.e. White Rock, B.C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobJustBob Posted September 19, 2013 Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 My goodness, that is terrible! Ford is going to have to re-badge the C-Max and call it the Edsel II. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNCGeek Posted September 19, 2013 Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 My goodness, that is terrible! Ford is going to have to re-badge the C-Max and call it the Edsel II.This certainly sucks, but I don't recall hearing much of C-max's dropping like flies on the road (maybe I need to catch up). :) Mine (SE) did have a 12v battery problem early on, but that just failed to start (battery was replaced with no further problems), sounds like a similar problem though. Since the dead battery, I carry a Black and Decker battery booster with me, since I am like my family's AAA anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobJustBob Posted September 21, 2013 Report Share Posted September 21, 2013 This certainly sucks, but I don't recall hearing much of C-max's dropping like flies on the road (maybe I need to catch up). On this forum, at least one other C-Max owner has reported such an incident. I consider this an extremely serious bug, since having one's car die in traffic puts the occupants in extreme danger. Ford has to get this problem fixed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reedmother Posted September 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2013 (edited) I'm back home now and the car was fixed by my dealer and the other recalls and updates were done at the same time. The dealer dealt with towing the car and also delivered it back to my house. So...they were great. I was reading my original post. When I say that the battery was drained, I mean I could turn the car on, but the internal combustion engine would not come on. Only the electric part of the car was working. So for a couple tries, I was able to drive a couple hundred feet at a slow pace, but soon there was no electricity left in the battery. One weird thing is that they had fixed the clock several months ago with a sync update and 3 days before the car died the clock had gone wacky again. Also, my car was the one that came with nonworking AC, which I didn't discover until the first hot day. The day the car died was 90 and I had the AC on full blast. I didn't use the AC that much this summer since it wasn't that hot. So......did the AC working hard also have something to do with the problem? I'd like to know the details of exactly what caused it and not just "we re-programmed it" Edited September 22, 2013 by reedmother Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotomoto Posted September 22, 2013 Report Share Posted September 22, 2013 having one's car die in traffic puts the occupants in extreme danger. Not to downplay this issue but we had our old Toyota RAV4 break at timing belt twice (once on the highway and the other in town traffic) and losing all power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotomoto Posted September 22, 2013 Report Share Posted September 22, 2013 So......did the AC working hard also have something to do with the problem? I'd like to know the details of exactly what caused it and not just "we re-programmed it" Fortunately, your issue is very, very rare as it's the only one, that I know of, reported on this forum. I hope you or your husband will get the actual details of what was done. You have absolutely every right to know. Also, did your repair receipt tell you anything or was it "gobbley-gook"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reedmother Posted September 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2013 the repair form was gobbley gook....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reedmother Posted September 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2013 (edited) I just talked to the service guy to get a better sense of what went wrong. He says it was a computer problem dealing with the engine. The computer told the engine to turn off!! Yikes. And, I hate to report this guys, but he said it had happened to one other person they sold a c-max to. Keep in mind, this is St. Johnsbury, VT. Not exactly, a super high volume city. Edited September 24, 2013 by reedmother Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNCGeek Posted September 24, 2013 Report Share Posted September 24, 2013 (edited) Hi Reedmother, thanks for sharing the extra info on the problem. Did they replace hardware or just re-program the computer? Did you see anything related to a body control module "BCM" or powertrain control module "PCM" in the gibberish which they provided on the printout? I also found a TSB which sounds like a possibility - it would be listed in the printout if they related it ( TSB 13-4-22 - for c-max vehicles built on or before 4/9/2013 ) - I found that in this post. When my battery died, everything was dead so it makes sense it was the computer (since yours would not start, but otherwise could turn on). I'm sure they tested your 12v battery when you had it in so if they did not replace it, it is probably fine. Edited September 24, 2013 by CNCGeek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drdiesel1 Posted September 24, 2013 Report Share Posted September 24, 2013 Hi Reedmother, thanks for sharing the extra info on the problem. Did they replace hardware or just re-program the computer? Did you see anything related to a body control module "BCM" or powertrain control module "PCM" in the gibberish which they provided on the printout? I also found a TSB which sounds like a possibility - it would be listed in the printout if they related it ( TSB 13-4-22 - for c-max vehicles built on or before 4/9/2013 ) - I found that in this post. When my battery died, everything was dead so it makes sense it was the computer (since yours would not start, but otherwise could turn on). I'm sure they tested your 12v battery when you had it in so if they did not replace it, it is probably fine.I hope they at least properly charged it :gaah: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reedmother Posted September 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 No, they didn't replace anything. Just re-programmed it. I could look again at the print-out, but I think I finally threw it away :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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