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Maximum is 38MPG - City


bob17
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All,

I got used 2013 C-max with around 22k miles ; now with two weeks in my hand i never got anything more than 38.5mpg with all the hypermilling i could do and following all the tips and techniques posted on this forum, (no A/C; P&G.. etc..) in city driving (15miles) The max i could do is 38.4mpg... Im not expecting for 47mpg but atleast 43 to 42 would make me happy...  this is still 4-5mpg difference.. I researched and found there was update to improve the mpg; how to check if my car has that update??  Also noticed the ICE would turn on as soon as i hit 30mph... never able to run car with the battery alone above 30mph... also when i take off foot from pedal and let car glide (shows EV sign in display) I sometime hear the ice running, its not off completely... not sure if this is the cause and if it is how do i fix it...?? Shoud i give call to dealer...

 

Thx all for your inputs...

bob!

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38.5 mpg for a 15 mile city commute sounds low.  Describe what the commute entails.

 

To see if you got the update, get on the interstate and get your speed around 70 mph with eco-cruise on. With the battery indicator above 1/2 way and on a flat or slightly downhill grade, bump the "-" button one time on the cruise control and your car should immediately switch to EV mode if you have the upgrade and continue in EV until the battery level drops too low or ICE needs to come on to supply more load.  ICE should shut down.  To see if ICE shuts own, you can set RPM in MY VIEW  and it will go to zero or do what Paul says. 

 

Also, there have been several members where the update didn't evidently take correctly and they did get lower FE post update than pre update. Yet the dealer insisted the update was okay. The dealer had to reinstall the update and IIRC it took some convincing of the dealer to reinstall it.  

 

There is a Ford rep, Ashley that monitors this site and can help you.

Edited by Plus 3 Golfer
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Some good suggestions. Here's another. You got the PCM update (13B07) but it was done improperly. That's a good reason for the trade-in you purchased, and a correctable one.

 

Look for posts by JohnnOhio regardiing his update. They end with this one, where he finally got it updated correctly.

 

Have fun,

Frank

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Thanks guys for all your suggestions. i will read through the 13B07 thread;

Also i need to check the psi on the tires,, it could be low.. but i believe should be minor factor...

i will update this thread for your questions and will try out the interstate run to see if ice shuts down or not..

 

happy cmax'ng.....

bob!!

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have you reset your MPG indicators...  if the previous owner was a lead foot, or all the cold start test drives coudl have really dinged the MPG.  I'd top it off and reset your trips... and then give it another try...

 

bump your tire pressure as well...

 

keep in mind that your indicators are going to be about 5% optimistic

Edited by Marc Smith
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Thanks guys for all your suggestions. i will read through the 13B07 thread;

Also i need to check the psi on the tires,, it could be low.. but i believe should be minor factor...

i will update this thread for your questions and will try out the interstate run to see if ice shuts down or not..

 

happy cmax'ng.....

bob!!

 

bob,

 

I recommend having your dealer take a look if the tire pressure, etc., suggestions don't help improve your fuel economy. If you end up going that route, make an appointment at the dealer and then send me a private message with your name, phone number, VIN, mileage, and dealer info. I'll see how I can help.

 

Ashley

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Do you have the Energy Saver tires that the car comes equipped with? How fast do you drive in the city? If you don't go above 50mph, you should easily be able to break 40 mpg over 15 miles. Closer to 50 mpg would be more likely. Is it exceptionally hot or cold where you live right now? If you're sitting in stop and go traffic with the AC blasting, then that's going to impact you mpg pretty severely.

 

The issues you are having with the ICE running when in EV mode are suspicious. After you have been driving for a couple miles, you should be able to easily kick the car into EV mode above 30 mph just by braking slightly. It sounds like it's worth having the dealer check out, although I'm not 100% convinced there's an issue. It could just be user error/confusion  ;)

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what part of california do you live?

Jus-A-Cmax might be able to help u

do you have a smart phone? if so you can get an app that tracks your commute to see how much hills/elevation changes you run normally. you can then plot a graph and upload it here for us to check out/review to help u out. I use"My Tracks" for my Android  based phone. Another good app to help you learn to drive better is "Driver Feedback" out out by State Farm and it lets you track a trip/route with your car (like to work or from work) and then you can see how you did on braking, accelerating and coasting, kind of like what the cmax does on its screens.

 

if you drive a lot of hills you will take a mpg hit

if flat roads then you will get better mpg

you live in California so thats the best scenario as you dont have to deal with cold weather

make sure to use your seat warmers instead of the heater on cold days to save gas

 

you might have a lemon or something wrong so its good to check it out but the dealer will say its you not the car, of course

 

All,

I got used 2013 C-max with around 22k miles ; now with two weeks in my hand i never got anything more than 38.5mpg with all the hypermilling i could do and following all the tips and techniques posted on this forum, (no A/C; P&G.. etc..) in city driving (15miles) The max i could do is 38.4mpg... Im not expecting for 47mpg but atleast 43 to 42 would make me happy...  this is still 4-5mpg difference.. I researched and found there was update to improve the mpg; how to check if my car has that update??  Also noticed the ICE would turn on as soon as i hit 30mph... never able to run car with the battery alone above 30mph... also when i take off foot from pedal and let car glide (shows EV sign in display) I sometime hear the ice running, its not off completely... not sure if this is the cause and if it is how do i fix it...?? Shoud i give call to dealer...

 

Thx all for your inputs...

bob!

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Also if you have the 8" display on the center console (for your radio/nav) you can hit the "i" info button on the screen to show the pix of the car to see what part of the car is using the engine power and if its charging or not

not sure what its called but...

 

Sounds like something is wrong to me. What level does your battery gauge show? Are you using the Empowered mode on the Smart Gauge? It is easy to see if the ICE is on or not. :)

 

Paul

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low psi in tires can account for anywhere from 2 to 5 mpgs

many here over inflate their tires above recommended to say around 45-50 psi to get better mpgs but with slightly worse handing of course

since it doesnt rain or snow here in CA you can be ok compared to other users who would not want to risk it

 

Thanks guys for all your suggestions. i will read through the 13B07 thread;

Also i need to check the psi on the tires,, it could be low.. but i believe should be minor factor...

i will update this thread for your questions and will try out the interstate run to see if ice shuts down or not..

 

happy cmax'ng.....

bob!!

Edited by salsaguy
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Just make sure someone at the dealer does a ride along with you in the car and not just them driving it and saying "no issue found" when you get it back

 

Do you have the Energy Saver tires that the car comes equipped with? How fast do you drive in the city? If you don't go above 50mph, you should easily be able to break 40 mpg over 15 miles. Closer to 50 mpg would be more likely. Is it exceptionally hot or cold where you live right now? If you're sitting in stop and go traffic with the AC blasting, then that's going to impact you mpg pretty severely.

 

The issues you are having with the ICE running when in EV mode are suspicious. After you have been driving for a couple miles, you should be able to easily kick the car into EV mode above 30 mph just by braking slightly. It sounds like it's worth having the dealer check out, although I'm not 100% convinced there's an issue. It could just be user error/confusion  ;)

Edited by salsaguy
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...if you drive a lot of hills you will take a mpg hit

if flat roads then you will get better mpg...

This is backwards. Hills are your friend, flat roads need more fuel.

 

Why?

 

Because ICE are only efficient (most kW/gram of fuel) under high load for a given RPM, while EV really can't climb hills, but it really stretches out the coastint distance downhill. ICE at >2 bars uphill, so you charge the whole way, EV over the top and down. It's one reason I get such poor MPG on the NYS Thruway, and do far better in PA and Ohio, all interstates driven at the same low-70's speed.

 

Once you get your hybrid, you'll see what we mean, salsa...

 

Have fun,

Frank

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All,

I got used 2013 C-max with around 22k miles ; now with two weeks in my hand i never got anything more than 38.5mpg with all the hypermilling i could do and following all the tips and techniques posted on this forum, (no A/C; P&G.. etc..) in city driving (15miles) The max i could do is 38.4mpg... Im not expecting for 47mpg but atleast 43 to 42 would make me happy...  this is still 4-5mpg difference.. I researched and found there was update to improve the mpg; how to check if my car has that update??  Also noticed the ICE would turn on as soon as i hit 30mph... never able to run car with the battery alone above 30mph... also when i take off foot from pedal and let car glide (shows EV sign in display) I sometime hear the ice running, its not off completely... not sure if this is the cause and if it is how do i fix it...?? Shoud i give call to dealer...

 

Thx all for your inputs...

bob!

We have a 2014 with about 1100 miles on it. We are getting between 39 and 41 consistently in mixed use driving. I think mileage is very dependent on maximizing your use of EV mode and staying off the gas pedal.

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With a little under 900 miles on our new CMax. We re getting between 42 and 44 mpg, with more freeway than city, trying to keep it under 70mph, and probably using A/C 30% of the time.. Of course I am pretty much babying it, unless I have cars behind me. I have never had it under 40mpg after I picked it up with 15 miles on it and is showing under 20mpg (heavy foot test drivers, I guess). A lot of my freeway miles are not flat either.  I can easily do 70mph on EV,

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All,

I got used 2013 C-max with around 22k miles ; now with two weeks in my hand i never got anything more than 38.5mpg with all the hypermilling i could do and following all the tips and techniques posted on this forum, (no A/C; P&G.. etc..) in city driving (15miles) The max i could do is 38.4mpg... Im not expecting for 47mpg but atleast 43 to 42 would make me happy...  this is still 4-5mpg difference.. I researched and found there was update to improve the mpg; how to check if my car has that update??  Also noticed the ICE would turn on as soon as i hit 30mph... never able to run car with the battery alone above 30mph... also when i take off foot from pedal and let car glide (shows EV sign in display) I sometime hear the ice running, its not off completely... not sure if this is the cause and if it is how do i fix it...?? Shoud i give call to dealer...

 

Thx all for your inputs...

bob!

 

Did you get a chance to check for EV at 60+ mph?

 

Pre 13B07 we could only get mid to high 30's post (successful) 13b07 we jumped to low 40's. Easy 5mpg jump.

Now with a completed break-in around town we stay in the mid to low 40's with 0 hypermiling efforts, mid 40's with very little hypermiling.

 

Traveling at rural Interstate speeds (75+) NOT SO GOOD, mid to low 30's.

 

wab

 

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When I gas up the C-Max, and drive around town for about 100 miles, I will have an average of around 44 mpg.  When my wife drives the car for a few days around town, it drops down to around 40 mpg (which means her average is probably more 36 mpg.)  I then drive the car and it slowly works back up to around 44 mph (I'm probably actually getting over 50 mpg to pull the average up).  The lessons learned - my wife drives the C-Max just the way she would drive any car.  For me, however, when I leave the stop sign or stop light, I speed up to get to get to the speed limit and then back off to electric.  I also take every opportunity to let the car charge the battery using various driving techniques.  I believe that the driver is the most significant contributor to the MPG.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just want to update this thread,,, as i haven't been able to test my max on interstate driving... Its mainly wifes car..  :)

I have to agree with above posters.. I got to drive around few (>10 )miles on different route in city.. i could

see the trip mpg to be 41mpg.. this is post tire pressure update...but later after few days its back to 38-39 range

so definitely driver's driving affecting MPG... Im sure i can get it to near 42/43 with my driving..

will update post if i see any improvement or otherwise..

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