Help from Ford

[scottwood2]

Hi all

 

Below is a post I saw in the "does it ever get fixed" post.  I thought this was excellent and got me thinking about this problem and Ford's help. 

 

I think it is great that Ford is on here offering to help out with these problems.  Until I saw this post I had no idea there was 3 areas for help from Ford. 

 

I know this is a serious problem and the owners want the car fixed and I am sure Ford does as well.  So why doesn't Ford take advantage of this and offer help right up front in this forum?  If this is posted somewhere I have not seen it.  I just see posts from Ashley offering to help here and there.   Ford stepping up to the plate would be great advertising saying that we are here to help and get issues taken care of. 

 

Also maybe tell us the stories of what Ford is doing to help these people?  Are they offering free loaner cars etc.  There are many people on here looking to buy (including myself) and knowing that Ford is not going to leave them stranded might make for a few more car sales.  As it was said below it is a very small percentage of cars with this issue.  I know some have not purchased this car because of the issue and past quality.  Someone posted that the number of issues in the first 90 days of ownership improved greatly from 2013 to 2014 and is now better than average.  It is great hearing this but having Ford tell us what they are doing would be even better. 

 

There are also a lot of smart devoted people on here as well.  I am sure some would not mind having testing equipment on their car if it would help in finding the problem.  Working together is always a win win situation. 

 

Again thx Ford for listening here but maybe doing a little talking too about issues would be greatly appreciated as well.   Oh and a special thx to kostby for the excellent post.  You should be a Ford rep. 

 

 

I'm not a Ford representative. These are my opinions, and this is my attempt to summarize what I've learned, based upon several months of C-MAX SE ownership and a lot of reading in these forums and elsewhere. 

 

Most of the over 60,000 C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi owners have never experienced even one dead 12-volt battery. The 12-volt dead battery problems reported do not seem at all related to the lithium-ion High Voltage Battery (HVB) used to power the car in electric-hybrid mode.

 

To summarize briefly, as of today, July 14th, 2014, of the 100 or so 2013 C-MAX owners reporting dead 12-volt batteries in this unscientific 2013 'dead battery poll' within these forums, the majority (about 60 of the 100) who experienced problems have the 2013 C-MAX SE, with either Equipment Group 200A (base car) or Equipment Group 201A (adds power tailgate, reverse object sensing, ambient lighting).

 

The other 40 owners reporting problems were spread pretty evenly among the other SE and SEL and Energi SEL models and option groups with no more than about 5 in any other group.

 

Cars built early in the 2013 model year, especially those built between the summer of 2012 and the summer of 2013 seem most affected.

Very few 2014 C-MAX owners of any model or equipment group have reported multiple occurrences of dead batteries in these forums.

 

There are several corrective actions taken by Ford that have, individually or collectively remedied many of the repeated dead battery problems experienced by many of the 2013 C-MAX owners who have posted messages in these forums:

1. Replacement of the factory-installed 12-volt battery. In some cases, the cars sat for long periods of time at the dealerships before being sold, or the 12-volt batteries were defective.

2. Customer Satisfaction Program 13B12, reprogramming one of the on-board computers.

3. Several corrective actions related to water intrusion of electrical connectors and/or the electric coolant pump under the front of the vehicle near the engine. Driving in wet weather or using a car wash can cause water intrusion in some connectors or electric-powered accessories near the engine. When wet, these can 'drain' the 12-volt battery power, eventually running the battery down as quickly as overnight, or over a few days. At that point, the remote unlocking no longer works, and the car must be opened with a key blade. In most cases, a jump start gets the 12-volt systems powered up and then the vehicle can be started again.

 

This is not an exhaustive list of all the corrective actions and recalls taken with every vehicle, just the ones most frequently mentioned.

 

Sometimes software updates do not 'take' correctly the first time.

Apparently not every Ford dealer is well-equipped to address every Hybrid customer concern.

 

So Ford corporate has three direct representatives who frequent these forums to offer assistance, FordService (Ashley) for most C-MAX issues and FordIVTteam (Rebecca) with Ford Sync issues. Canadian owners can contact FordServiceCA. If you're new to the forums, you must post at least 5 messages before you can use the Private Messaging (PM) feature to send any of them a private message directly. You can always post a public message in these forums asking for their assistance.

 

[FordService]

Hi all

 

Below is a post I saw in the "does it ever get fixed" post.  I thought this was excellent and got me thinking about this problem and Ford's help. 

 

I think it is great that Ford is on here offering to help out with these problems.  Until I saw this post I had no idea there was 3 areas for help from Ford. 

 

I know this is a serious problem and the owners want the car fixed and I am sure Ford does as well.  So why doesn't Ford take advantage of this and offer help right up front in this forum?  If this is posted somewhere I have not seen it...

 

 

Hi scottwood2,

 

I'm Crystal, the current US Ford Service rep on this forum. Nice to meet you! When Ashley started out on this forum, she did post an intro outlining the ways she (and I) engage with customers. If you missed this post, here's a link: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/3310-official-ford-service-rep/

 

I try to reach out to folks whenever I see that they're having an issue or concern, and many times people reach out to me directly before even posting on these threads. I can't guarantee a particular outcome, but I advocate for you guys however I can. :)

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

Crystal