Ford C-Max won't start problems

Filed Jan 8, 2024 · Fuel system · MI

I bought this vehicle in 2018. For the next 6 years, I lived in an area where I was unable to plug it in to a wall to charge, so used it as a hybrid. Now, I have a house and when I plugged it in for several hours, it melted the plug and nearly started an electrical fire. Upon further investigation, I found the serial number to the charger that was included with purchase as the factory-issued charger, matches a known recall due to fire safety hazard, but my VIN does *not* match the recall. At the time of purchase I was informed the charger was not the factory original but "everything would be okay." I have contacted the dealership that sold it to me and they won't take responsibility for not only selling me a faulty piece of charging equipment, but also failing to inform me about a recall that impacted it, and only through sheer luck and me noticing the outlet was starting to melt, it didn't start an electrical fire in my house. Ford also refuses to take responsibility for it. My local Ford dealership confirmed that it's a recalled charger, but also said they can't process the recall because my VIN doesn't match it, and confirmed it was not the correct charger to be sold with that car. I already had the electrical outlet replaced, and didn't realize at the time that there may be a recall issue with the charger, but the charger is visibly scorched and melted and I can also get the statement from the electrician that the outlet was scorched. I can't afford to replace the charger, and Ford refuses to help me correct their mistake - which was both expensive and created a serious safety hazard for me. NOTE: File upload feature is not working, but I have photographs of the melted charger and it's serial number

Filed Feb 16, 2022 · Electrical · CA

12 volt battery had been drained of all power and would not start. Bought new battery, same thing happened. Jump started several times. 3 batteries later, Ford said it was a cooling fan fuse. Radio and window worked sporadically.

Filed Jan 13, 2021 · Electrical, Transmission · 85,000 miles · NJ

I bought this 2013 ford c-max energi used in 2017, right off the bat after checking out vehicle, the toyota dealership had to jumpstart the car. Now, the current issue is that this vehicle has to be jump-started every time I try to start the car. This has been occuring since november 2020. These issues had occured sporadically, even after replacing the battery in 2018 with other brand battery, though not as frequently, and every day as it does now. Sometimes the vehicle would not start after sirius software update got stuck at 0%, this occured a few times in 2018. In late 2018 I bought a portable jump starter because this vehicle became untrustworthy to start. Though, if I had known about service bulletins and not just recalls I would have taken the car in to have it repaired earlier when issues presented themselves. So I finally took in my c-max in to a local hybrid repair shop, but the technicians were not able to replace the specific part, they referred me to the dealership to replace it. They printed out materials that stated there had been a few technical service bulletins for discharged batteries. I unfortunately missed the repair window by 6 months and will incur the costs. My car as of 1/13/2021 has been in the shop for two weeks now at dealership waiting for parts. The manufacturer defect will cost me around $1,100. It seems there has been many battery discharge bulletins for this model throughout the years for this year, make and model. The ford dealership at manahawkin, nj even stated this vehicle is not as common, so parts were not available immediately. I feel ford should issue a recall to be reimbursed for the trouble this car has caused. These issues should have been fixed by first owner of vehicle. There are several reported issues on carcomplaints.com for this issue. This should be investigated if recall can be made on this year and model.

Filed Apr 10, 2020 · Electrical · GA

Bought the car in may 2017. No problems until october 2019 car didn't crank everything dead. Took it to one dealer and they laughed at me. They replaced the 12v still didn't run. Had it towed to riverside ford october 2019. They worked on it didn't get the car back until dec 13, 2109. Paid the bill in full. And drove the car home. Two weeks ago. Dead again. My car is sitting in my yard because I can't afford to take it back to riverside ford or any other dealer to be fixed. What can I do now?

Filed Feb 15, 2020 · Electrical · 46,500 miles · OH

Electrical gremlins since the first day. Touchscreen went on and off, phone didn't charge, door handles don't work, garage door opener forgot settings, presets on dash would blink out of memory. Ultimately the car didn't even start. But for all of these problems, sometimes they would work, sometimes they wouldn't. Ultimately got the yellow wrench of death. Brought it in repeatedly and they could never reproduce the problem, until the day it wouldn't start at all and the wrench was on the dash. Finally diagnosed open seams on the back hinges to the hatch. Seamseal was missing on both hinges. Water was coming into the junction box which was soaked. The battery was sitting in a pool of water. These problems happened whether it was parked or running.

Filed Jan 8, 2020 · Electrical · 52,000 miles · TX

Since I purchased the 2013 c max there has been an ongoing problem. It starts with the clock, time is wrong. Next the radio will not work unable to shut it off, change volume basically nothing works. After a day or 2 the car will not start, no power. Once we jump start the car everything will be ok until the next time. Currently radio is not working again and now engine light is on and I am getting a warning to pull over safely now. It took multiple times to try to shut vehicle off. Ford tells me 'we never heard of this'. They want $500.00 dollars to just diagnose the problem. This is insane because it is not the first time we had the vehicle in for the clock, radio and dead battery. What had to happen before this gets fixed? A serious accident? I read all the comments on here and it looks like that this is an ongoing problem! Ford needs to fix this problem !

Filed Dec 22, 2016 · Electrical · 22,500 miles · IL

I drive with my cmax energi approximately 10 miles with in winter with heat set to 68f. Parked at destination and restarted approximately 2 hours after. While in transit to destination an orange wrench displayed on vehicle. No issue occurred. Upon restarting a red triangle along with wrench displayed upon attempting to start. The vehicle did not start. I had it towed to dealership.

Filed Oct 17, 2016 · Electrical · 38,000 miles · SC

We purchased this car used in september, 2016 and it had 33,000 miles on it. One week after we bought it we returned to the car from dinner and found it wouldn't start. Had it jumped and continued on our way. One week ago we went to start the car after it sat in the driveway overnight and the same thing: battery was dead. We had it jumped. This morning, after sitting in the driveway overnight, it wouldn't start again, battery dead. This is the third time in just over a month our battery has gone dead. This site is full of reports of this happening, and ford dealers are unable to fix the problem. Why hasn't this car been recalled? Ford needs to offer replacement vehicles to anyone unfortunate enough to have purchased one of these lemons.

Filed May 8, 2015 · Electrical · 9,880 miles · DC

Car would not start. All electrical functions not working. This is the 2nd time in 9 month this has occurred. Both times the car had to be jump started. The dealer said that the car is not driven enough in gasoline mode so the battery becomes drained and needs to be recharged. Dealer claims there is no other reason for this happening. I have noticed that other people have reported the same problem on this website. Isn't the purpose of buying a hybrid vehicle to save fuel and drive in hybrid mode as much as possible? This situation makes the car extremely unreliable. Please help find the reason.

Filed Mar 14, 2015 · Electrical, Engine · 6,000 miles · TX

We stopped at a stop sign before taking a left turn on to texas 77, when I started the gas motor failed to start but the electric carried us forward to the center line. A warring came up a triangle with ! Tell us to stop but of course we were on the center line. An 18 wheeler was coming fast behind us and was able to pass on the wrong side of the road as no cars were coming. Could have been a mayor accident. I have but told by ford dealer that the gas motor which cycles off did not start. This is the second time this has happened.. As of today they can't find anything wrong. I an afraid to drive this car even though I like it very much.