ScubaDadMiami Posted December 5, 2013 Report Share Posted December 5, 2013 (edited) I am in the middle of a forced renovation in my condominium. I am frantically running around, because of things like finding out, at the last minute, that the tile I ordered and was told arrived got sold to another customer. Ah, the pleasures of construction! Anyway, I am in the middle of driving back and forth between the tile store and the warehouse, more than once in a day. I leave the tile store, jump in my awaiting C-MAX, push the start button, when . . . THE YELLOW WRENCH OF DEATH APPEARS ON MY SCREEN, and another box pops up saying to check the manual!!!! :kookie: Everything else was working without issue (radio, windows, etc.). Uh-oh, I never had that happen before! I spent the next minute (which seemed like five) trying again, turning things off, and the like. Suddenly, a normal start up, and I was on my way. I noticed that when the screen fired up at the time of the attempted start, the SOC was zero. There wasn't even one line above the bottom of the battery. This could just be a result of the YWOD coming up, as when I was able to start up moments later, the SOC was back to where it should have been. The only other thing I can report about the history of the incident is that, driving to the tile store, I drove down the last street and parked on electric power, no ICE, and had the SOC showing just about the lowest SOC before ICE would kick in. I was in the tile store probably an hour, and ICE was probably cooled down or nearly so, when I got in an attempted to start up. I had driven probably 20 miles or just under, when traveling to the tile place. After the momentary issue, I drove back home without incident. I haven't been out since then. Other than the single moment that this happened, I have not had a single reliability incident in over 6,000 miles. Let the guessing begin . . . . EDIT: I will run a Vehicle Health Report when I next go for a drive. So, other than the computer picking up something that is out of order, I have no idea if this is the kind of thing that warrants a dealer visit. Edited December 5, 2013 by ScubaDadMiami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotomoto Posted December 5, 2013 Report Share Posted December 5, 2013 I'm thinking it's a false start. You touched the start button too quickly before pushing the brake pedal far enough. I do it frequently when I'm in rush (or stressed like your situation). You can even move the transmission lever to R or D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelnLa Posted December 5, 2013 Report Share Posted December 5, 2013 It happened to me too - false start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScubaDadMiami Posted December 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2013 I sure hope so. Yes, I was surely stressed and rushed. I am likely going to have to go back to the tile place today, again :swear:. So, we'll see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigalpha Posted December 7, 2013 Report Share Posted December 7, 2013 I had the wrench illuminate when the installer who put in the remote start+alarm did something wrong. It disabled my cruise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwhitham Posted December 7, 2013 Report Share Posted December 7, 2013 It happened to me too - false start.Same for me after using remote start from house, braking which turns car off, and then restarting and trying to reverse too quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScubaDadMiami Posted December 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2013 I ran a Vehicle Health Report, and all came out normal. The only thing was something about scheduled service not being available. Everything seems to be okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillJ Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 I have experienced the "yellow wrench of death" with my 2013 Cc-Max with push button start fairly frequently over the past week now. It seems to happen only with the first start up of the day, after sitting in cold weather overnight. After several attempts to start the car, everything starts to work normally.I had the car in for service, and all the techs did there was to "reprogram" the car, but the problem persists.I was told by a car salesman (who drives a fusion) that this is an episodic problem that all the Ford keyless start cars have from time to time. However, there does not seem to be much discussion about this here in the forums. Here is a more specific description of what I experience: get in the car, depress the brake, push the start button; after 2-3 seconds the "YWOD" appears in the left panel, and then the message "Rear parking aid malfunction". I then turn the car off, repeat the process, and car will usually start normally on the third or fourth try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordService Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 I have experienced the "yellow wrench of death" with my 2013 Cc-Max with push button start fairly frequently over the past week now. ... BillJ, I'm going to look into this for you. PM me your name, phone number, VIN, mileage, and dealer info. I'll see what I can do. Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Happens to me a few times a week. I just figured I wasn't pressing the brake pedal down far enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScubaDadMiami Posted March 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 I only had this happen that one time, and, as has been said, it was probably just because I was in a rush. So far, so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb9153 Posted March 7, 2014 Report Share Posted March 7, 2014 I had two occurrences of the yellow wrench of death this morning as I was trying to start Maxus. Wouldn't start of course and I wasn't sure what the problem was. I know for a fact when I shut down the night before I had a nearly full battery pack and this morning it was nearly empty. But I did allot of work inside with the drivers door hanging open in my garage last night. So it put a huge drain on the battery pack which probably caused this to happen? I noticed the MFT cycling on and off for short periods as if I was starting up and then off. It did this two or three times before I finished my work and closed the drivers door and called it a night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScubaDadMiami Posted March 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 (edited) Hmmm, could that be a 12V battery issue? I recently spent enough time with doors and hatch open to shampoo my rear seat covers and my CanvasBack interior cover, and I was getting a little paranoid about battery drain from how long it took. No issue with starting after. Also, do things like the interior lighting work on the battery pack or the 12V battery? I think I remember it being the 12V battery, but I'm not sure. Edited March 8, 2014 by ScubaDadMiami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb9153 Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 so far I've had none of the battery issues others have reported. I attributed that to the fact that Maxus didn't sit on the lot for a long period like so many others have before being purchased. I bought it the same day it came of the transporter truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb9153 Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 so far I've had none of the battery issues others have reported. I attributed that to the fact that Maxus didn't sit on the lot for a long period like so many others have before being purchased. I bought it the same day it came off the transporter truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdbob Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Also, do things like the interior lighting work on the battery pack or the 12V battery? I think I remember it being the 12V battery, but I'm not sure. All the interior circuits and external lights are powered by the 12V battery. However, if the car is in ready to run mode then the 12V battery is being recharged from the HV battery. I made it a habit to put mine into run mode as soon as possible when getting in and leaving it that way until the last moment when leaving the car. This is on an Energi but I believe it works pretty much the same on the Hybrid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowspotdog Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 I just got the yellow wrench of death while I was driving !!!! - Scared the heck out me - scared me even more when I looked up what is was in the manual. Yesterday I had yet another flat battery and had a 'system error' appear on the screen (never seen that before either) - took about four goes to get the engine turned on..... it eventually did and seemed to be running okay - apart from not being able to reset the clock. Then the yellow wrench today. Is is also weird that the battery always goes out at 2.30 am in the morning - always 2.30 - what gives with that? Into to the Ford dealers yet again tomorrow.Bree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScubaDadMiami Posted March 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2014 :sad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb9153 Posted March 25, 2014 Report Share Posted March 25, 2014 (edited) I'm wondering if these battery problems are common to any one color of a CMax? Just kidding, I know it is happening to any color at random. But I am curious if any Platinum White owners have had battery issues. Mine as I've said before hasn't missed a beat. :worship: Also wonder if these problems are connected to cars which sat on the lot for awhile. I took mine home the day it was unloaded from the transporter. Edited March 25, 2014 by mtb9153 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordService Posted March 25, 2014 Report Share Posted March 25, 2014 I just got the yellow wrench of death while I was driving !!!! - Scared the heck out me - scared me even more when I looked up what is was in the manual. Yesterday I had yet another flat battery and had a 'system error' appear on the screen (never seen that before either) - took about four goes to get the engine turned on..... it eventually did and seemed to be running okay - apart from not being able to reset the clock. Then the yellow wrench today. Is is also weird that the battery always goes out at 2.30 am in the morning - always 2.30 - what gives with that? Into to the Ford dealers yet again tomorrow.Bree Bree, I responded to one of your posts in another thread, offering to help. Let me know if you need me! Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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