Community Forums

jmckinley · 07-06-2016, 06:10 PM

Hooked mine up under the hood. Service Manager is an idiot. As someone else said, those spots are provided for jump starting so it should be obvious to anyone of average intelligence that there are no "boards" between there and the teeny tiny battery.

There is no good reason to ever ask a Service Manager anything about your hybrid car. They are pretty much universally clueless.

hilgert · 07-06-2016, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmckinley

There is no good reason to ever ask a Service Manager anything about your hybrid car. They are pretty much universally clueless.

Agree. When I had the alignment done (mentioned in my first post...to increase castor) the Ford dealer left the light on all night in my Ford, and I had to show the Ford service manager how to use the Ford manual key in the Ford fob to open the Ford door to pop the Ford hood, and that they could jump it either from the front of the Ford (the positive/negative terminals) or the rear of the Ford (the battery). All this I learned from the Ford manual that I read at the Carmax dealer I purchased it from while waiting for the car to be prepped. You'd think a service manager would know these things on a car that's been out for 4 years.

To be fair, he did say they had not seen many back for service even though they had sold many of them...so that is a good sign I guess.

**CountryFit** · 07-07-2016, 12:17 AM

thank you gents for clearing this up. when the service manager talking it to me, i was like "er... something not quite right". if the pole was for jump start, the current could be quite high, how could it be a control behind it but not a direct wire to the battery? even with a control behind it, it sustains the big current for jumping, why would i need to worry about a small change current?

the one i was looking at was a 2014 energi with 16kmi on it. it handles very nice, but a little high on road noise which was unexpected.

hilgert · 07-07-2016, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountryFit

the one i was looking at was a 2014 energi with 16kmi on it. it handles very nice, but a little high on road noise which was unexpected.

The vehicle likely needs new tires and an alignment...ours had the same issue. A poor alignment can cause uneven wear, and in our case the poorly aligned fronts had at some point recently been rotated to the rear. I got Carmax to put two new ones on the back (which I matched with two new on the front myself), and the noise disappeared. Car is now as quiet as a small car hugging the road can be at highway speeds.

I also had a Ford dealer look the car over (when I did the alignment) as it had about 2 weeks left on the factory warranty, and they replaced the rear bearings, although that was (at that point) a minor contributor to the noise...tires were the big noisemakers.

**CountryFit** · 07-07-2016, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hilgert

The vehicle likely needs new tires and an alignment...ours had the same issue. A poor alignment can cause uneven wear, and in our case the poorly aligned fronts had at some point recently been rotated to the rear. I got Carmax to put two new ones on the back (which I matched with two new on the front myself), and the noise disappeared. Car is now as quiet as a small car hugging the road can be at highway speeds.

I also had a Ford dealer look the car over (when I did the alignment) as it had about 2 weeks left on the factory warranty, and they replaced the rear bearings, although that was (at that point) a minor contributor to the noise...tires were the big noisemakers.

yes, exactly, the noise was from rear. front seems pretty quiet.

hilgert · 07-07-2016, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountryFit

yes, exactly, the noise was from rear. front seems pretty quiet.

If you buy it then take it to Discount Tire (great company) and have them check the rear tires for uneven wear and replace if necessary. Then have an alignment done (uneven wear would likely have come from the misaligned fronts being rotated to the rear) and put in as much positive caster as possible (helps keep the vehicle railed straight to the road, which is important for a towed vehicle).

Then, if it's still under the factory warranty, take it to a Ford dealer (who could also likely do the alignment) and complain about noise in the rear and have them check the rear bearings...both of mine were not that bad, but apparently bad enough to have them replaced under warranty.

When we purchased our C-MAX I was aware of the noise from the rear, and knew from wizened experience that it was either the tires or the bearings (or both). So I negotiated with Carmax prior to signing to have two new rear tires put on at some later date *that matched whatever was on the front at the time of replacement*. I then went to Discount Tire and had two of the best tires they had put on the front, took it back to Carmax and they matched the tires, then back to Discount to buy their warranty for all four tires (unlike anyone else, Discount Tire warrants the sidewalls, whereas everyone else only does the treads), which includes lifetime balance/rotate.

As a side note, I also purchased the Discount Tire warranty on my new motorhome. They first took a quick look at the tires to make sure they were okay (only flat on the bottoms

), so now I have lifetime repair/replace and balance/rotate on six expensive tires (including the sidewalls, which is where blowouts and total tire destruction occurs).

**CountryFit** · 07-07-2016, 12:41 PM

this is awesome, you are smart

. i didn't know discount tire covers sidewalls and rv tires... way to go...

hilgert · 07-07-2016, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountryFit

this is awesome, you are smart

. i didn't know discount tire covers sidewalls and rv tires... way to go...

At least MY local Discount Tire will do so, as long as they are tires they can get. I've done this thus far with the new motorhome (tires had 1400 miles on them from the factory), the C-MAX tires put on by Carmax and another used car I purchased with older tires that were still within the tread life. None of these tires were purchased from Discount Tire. Note that I have purchased many new tires from this same dealer for other cars, but I don't believe that to have been a factor.

hilgert · 07-07-2016, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountryFit

...i didn't know discount tire covers...rv tires...

To be clear, I don't know if Discount Tires cover "RV" tires per se...they cover tires they carry (or can get). I'm not certain they would cover some of the larger tires or not, although I have seen some large tires at their shop before.

My tires (on my Class C) are normal Michelin truck tires (higher end, which was nice of Forest River to put those on instead of cheapies), and are pretty common outside of RVs...they can get them same-day if needed. In the past they did cover my trailer tires (the RV I had before the MH), and those were tires they would have to special order for me if needed (I dumped the China bombs that came with the trailer almost immediately).

USCGMech · 12-16-2016, 07:19 PM

Section of original post________

I installed a BlueOx tow plate and the ReadyBrute Elite tow bar. I'm an engineer, and the operational principle for the braking aspect of the the ReadyBrute Elite sold me...nothing to break or go wrong with electronic brake systems...it's quite simply idiot proof. I also installed a charge line from the RV to keep the battery charged while towing, had an alignment done with the most positive camber I could get (close to +5°) to help with centering, and installed the BlueOx diode kit so I could use the existing brake/turn lights.
___________________________

The OP says camber was adjusted, wouldn't it need to be positive caster?

Thanks,

Bill

hilgert · 12-16-2016, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by USCGMech

The OP says camber was adjusted, wouldn't it need to be positive caster?

Sorry, yes...you are correct.

USCGMech · 12-17-2016, 07:36 PM

Thanks, I thought Caster made sense. Today I called my Ford Dealer spoke to the service manager. I asked about setting Caster, he called over his front end mechanic who said the 2016 C-Max does not have Caster adjustments. He mentioned maybe being able to adjust the sub-frame but did think it was a good idea. He promised to research the death wobble and call me if he finds anything. My one and only time towing mine was the other day just after the shop finished installing the base plate kit and all the associated wiring and airlines, brakes, etc. I experienced the death wobble when the right tires came up onto the road, speed was maybe 20-25....put on brakes and stopped, took off no issues after that. Sure hope this doesn't happen when changing lanes in a construction zone at 65 mph crossing uneven pavement.

My rig is a 2008 HR Ambassador, Roadmaster Sterling TB, receiver and TB are within 2 inches of each other.

hilgert · 12-17-2016, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by USCGMech

I asked about setting Caster, he called over his front end mechanic who said the 2016 C-Max does not have Caster adjustments.
pavement.

Hmmmm...my 2013 did allow for adjusting caster...I'm not sure how you could do a proper alignment otherwise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by USCGMech

I experienced the death wobble when the right tires came up onto the road, speed was maybe 20-25....put on brakes and stopped, took off no issues after that. Sure hope this doesn't happen when changing lanes in a construction zone at 65 mph crossing uneven pavement.

I've hauled mine about 7000 miles since June, and have had zero death wobble. I had heard of it, so I acted preemptively with the increased caster within days of purchasing the vehicle [used]. Wife has had the motorhome, with C-MAX in tow, up to 80mph when passing people (yikes!!!)...she scares me so I just look away.

**CountryFit** · 12-25-2016, 02:09 PM

hilgert, what baseplate do you use?
i saw blue ox and roadmaster baseplates fit my 2014 energi (acquired last thursday). not made up mind yet on which one to take... looks like roadmaster's is beefier but requires more cuts...