This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Purchased vehicle in May 2013 and since then 4-5 times the battery has gone dead while the vehicle was just sitting parked. Sometimes for just a few hours. Nothing had been left on in the interior and the headlights are set to automatic. Have had car towed to dealer 2-3 times but they never find a problem. Last time it happened was just under a month ago and I had it jumped. The car had been sitting for a couple days. My husband took it to work last night (4/4/15) and came home around 8am. The car sat in the driveway until 9:30pm when he went to leave for work and it was dead again. This is a pervasive problem and needs to be addressed more fully than just asking people to not leave things plugged in.
Purchased this vehicle in March 2014. First incidence of a dead battery happened around June of same year and when I called the service department from where I purchased it, they said to have it jumped and then drive it to dealership's service department. Roadside assistance came out to jump battery and then I drove it to dealership (about 40 miles away). Technicians did whatever testing on it and came back to me and said that since I had driven it such a distance, it "had reset all computer functions and they couldn't tell what was wrong". they then told me that if it should happen again, to have vehicle towed to service department so that they could hook up computer to it to see what is wrong. August of 2014, went to leave for work and car was dead again. This time, called roadside assistance to get it towed to dealership. With the way this vehicle is when it is "dead", I could not put the car into neutral to get it out of my driveway for tow truck, so he had to give it a quick jump to get enough power for me to get it into street. Towed it to dealership, they ran diagnostics, and decided to replace battery. Today, November 9, 2014, went to go get into car and it was found dead again. Will be having it towed to dealership in morning to see what they have to say. Very unhappy about this issue as I really do enjoy the car.
Just bought an off lease 2013 Ford cmax for my wife and in the passenger visor mirror I found a note from the prior owner stating that the vehicle is a lemon because it didn't start 7 times in the 2 years he leased it. What are we in for? I read that non start is a problem with the cmax.
Purchased used C-max 2013 on or about 15 October 2014. Visited Ford dealer 3 times. The next morning the car was found dead in our drive way. Charged the battery at 12 amps for 2-2.5 hours and read 75% charge. There were no indications of battery or charging system malfunction. Called the Ford dealer and tried to drive to dealer located 15-20 minutes away. Stopped at red light and proceeded through light when green. Got to the green light side and the battery light flashed for 2-3 seconds, blinked and the car quit. Speed under 10 mph. Hwy speed 50 mph limit. With the car now in the off position you have no power steering, no power brakes, no emergency flashers and no brake lights due to battery failure. One day later they found that the charging DC/DC system module had failed which is why the battery failed. The battery light came on at or about 12.0 V instead of 12.8 volts which would have indicated a failed charging system (like the old alternator light but this vehicle does not have an alternator). No battery/charging system monitoring system gauge present in standard instrumentation panel. I believe that there is an error in the computer monitoring system to alarm at 12.0 V (dead battery voltage) verse 12.8 volts showing a failed charging system component. Posted alert on C-max form to buy volt meter to plug into 12 V socket to monitor until Ford fixes both the warning light and also makes the charging system components fault tolerant (have 3 or more parallel system with alarms). Called Ford. Wrote Ford a letter advising them of this condition.
My 2013 Ford C-max hybrid battery is dead in the garage again. No electrical systems were left on overnight. The car does not have a traditional battery to start the engine; it uses the hybrid battery to do that. This is the 4th time my car is dead. I called aaa twice and charged/jumped it myself with a battery charger the other times. I took it to the dealer twice and they could not find any issues, of course. I previously reported poor mpgs for this vehicle, I am wondering if a faulty battery or related electrical components is the cause for both issues. I have seen this problem reported on several other consumer complaint web sites by many people. This apparently is a chronic issue for this vehicle. My warranty is almost up, if I am having issues throughout my warranty period with this issue (with no resolution), what happens when jumping the battery fails to bring the car back to life after the warranty runs out? I request an investigation into this common issue and press Ford to fix the issue and extend the warranty on the battery and charging electrical system.
- San Antonio, TX, USA
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I was on way to work @ 15:30 and I can not get into my leased car because there is catastrophic electrical failure.I can not give you mileage because there is no way to access or read electric digital odometer display.Ford roadside sent tow truck to tow my Ford lease in for catastrophic electrical failure the tow driver attempted to jump start that failed also.was towed to servicing dealership future Ford because original purchase/lease dealer lithia fresno is not authorized to service their own Ford C max hybrid lease. I am begging whoever reads this complaint please do so with integrity and share it with somebody, anybody or Agency with authority/jurisdiction to open case and investigate, or doing anything to stop these serious, potentially deadly Ford cmax failures. Catastrophic mechanical, electrical, sync system failures.this is the 3rd separate, complete, catastrophic failure w this cmax hybrid in 18 months of my lease.I want others to at least have the knowledge of what has happened to us already so that others may not get hurt.for the sake of safety of millions and the integrity of doing the right thing thank you.
Additional data: Ford customer service admitted the first recharge of the hybrid was done with and inadequate software system. On May 31 the car again failed to start. Ford admitted that the software had been changed to accomplish the logic system to better control the car. It is note here Ford also admitted this C mac was made for parts form both 2013 and 2014 inventory. My issue is Ford has acknowledge refund to be paid for loss in mpg. However Ford fails to recognize the scientific fact recharging of a depleted battery markedly reduces life. I believe safecar.gov must force Ford to acknowledge this failure: This message sent to Ford " my VIN number for my C-max is [xxx]. it is a scientific fact total discharge of a battery followed by a recharge lowers the life expediency of the battery. This has happened twice. The first recharge was done with a ineffective software change. The second recharge was done with an improved software change. Question to be answered by Ford. Because of ineffective software my battery life has been reduced. As a result Ford is obligated to compensate me for these failures. My question to Ford is:"what will Ford do to compensate?" information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
The contact owns a 2013 Ford C-max hybrid. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was found that the battery needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was contacted about the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.
The second day was the 1st time my car died. I took to the dealer and supposedly they replaced battery. My car died 5 times again after. Last Friday 01/10/14 took car for 3 recalls one was for the battery. Today 01/16/14 at 04:10am my car died again. This is very inconvenient when my time is very limited.
The lift gate repeatedly continues to crash down on my shoulder and back after having to physically lift open the lift gate because the buttons or controls to opera lift gate would not work would not open without me lifting it when I completely opened it and went to lean in my leased Ford cmax the lift gate came down crashing onto on my back shoulder neck as I was leaning well into the rear hatchback area.this continues repeatedly having to physically open lift gate and then it crashes back down on me without touching any buttons or even trying to close it.I reported incident at time I took leased Ford in again for recall service and still Ford says the recall work is complete and the liftgate actuator has never been replaced after multiple complaints and multiple attempts to bring it to dealership for service on our leased cmax.this has been reported to Ford dealership and had to go into Ford for warranty recall notice of lift gate actuator was to be replaced as well.the lift gate continues to have issues and will come down while I am underneath and it has to be manually closed and opened buttons work occasionally never for longer than a week besides it comes down and actually bounces back up off my body to come crash down again before I can try to get away.
Our leased Ford cmax was parked thurs Nov 8th with all doors locked windows rolled completely up and remained un touched, un driven, keys not touched at all until several days later we came home in other vehicle sun late morning noonish to find that our leased Ford cmax hybrid had all 4 windows rolled completely down doors unlocked without being touched, driven, keys not touched either for 3 days prior.the 2 keys that came with it were in their normal storage place at our home. When we left the leased Ford cmax had all 4 windows up.this happened again the following Sunday Nov 17th 2013 mid morning early afternoon under the exact parking place windows completely up doors locked we came home again Ford cmax had all 4 windows rolled completely down doors unlocked.no body else lives with us or even has access to the keys nor did we touch the keys and did not drive the cmax for days prior to each incident.the 3rd time a sun Nov 24th 2013 I did finally take video showing the cmax with windows down doors unlocked.this has not ever been mentioned that it is possible or that our leased Ford cmax can roll its windows down all by itself multiple times.
At 35 mph entire display and operating system catastrophic failure completely shut down all but motor to get us.75 mile back home windows locked ac shut off in 109 degree outside temp with our service dog for search and rescue in car with us no sync system or driver info display no ability to open doors or unlock doors or windows could not turn ac back on in 109 degree outside temperature we got home called dealer where we leased it from and we were told "just jumpstart it that's what I did for a prius".
Car will not start. Electrical system totally dead. Only variation ambient temperature dropped to 32 degrees last night. No other logical reason for electrical system to fail. Called service department to inform of car trouble, mechanic informed me he has several new cars on the lot with the same issue.
6 of 21 available plug-in miles remaining, driving in normal freeway traffic. Vehicle suddenly lost power and went into "stop safely now" mode with wrench icon and red warning triangle. Vehicle retained minimal power availability and was eventually able to limp vehicle out of traffic and onto side road. Called two different dealers and was told to wait a few minutes and restart. After 10 to 12 minutes and three restart attempts, finally restarted with full functionality restored. Error again appeared just as I reached home. Called dealer again and was told battery must have overheated; check again in the morning and it should be fine. This is the third time the problem has occurred since purchase in mid-June 2012. Each time taken to dealer they can find "nothing wrong with the vehicle - no error codes set." Concerned about the sudden loss of propulsion power in freeway traffic, and limited knowledge of service people / limited retention of error condition codes by the vehicle's computers. Running a Ford sync vehicle health report immediately after the event occurs shows all systems "okay."
I thought I had placed my C max in park. I turned car off with power button and went into a store to shop. The car rolled out of parking space and almost hit another vehicle. I forgot to place my C max in park but the car gave me zero warning that the car was not in park and turned off like normal. I used to drive a prius hybrid and that car was push button start as well but the prius would tell me to place the vehicle in park if I tried to turn it off while it was in gear. Ford needs to correct this. The C max should not turn off while the vehicle is in gear. Someone is going to get seriously injured because of this design flaw.
** event 1, 17 May 2013: Car failed to start. Some indication of electrical function. Ford service unable to locate any problem ** event 2, 5 June 2013: Car failed to start. Ford service found a bad cell in battery, thought that might be the problem. ** event 3: 17 July 2013: Car failed to start. My ammeter verified 13+ volts across battery. Ford service (different from previous) found a problem but not able to diagnose. ** event 4, 18 July 2013: Car lost all electrical and power while moving at 30 mph. Problem identified by Ford service as being connected to Ford special service message 32167, dated 2 April. Concern #1: power lost at any speed is a serious safety hazard to the car's occupants and to others on the road -- particularly at night! Ford should pursue a recall to find these cars and fix them before injury occurs.the problem is known and is straightforward to diagnose and repair. Concern #2: Ford knew about this problem but failed to locate and repair cars on dealer lots before selling them. It should take immediate steps to located unsold inventory and check it.
Vehicle battery discovered to be totally discharged after sitting in garage overnight. Told by Ford dealer to "jump start" it and bring in for service. This was done. When I picked the car up at dealership, the service writer, stated that the "computers" indicated that for some unknown reason, the radio had turned on (on it's own, and without any key in the ignition) and had drained the battery overnight. He stated that the service department had "reprogrammed the dcdc module per tsb 13-6-23", (this bulletin is for cold weather charging improvements - temperature for the last 60 days has been over 75 degrees and per the bulletin it would not apply) and this would cure the situation. On 7-5-2013, I entered my garage at 5am, and discovered that the "fuel pump" had turned itself on and was running constantly. The vehicle had not been operated for over 12 hours and the keys were inside the house. I am very concerned that something may "turn itself on" and a fire will start. Vehicle is scheduled to return to the dealership again.
I could not start my car at a school parking lot on 3/30/2013. It showed a red triangle warning and wrench light. I called the Ford dealer. They sent people to help me. However, the car would not start for a half hour. There was no issue until 5/9/2013. It stopped three times on my way home when I was stopped at traffic light or at traffic jam. The only way to start the car was to turn the power off and re-start the engine. It might not be able to start right away. It took a few seconds to a few minutes on that day in each case. That is very dangerous on the road. I drove my car directly to the dealer that day. Dealer had taken one week to fix this issue. I picked up my car on 5/16 after they told me that it was ok. My wife drove to school to pick up my son the next day. It happened again at the school parking lot, where she could not start the car again. There was no power for a while before she could start this car. Dealer is still trying to fix this car. It is not easy for local dealer to find the root cause. I think the designer should take over and debug this issue. It is not safe for any driver to drive a car that could stop anytime and anywhere. There is no warning sign until it happens. Driver can't plan a trip to meet the schedule because you don't know when the car will stop running or whether you can re-start the car in short period. I hope Ford can find the root cause and recall all the cars if it is a design issue. Otherwise, someone will have an accident sooner or later for anyone who drive this model car.
Vehicle completely lost power (no lights, accessories, etc.) and would not start. Even a jump would not allow vehicle to start. This has since happened on 2 additional occasions. In each case it was towed to the dealer.
I have a new cmax energi with navigation. The back up camera goes on when I go into reverse, but it sometimes does not shut off, so I have this distracting screen showing me what is behind me while I am driving forward. Sometimes it changes to the correct screen immediately, but other times it can take up to 2 minutes. I have reset the system, but it did not help.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Greeneville, TN, USA