Battery Failures Poll

[william5543]

Two of my failures have been at home and in the am.  The third and most recent one occurred while the car was in a garage at a condo we were staying at on vacation.  This was also first thing in the morning.  We have a 2013 SE - no MFT.  It continues to appear that Ford has no solution for this problem.  When the 4th one happens I will be looking toward the Michigan Lemon Law.  Really hope it does not occur again.

[Noah Harbinger]

It is the same with most car forums; folks check in to report problems (or research problems they are having), but seldom to say their vehicle is working well. These forums are not a good place to judge the overall quality of the vehicle.

 

I would say there's a bimodal distribution between people who only show up to report a problem, and people who are enthusiasts of one stripe or another.

 

[sEL, 2 years... no battery problems.]

Edited April 22, 2015 by Noah Harbinger

[bobmaxed]

My 2014 SE with 25,000 miles has been with us for a few days past 1 year  And this morning it was dead.  About ready to call roadside assistance

     A guy comes out to give me a jump but he can't find the negative post under the hood. He gives up and calls for a tow.

The car is parked nose first in the garage.  The tow operator has to drag the car out of the garage and onto the flat bed.

At the Ford dealership they have no problem jumping the car and driving it into the garage where the spend all day testing and charging the battery.  After 3 hours they tell me that they found some Tech bulletins in regards to updating the software.  But they're having internet problems .  They drive me home. After another hour they call me and say that my car is ready

 

Good Grief

Edited April 23, 2015 by bobmaxed

[Kelleytoons]

One thing for sure: anyone with battery issues ought to peruse this forum and get a list of all the TSBs and likely causes before they go into their dealership, to help *them* deal with the problem (those who are particularly anal might want to do it before anything occurs so they are ready -- I would think 2013 SE owners or any SE owner without MFT ought to do that but even someone like myself should probably.  When I "getaroundtoit").

 

We've seen time and again that most dealerships aren't aware of all the things they need to know about this -- and how could they?  Even Ford doesn't quite have a handle on the entire situation.  But by taking a few steps, printing out some things here, you can make it easier for them (which ultimately will benefit yourself).

 

On a much simpler problem I printed out the TSB for my NAV not working and not only did it help the dealership but it got me back on the road within 20 minutes there, whereas without that information they might have taken a day or two (or even longer, if their own internet was "down" -- which I kind of think is a lame excuse, given how much resources we have to connect nowadays).

[scottwood2]

One thing for sure: anyone with battery issues ought to peruse this forum and get a list of all the TSBs and likely causes before they go into their dealership, to help *them* deal with the problem (those who are particularly anal might want to do it before anything occurs so they are ready -- I would think 2013 SE owners or any SE owner without MFT ought to do that but even someone like myself should probably.  When I "getaroundtoit").

 

We've seen time and again that most dealerships aren't aware of all the things they need to know about this -- and how could they?  Even Ford doesn't quite have a handle on the entire situation.  But by taking a few steps, printing out some things here, you can make it easier for them (which ultimately will benefit yourself).

 

On a much simpler problem I printed out the TSB for my NAV not working and not only did it help the dealership but it got me back on the road within 20 minutes there, whereas without that information they might have taken a day or two (or even longer, if their own internet was "down" -- which I kind of think is a lame excuse, given how much resources we have to connect nowadays).

Good point.  I would have thought that any car coming into the dealer would have a flag go off if there is a TSB on it but I guess this is not always the case. 

[jsrierson]

I bought my 2013 C-Max about one year used. So I've owned it since Dec. 2013. (I was looking for a Toyota Prius, but this one was on sale at the Toyota dealer for a much better price than the Toyota - I should've been wary at that point.) This car has had a failed battery numerous times about 4-5 at work at the end of the day (not good when I have to go pick my kids up from after school care!) and 2 times at home. At 38.5K mileage (and before today) and the most recent battery failure, I took it in to the Ford dealership  for assessment. They said I needed a new battery...but I was about 2.5K past the warranty ( :~/). So today is the 3rd time at home and about 2 weeks since sinking $160 for new battery and labor. I am not one of those people who are big into cars...I do have the expectation of reliability. I also don't buy cars very often and don't like to spend lots of cash on something that isn't reliable. Very frustrated with my first hybrid purchase from Ford. Next time a Toyota. I speak to taxi drivers that say their Prius is going great after 300K miles. That's what I expect. Ford, you owe me a working car. How will you make this up to me??

[Kelleytoons]

Have you read all the things in this thread (and other threads here)?  Before you sink ANY more money into anything, you need to get a handle on all the possible fixes for this issue, one of which might very well be the one that solves the problem for you once and for all.

 

Is it a good thing you need to do a lot of this legwork yourself?  No, it's a hassle (although truth be told not MUCH hassle -- you just need to spend about an hour reading and writing down or printing out what is here) but it isn't all that technical and even if you're not a car person you ought to be able to handle it.  Once you have your list go to the dealership you trust the most (you may need to visit several but don't feel tied to any particular one -- you might also ask here for suggestions in your area) and ask them to work their way through all the TSBs (that shouldn't cost you any money, or at least very little).  If none of them fix the issue then you can try the various "fixes" outside of the TSBs (again, listed here), starting with the most likely.

 

Also you can contact the Ford rep here (you don't have enough posts to PM her direct, but post in her thread and she should see and respond).  She can help with your dealership.

 

You might as well -- you've invested enough time (and apparently driven that car enough -- geeze, you have more miles on your C-Max than I'll have in seven or eight years).  I'm not sure why your warranty period was so short, though (unless this old man is mistaken I thought they ALL came with at least three years but perhaps I'm too sleepy right now to think straight).  Best of luck to you.

[obob]

I bought my 2013 C-Max about one year used. So I've owned it since Dec. 2013. (I was looking for a Toyota Prius, but this one was on sale at the Toyota dealer for a much better price than the Toyota - I should've been wary at that point.) This car has had a failed battery numerous times about 4-5 at work at the end of the day (not good when I have to go pick my kids up from after school care!) and 2 times at home. At 38.5K mileage (and before today) and the most recent battery failure, I took it in to the Ford dealership  for assessment. They said I needed a new battery...but I was about 2.5K past the warranty ( :~/). So today is the 3rd time at home and about 2 weeks since sinking $160 for new battery and labor. I am not one of those people who are big into cars...I do have the expectation of reliability. I also don't buy cars very often and don't like to spend lots of cash on something that isn't reliable. Very frustrated with my first hybrid purchase from Ford. Next time a Toyota. I speak to taxi drivers that say their Prius is going great after 300K miles. That's what I expect. Ford, you owe me a working car. How will you make this up to me??

 

You can go to this site and using your pin see what TSBs (technical service bulletins) you car is eligible for.  

http://www.etis.ford.com/vehicleRegSelector.do;jsessionid=EFC101CE287D8236D1120F3F7DA938BE.fcvas507

 

Some people get a battery jumper to keep in the car.  I have one but have not had to use.  

 

If I were you, I would strongly consider getting an extended warranty and one of the better ones.  I am not sure what they cost when you are out of the standard warranty.   Here is a place some people go to get a good price.  

http://andersonandkoch-ford-warranty.com/

 

I don't think reading all the messages on the battery issue is reasonable at this point.  The situation is much different after the first TSB. Some of the latter ones would be good to read.

[plus 3 golfer]

I bought my 2013 C-Max about one year used. So I've owned it since Dec. 2013. (I was looking for a Toyota Prius, but this one was on sale at the Toyota dealer for a much better price than the Toyota - I should've been wary at that point.) This car has had a failed battery numerous times about 4-5 at work at the end of the day (not good when I have to go pick my kids up from after school care!) and 2 times at home. At 38.5K mileage (and before today) and the most recent battery failure, I took it in to the Ford dealership  for assessment. They said I needed a new battery...but I was about 2.5K past the warranty ( :~/). So today is the 3rd time at home and about 2 weeks since sinking $160 for new battery and labor. I am not one of those people who are big into cars...I do have the expectation of reliability. I also don't buy cars very often and don't like to spend lots of cash on something that isn't reliable. Very frustrated with my first hybrid purchase from Ford. Next time a Toyota. I speak to taxi drivers that say their Prius is going great after 300K miles. That's what I expect. Ford, you owe me a working car. How will you make this up to me??

It's too bad you are having these issues. 

 

What model do you have SE or SEL?   The C-Max is a very reliable car but for a small % of owners who have had multiple "no start" dead battery issues.  Just to be clear, I take it that for the early no start issues that you did not take it to a Ford dealer for documentation of the issue?  Do you have a CarFax on the C-Max?  How long is your daily commute?

 

There is a TSB (not a recall IIRC) on the issue that you should demand that the dealer perform (if not already done).    Also, I doubt this TSB will show up on etis.ford since it is not a recall.  The dealer can look up the service history for you.   If applying this TSB to your car doesn't fix the issue, there are ways to "live with the issue" and mitigate the time it takes to get the car going or maybe the issue itself:

 

1) carry a set of jumper cables but requires another vehicle to jump start the C-Max

2) carry a jump start battery which should start the C-Max most of the time

3) use a battery tender to maintain the 12 V battery charge while at home but requires connecting and disconnecting daily 

4) monitor the 12 V battery voltage with a metering device that plugs into the cigarette lighter to see if one can predict when the battery is not being properly charged by the displayed voltage (don't really know anyone that uses this with predictive results).

[markd]

A couple of questions come to mind, why would a Toyota dealer have a year old Ford on their lot? Why would they try to push you in to it, after all they sell Toyota's? When ever buying a used car always run from the car they're trying to push. I sounds like the Toyota dealer took advantage of you and sold you a lemon.