Video Evidence of Issues with My 2013 Ford CMax Hybrid

Today's post will focus on some of the evidence I have been collecting since January 23, 2013 with regard to various issues I have been having with my 2013 Ford CMax Hybrid.  My intent is to help educate others who may be considering the purchase of this car of "potential" issues they may also experience.  The issues I have been experiencing may or may not exist in other 2013 Ford CMax Hybrids.  If they do, then some of what I share may help you at least be prepared for, and may even help you resolve some of these issues before they cause you any grief.

As I mentioned previously, I was still experiencing occasional car start failure after using the remote starter, and also periodic cases where I would put the car in Reverse after having been parked for a while (without using the handbrake) and the car would not move.  It would act like the brakes were "locked".  The first video is an attempt to capture one or both of these issues, but the issues did NOT present themselves at the time I captured it.  The reason I am placing this video here is because it is important to note that when I push the Start button, I do so for the same short time that I do in the second video where it fails to start.  I mention this because Ford Engineers claim it didn't start the second time because I hadn't held the Start button long enough (not true, in my opinion).

 This video, taken at around noon on 1/31/2013,  shows the car starting just fine after using the remote starter, and NOT having a problem moving in Reverse.  In other words, things work as expected. The key thing to notice in this video is how quickly I press the Start button, and how the car starts just fine.  I did NOT need to press the button any longer than I did.

This video, taken around 5:10pm the same day (1/31/2013), shows the car failing to start after using the remote starter, and coincidentally, also "sticking" when attempting to move the car in Reverse.  I shared this video with Ford Engineers via the Customer Service Manager (CSM) assigned to my case.  She informed me that the Engineer's opinion was that I did not hold down the Start button long enough, so they still don't believe there is an issue with the car related to this.  If you watched both videos, what do you think?  Did I hold it down for a shorter period of time when it failed than when it successfully started?  I believe I pressed it long enough.  The Ford CSM assigned to my case did concede that there were numerous reports coming in related to the brake "lock" situation I have been describing.  As a result, I was told there would be a Technical Service Bulletin released to address the brake lock issue.  It's March 11th, 2013, and I still have not been notified that I should come in to have this issue corrected...

At the beginning of February, I started noticing some new issues.  This first one has to do with the automatic door unlock feature.  This feature is quite handy.  When you approach your locked car, and you have the keys with you in your pocket, or purse, the door will automatically unlock when your hand touches the handle.  You do not need to press an unlock button (although you can).  It's a nice feature, but not critical to the car's function.

This video shows me walking up to my locked car, and trying to open the door simply by grasping the door handle.  Normally, this works just fine.  For some reason, it started to fail periodically, so I started attempting to capture it on video, and I did.  I have not yet shown this to the Ford Engineers, but when I described the scenario to people, I was told that I had to be certain my hand was in the correct location to open the door.  I've been successfully opening the door the same way since I got the car, and didn't try opening it any new way, so I'm confident that my hand has been  in the correct location each time.

Above is a video showing the auto door unlock feature working as it should for comparison.

Another issue that appears periodically is related to the perimeter, or proximity sensors located both in the front and rear of the car.  These are nice because they alert you when there is an object within a few feet of your car that perhaps you had not seen.  However, they are pretty sensitive, and as a result, when it rains heavily, or when water freezes on any of them, or it snows heavily, the alarms go off.  If you clear the senors off before driving, you will be fine until the snow becomes too heavy, or water freezes over them, and you happen to be at a stop sign, stoplight, or in very slow ( <10 mph) traffic.  Believe me, if this happens to you and you have a long slow commute due to weather such as this, it will drive you nuts.  Ford, if you are reading this, please consider giving the driver the option to temporarily disable the sensors.

Alarm noise while driving in slow traffic due to wintry conditions.

OK.  Here's another annoyance.  This is SYNC related.  I've had more than a few weird things happen with SYNC, but haven't been able to document all of them yet.  This first one shows that the radio presets disappear from the main console display on occasion, and I show how to work around that until they issue a fix for it.

Radio presets have disappeared, and how to get them back.

Another strange phenomenon occurred recently.  I connected my phone via bluetooth, and using the built-in system, placed a call to my boss.  When I told the car who to call, and what phone to use, everything worked normally.  It asked if I should call the person on cell or at work, and this came through the speaker system as expected.  I told it to call his work number and I waited to hear the phone ring.  I couldn't hear anything for some reason, but then noticed a muffled sound coming from my phone.  I picked up my phone, which was still connected to the car via bluetooth, and I could hear my boss saying hello.  So I spoke with him briefly using the phone, and then hung up.  This was the first time the hands free system had failed me.  I checked my phone to ensure bluetooth was still enabled, and it was.  I then turned the bluetooth off, and decided I would try to capture this in the future.  I then noticed that the radio was silent, so I thought maybe I had turned down the volume somehow.  I adjusted the volume, but still no sound came out of the speakers.  That's when I made the first video below.  I followed that up with a second video when I noticed something else odd.  I must apologize for how blurry some of this is.  I was driving slowly in traffic, so my eyes were more on the road than on the phone.

 Video 1 of 2

Video 2 of 2

Eventually, I could not stand the silence while stuck in traffic anymore, so I tried to find a workaround for this problem.  It turned out to be quite simple in this case.  Watch the video, or simply read the description below it.

Fix for missing sound (in this particular case)

I changed radio stations, the sound came back on, and I changed it back immediately to see if it was simply problems with the radio broadcast station.  It wasn't.  The broadcast was working just fine, and there were no reports that the station had even skipped a single beat during this time.  So, if this happens to you, simply try switching between stations and it may clear up for you as well.

I've also had the entire center console go black on me, I've had the rear view camera scroll up the screen like an old black and white television from the 60's or 70's, and a few other odds and ends.  I hope to catch those on video to add to this collection soon.  I have still photos of some other things, and some audio files as well that I may upload in a future post.

03-25-2013 UPDATE:  New video showing that the radio would not turn off, even after turning off the car and shutting the door!

Let me know if any of you are having any of the same issues I am seeing.  I'd be especially interested to hear about your real world fuel economy since mine has not even come close to the EPA estimates yet.  I don't expect that it ever will, but it "should" be within 10% of those estimates in my opinion.